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State Strategies for Sustained Investment in Kids: A Landscape of Dedicated Funding

Learn how states have successfully created dedicated funding streams for children and youth and the strategies that advocates, policymakers, and community leaders can use to identify viable revenue options.
Three kids looking inside a backpack together.

State Strategies for Sustained Investment in Kids: A Landscape of Dedicated Funding

States across the country are increasingly using specific sources of revenue, separate from their general budgets, to provide stable, long-term funding for programs and services for children and youth outside of the K-12 school day. These funds are dedicated through actions by state legislatures or through ballot measures approved by voters. Understanding how states have successfully created dedicated funding streams for kids is critical for informing and inspiring similar efforts elsewhere. 

Dedicated funding for children and youth comes from a variety of sources of state revenue. By highlighting the range of approaches—along with the advocacy, coalition building, and planning that made them possible—this report serves as a practical tool for advancing more sustainable and equitable systems of support for children and youth nationwide.

Download the paper to learn more. Then watch the webinar recording to hear directly from the advocates who successfully created dedicated funds for children and youth in their states.