Realizing Medicaid’s Potential to Support Young Children and Families: From Policy to Meaningful Systems and Practice Change
This session was presented during the BUILD 2022 National Conference.
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program serve roughly half of all young and the vast majority of low-income children under age six. In recent years, a number of states have taken steps to improve Medicaid’s ability to more effectively serve young children and their families from screenings to needed interventions, such as parent-child therapy. Broad awareness of the maternal health crisis has further compelled states to adopt health equity priorities in state Medicaid programs to more effectively reach and serve communities of color. The children’s mental health crisis coming out of the pandemic also raises questions about opportunities to better address children’s social-emotional development before they reach kindergarten. As states advance new policy changes, such as 12-month postpartum coverage or new screening requirements in pediatric primary care, what steps are needed to ensure that these improvements translate to change at the systems and practice levels? As many states seek to advance health equity as part of their Medicaid priorities, where does sustained community and family engagement come in to ensure implementation of new policies works as intended? This session will feature national and state perspectives from Oregon and Washington on opportunities to realize the potential of Medicaid to make lasting improvements for young children and their families.
Explore More
BUILD23 JEDI Leaders
Fact Sheet November 22, 2023
The document summarizes the work being done by organizations focused on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Career Pathways
Report November 15, 2023
This brief focuses on the ways that states are using PDG B-5 grant funding to create and sustain career pathways in the early care and education field. “Career pathways” are broadly defined here, referring to a wide range of activities that support prospective and current early educators in advancing in the profession. States’ initiatives span an early educator’s complete career trajectory, from strategies to recruit new candidates into the profession to initiatives that create new specializations for educators who want to propel their careers further.

Financing Highlights
Report November 1, 2023
PDG B-5 Planning and Renewal Grants are being used by states across a wide range of content areas in the early childhood care and education system, and in a variety of ways. The federal funding provides a systems framework and seeks to offer flexibility within that framework. States are using the federal funding to build capacity, create infrastructure, provide direct services, and pilot work that is new for them. This work is occurring within a broad framework provided by the federal government. This brief explores the choices that PDG B-5 grantees plan for the use of the financing provided, which has impact on the overall ECCE systems that they are building and implementing. Within PDG B-5, states had to demonstrate how they would allocate the financial resources available across required and discretionary activity categories. We can learn about their priorities from a look at the choices that they made.