WASHINGTON, DC – Adding to his efforts on behalf of Kansas children, Senator Roberts co-sponsored a resolution to recognize this week as the Week of the Young Child, which passed unanimously by the Senate. This week is celebrated across the country by many local organizations working to improve education for all young children. It emphasizes the importance of a child’s early years and the need to ensure all children have positive early development and learning experiences at school, child care and home.

"I continue to explore ideas to benefit our youngest Kansans including reading to Kansas schoolchildren across the state in an effort to promote literacy, renewing the Head Start program, and providing health insurance to young Kansans most in need," Senator Roberts said. "I am pleased the Senate recognized young children this week as their early education and well-being needs to be remembered as we consider legislation in Washington."

Senator Roberts continues to support early childhood education, health care, safety programs and legislation to assist young children:

• Head Start: Late last year, Congress renewed the Head Start program, which renews funding for Head Start and expands eligibility to more Kansas children for the successful early childhood education program. As a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the Head Start Conference Committee which wrote the bill, Senator Roberts was pleased the bill strengthens accountability of the program, expands eligibility to more children, enhances teacher quality, and strengthens school readiness. Kansas Head Start serves 8,200 young children in 86 counties in Kansas. Last year, Senator Roberts received the Kansas Head Start Association’s "Kansas Legislative Champion for 2007" award.
• Kids and Cars: Working to protect children from tragic car accidents that can occur even when a vehicle is not in traffic, Senator Roberts was an original sponsor of the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, which will help prevent nontraffic deaths among America’s children. The Kansas-based Zoie Foundation was a leader of this bill and presented Roberts with the Kids and Cars Congressional award for his support of this new law.
• Child Care: Senator Roberts’ Small Business Child Care Act to encourage small businesses to work together to provide access to affordable, quality child care for their employees was signed into law by the president. One of Senator Roberts’ top priorities this year is to secure funding for this program, and he recently achieved an important first step by including the program in the Senate-passed Budget Resolution. Once funded, small businesses will be eligible for grants up to $500,000 for start-up costs, training, scholarships, or other related activities. Businesses, however, will be required to match federal funds to encourage self-sustaining facilities well into the future. The program is authorized at $50 million over five years and sunsets in 2012.
• Reading is Fundamental: Senator Roberts has been promoting reading and literacy throughout Kansas by reading to grade school students. Senator Roberts also supports the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program, recently requesting $26 million in funding for RIF. RIF was founded in 1966 and has provided over 300 million books to children and their families. These free and low-cost books go to students who might not otherwise own their own books. The federal government provides funding for this program, but requires a 25 percent local match for the cost of the books. In Kansas, Reading is Fundamental provided $323,211 in federal funds with $157,000 earned locally in 2005. Kansas has 111 RIF programs serving 81,451 students throughout the state. 301,000 books were distributed for free to Kansas students in 2005.
• SCHIP: Senator Roberts is a strong supporter of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides health care coverage for low-income children. Last year, with Senator Roberts' support, Congress overwhelmingly approved two bipartisan bills to renew and improve SCHIP. In Kansas, over 35,000 low-income children currently participate in our SCHIP program, but there are nearly 55,000 Kansas children who do not have health insurance - many of whom are eligible for SCHIP - but are not receiving the benefits they deserve. The bills approved by Congress would provide health coverage to an estimated 10 million low-income children nationwide - over 3 million who are currently uninsured. Unfortunately, the president vetoed both bills, and the House has been unable to override his veto. As a result, in December, Congress approved and the president signed into law an extension of the current SCHIP program through March 31, 2009. Senator Roberts continues to encourage his colleagues to work together to pass legislation renewing and strengthening this important program.

Senator Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and Finance Committees.

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