An open letter on California’s children

There are ten million children growing up in California right now. Since 1993, our work has been to make sure every one of them — regardless of race, ethnicity, or place of birth — has the resources and opportunities they need to grow up healthy and thrive.

We do not start with policy. We start by listening to families, because community input must guide the work. What families tell us becomes research. What the research shows becomes policy. And when policy moves, the conditions of childhood change.

This year that cycle is visible. In March we filed our 2026 legislative and budget priorities for children’s health equity. Through the spring we stood up for the peer mental-health workforce and for keeping eligible children covered. And in July, the state built a California budget for child health equity.

The evidence behind those positions is public. Our first-year findings from the peer-to-peer youth mental health pilot show what young people build when they are trusted. Our survey of Medi-Cal call wait times shows what families endure to keep the coverage they have earned.

California chooses a new governor this year. With partners across the state, we are part of Choose Children 2026 — a coalition asking every candidate to commit to young children and their families. A child is a child, whoever they are and wherever they were born, and our data snapshots keep saying so, community by community.

So this letter ends the way our work begins: with you. Tell us what your family knows. Read what the research shows. And hold us — and everyone who asks for your vote — to the standard a child deserves.