SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) One in five California children lives in poverty. Seven percent of those live in extreme poverty with a family income below 50 percent of poverty levels. Over 40 percent of children are considered low income with family income levels below 200 percent of poverty levels.
(b) The economic security of families affects every aspect of children’s lives.
(c) Poverty and hunger put children at high risk for health, developmental, and behavioral problems. The children at greatest risk are those who experience poverty when they are young and who experience deep and persistent poverty. Childhood poverty is also associated with difficulties later in life, including dropping out of school, poor adolescent and adult health, teenage pregnancy, and poor employment outcomes.
(d) One in six poor children in the United States lives in California, compared to one in 10 two decades ago.
(e) Poverty is disproportionately concentrated in families that are Latino, African American, Native American, or Southeast Asian.
(f) California alone has accounted for the entire net national increase of 800,000 in the number of children living in poverty since the late 1970s.
(g) More than two in three poor children in California live in working families with at least one employed parent.
(h) Parental education is a major factor in determining family income.
(i) Hundreds of thousands of California children are eligible for state subsidized child care but do not receive it because there are not sufficient child care slots.
(j) Nearly 800,000 of California’s children lack health insurance. Fifty-five percent of those children are eligible for the Healthy Families Program or Medi-Cal.
(k) Child support payments are a critical source of economic stability for both moderate- and low-income families. California collects less than one-half of the current child support due each year for families in California, ranking the state 52 out of 54 states and territories.