Children and Families

Governors and state leaders play a critical role in the protection and support of vulnerable children, families, and individuals. The Children and Families (C&F) team provides timely and individualized state-focused technical assistance to Governors, their human services policy advisors, and state agency leadership so they can improve policies and systems that will allow children, families, and communities to reach their full potential. With an emphasis on helping States develop opportunities and policies that support all communities, the C&F team aids Governors to advance and fulfill their vision for the children and families in their states.

Our Focus Areas

  • Whole-family approaches to serving children and families
  • Youth mental health
  • Early childhood education and care
  • Integrated data and delivery systems for human services programs
  • Food insecurity, nutrition, and hunger abatement
  • Reducing barriers to opportunity and economic mobility
  • Family economic security and anti-poverty solutions
  • Foster care, kinship, and adoption
  • Child abuse prevention and treatment
  • Juvenile justice
  • Housing and homelessness

Meet The Team

  • Jordan Hynes
    Program Director
  • Jess Kirchner
    Senior Policy Analyst
  • Eli McCabe
    Senior Policy Analyst
  • Ekaan Ahmad
    Policy Coordinator

Major Initiatives

Policy Academy on Strengthening Youth Mental Health  

This Policy Academy builds on last year’s Chair’s Initiative on Strengthening Youth, Led by Governor Murphy of New Jersey. NGA will support up to 6 states in intensive technical assistance and strategic planning to implement the Chair’s Initiative Playbook through 4 main policy pillars:  

  • Prevention and Resilience 
  • Increasing Awareness and Reducing Stigma 
  • Access and Affordability of Quality Treatment and Care 
  • Caregiver and Educator Training and Support 

NGA Child Care Community of Practice (CoP):

The National Governors Association convenes this CoP for Governors’ policy advisors and agency representatives, which serves as a forum for open discussion and brainstorming about child care delivery at the state/territory level. NGA’s Child Care CoP convenes virtually on an ad-hoc basis with opportunities for peer-to-peer sharing, identifying best practices, and hearing from national partners and experts. The CoP is an open group for advisors and agency representatives focused on identifying opportunities under the Governors’ purview to improve child care in their states.


Children & Families Core Advisors Board 

The NGA Children and Families Team established the Core Advisors Board (CAB) to provide feedback on governors’ top priorities impacting the lives of children and families. Each year, a small group of governors’ human services policy advisors and agency leaders are selected to provide critical input and feedback on the structure and content of the NGA Center’s work with the states on human services and early childhood education and care issues.  


Human Services Policy Advisor Institute 

The Human Services Policy Advisors Institute is a network of governors’ policy advisors and state leaders from social services and children and family-serving agencies that comes together on a monthly call to share innovations and best practices for serving the complex needs of children and families. This network serves as a regular check-in for updates, content, peer-to-peer exchanges, and networking for policy advisors to discuss multidisciplinary policy considerations. Recent topics include: Human Services Workforce; Integrating Eligibility Screening Systems; and Supporting Older Populations.  


Children and Families Library

Early Childhood Education

The Honorable Lamar Alexander Chair Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Washington, D.C. 20510 The Honorable Patty Murray Ranking Member Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ...

Learning Lab on Strategies to Reduce Childhood Hunger

June 12 – 13, 2017 | Richmond, VA The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) held a learning lab to help states identify advanced strategies for reducing ...

States Strategize to Reduce Childhood Hunger

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) today announced that 10 states and territories—Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island—will participate ...

Parents and Children Thriving Together: Two-Generation State Policy Network Kickoff Meeting

March 20-22, 2017 | Denver, Colorado The National Governors Association for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) held a kickoff meeting for Parents ...

State Strategies to Reduce Childhood Hunger

Governors recognize the critical importance of ensuring that school-age children have regular access to healthy meals. Studies show that when children do not have sufficient access to food, they do ...

Governors, Spouses Discuss Strategies to End Childhood Hunger

WASHINGTON—At a special joint session of the National Governors Association (NGA) Winter Meeting including governors and their spouses, Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe and NGA Vice Chair Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval co-moderated a session ...

Early Education Takes Center Stage At Governors’ Opening Session

WASHINGTON—At the opening session of the National Governors Association (NGA) Winter Meeting, governors discussed early childhood education and its importance in building a strong foundation for economic success in the ...

Cross State Convening: Leveraging Workforce Investment Strategies to Improve the Early Care and Education Workforce

January 25-27, 2017 | National Harbor, MD The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) hosted the Cross-State Convening for the Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) Workforce Project to ...

Protected: The Untapped Potential of an Early Childhood Assessment System

This content is password protected. To view please enter the password below: Password: Enter If you do not have the password, and believe you should have access to this page, ...

States Focus on Improving Child Welfare

The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced that eight states—Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin—will participate in a 18-month technical assistance effort focused on improving safety and preventing ...

New Opportunity: Early Care and Education Workforce Investment

The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced that seven states, Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington, will receive grants and support to help develop a policy agenda to strengthen the quality of their early ...

Governors Weigh In on Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association today released the following statement on Congress’ reauthorization of the federal child nutrition programs: “Governors have prioritized addressing child hunger through federal child nutrition programs. The ...
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