Lawmakers kick off events with landmark legislation
First Focus Campaign for Children leads fellow advocates to Capitol Hill next week to spotlight challenges facing the nation’s children and offer lawmakers solutions to address them.
During Children’s Week 2026, which runs June 14-20, the Campaign’s policy team along with state and national partners will brief lawmakers and staff on protecting children’s health care, improving benefits for children with disabilities, ensuring continued access to childhood nutrition, ending the undercount of children by the U.S. Census, and other issues. See the full list of issues, events and resources.
In anticipation of the annual event, lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would establish an independent commission to ensure that the interests of children and marginalized youth are protected and advanced in all federal policy. First Focus Campaign for Children is leading support of the Child Safety and Well-Being Act of 2026, which is modeled on successful practices already working for children in more than 40 countries and nearly half of all U.S. states.
“All over the world and even around our country, governments have established children’s commissioners and ombudsmen to ensure that laws and policies prioritize children,” First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley said. “This is not a new idea — UNICEF has long advocated for these commissions. Establishing a children’s commissioner in the United States would put children in their place — which is at the center of our national conversation. It would bring the country closer to making every week Children’s Week.”
First Focus on Children and its sister organization First Focus Campaign for Children works every day to raise awareness and drive legislative change on issues important to children. For nearly a decade, First Focus on Children, partner advocates, researchers, and members of Congress have used this time to put the challenges children face — and the best solutions to them — at the center of the national conversation.
Specifically, the Child Safety and Well-Being Act of 2026 would:
- Establish a Children’s Commission to evaluate how federal policy affects children’s well-being, monitor the development and implementation of laws affecting children, and inform Congress and the states on the views and interests of children.
- Empower the Commission to advocate for the views and interests of children and marginalized youth by advising Congress, agencies, and states on policies impacting child well-being.
- Direct the Commission to publish reports, examine global and domestic issues, and collaborate with other children’s commissioners across the country and around the globe to further support the interests of children and marginalized youth.