The Children's Defense Fund offers a wealth of resources to stay informed and to help you be proactive in protecting and ensuring family rights to health, education and well-being.  The following are some questions they've recommended asking candidates, to get an idea of where they stand on children's issues:

• Child Care and Early Education
   
        *What would you do to ensure that all eligible families could get the help they need?
• *Studies show that quality child care and early education make a positive difference in children's ability to enter school ready to learn and succeed. What will you do to increase the availability of high quality child care and early education programs in our community?
• *Studies show that juveniles are more likely to be the victims of violent crime in the hour after the end of the school day than at any other hour of the day. What will you do to increase the availability of after-school programs in our community?
• * Despite the fact that caregivers are the most important element of quality child care, child care workers are among the lowest paid workers in the country, lack benefits, and have little access to training to improve their skills. What will you do to support the recruitment and retention of qualified child care workers?  
• *With welfare reform and the growing economy causing an increased need for all kinds of child care, especially care for infants and care during non-traditional hours, what supports will you provide to build the supply of this hard-to-find care?

  Education 

• *How do you plan to improve the quality of education in our local schools?
• *What steps would you take to ensure that schools expect and help all children achieve?  
• *What will you do to ensure equal access to educational opportunities for all children?
• *What investments will you make to increase the quality of teachers and administrators?
• *What will you do to encourage talented individuals to teach?
• *What will you do to improve teacher pay scales?

  Children and Families in Crisis 

• *How do you propose to increase investments in family support activities designed to prevent child abuse and neglect and keep children safe?
• *What role are you willing to play to help eliminate the child abuse and other family violence that exists in too many homes today?  
• *What do you understand to be the barriers to moving children out of foster care and into permanent families and how do you propose to help address these barriers?
• *What incentives do you believe would help encourage partnerships between child welfare, alcohol and drug treatment, mental health, and domestic violence programs to ensure that children and families get the comprehensive treatment services they need? 
• *What specific steps will you take to assist grandparent caregivers to get the education, health, mental health, respite care and other specialized services that they need for the children in their care?
• *What specific steps will you take to assist grandparent caregivers to get the education, health, mental health, respite care and other specialized services that they need for the children in their care?

Read on to see questions home educators might consider asking of candidates...