Welcome to the VAECE Public Policy and Advocacy Webpage!

ACTION ALERT!

Eliminating the Funding for Smart Beginnings and Virginia Star Quality Initiative:

A Step Backward for Virginia’s Children

ACTION NEEDED: Please call/e-mail members of the Virginia General Assembly in opposition to eliminating funding for the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation to ensures the quality and integrity of the QRIS standard and the rating and mentoring process.

Click here for our Foundation Action Sheet.

Cutting or Block-Granting the Virginia Pre-school Initiative (VPI)
and other At-Risk Programs:

A Step Backward for Virginia’s Students

ACTION NEEDED:

1. Senate - Contact your member of the Senate of Virginia, asking him/her to reject the House of Delegates’ budget proposal to “block grant” K-12 educational programs for children at risk for educational failure.

2. House - Please call/e-mail the House budget conferees (separate attachment) asking them to accept the Senate budget provision for the VPI program.

Click here for our VPI Action Sheet.

Public Policy General Information
Welcome to the Public Policy Section of the VAECE Policy Manual. In the next section you will find the following resources:

• "Advocacy Activities at a Glance" with ideas for the Local/Community, State and National level activities.
  
• Speaking and Acting on Behalf of Young Children: What Can I Do?
  
• VAECE Advocacy Log
  
• VAECE Advocacy Log Questions and Answers
  
• Example of VAECE Advocacy Log
  
• NAEYC Advocacy Toolkit* -- this is a near-80 page set of materials, following Advocates in Action, with examples from affiliates and other state advocacy organizations on ways to implement advocacy and public communications efforts. HTTP://www.naeyc.org/affiliates/acb/Toolkit.pdf
  Included is the cover page and the first 4 pages of the Advocacy Toolkit.
  
• Do's and Don'ts for Election Year* -- this is the memo we previously sent out on what 501(c)(3) organizations can and cannot do around certain activities, such as candidate questionnaires and forums, awards and honors, etc HTTP://www.naeyc.org/affiliates/acb/guide.pdf
  
• Self-assessment worksheet* for affiliates in their public policy and communications work, first distributed at the NAEYC Institute in Albuquerque two years ago, but a useful refresher on organizing public policy and communications efforts
  HTTP://www.naeyc.org/affiliates/acb/albuque2.pdf
  
• Guide to NonPartisan Voter Registration & G.O.T.V. Drives http://naeyc.org/affiliates/acb/gotv.pdf. Included is the first few pages with the table of contents.
  

*The NAEYC web site now has these materials you can download to help with your advocacy work. You can find these materials under Affiliate Relations -Capacity Building using the links above.

Contacting Your Delegate and Senator

Virginia Online Legislature: http://legis.state.va.us
The Virginia General Assembly web site provides contact information for legislators, access to bills and resolutions, membership on committees, committee schedules, and much more. One can even determine their own legislators by clicking on “Who’s My Legislator” on the top right side of the page.

Legislative Information System (LIS): http://leg1.state.va.us/

The LIS provides almost any information one would need about the legislative session, including text and status of bills and resolutions, detailed information on each Delegate and Senator, committee schedules, budget bills and activities of budget committees, daily floor calendars, subject index of bills, as well as the Code of Virginia and the Virginia Administrative Code. Information is also available for past legislative sessions. 

Constituent Viewpoint Opinion Line:  As a savings the Opinion Line has been discontinued.

Mail addresses for legislators:  

House of Delegates, P.O. Box 406, Richmond, Virginia 23218

Senate of Virginia, P.O. Box 396, Richmond, Virginia 23218

Legislative Information:   

804-698-1470 (General Assembly Information)
804-698-1500 (House of Delegates)
804-698-7410 (Senate)
                                               
Legislators’ Phone Numbers: The phone numbers for legislators’ offices at the General Assembly Building can be obtained from legislative information and the web sites above. They can also be determined as follows: For Delegates, dial 804-698-10xx, replacing the xx with the delegate’s two digit House district number; for Senators, dial 804-698-75yy, replacing the yy with the senator’s two-digit Senate district number.

Clerks’ Offices:       

804-698-1619 (House of Delegates)
804-698-7400 (Senate)

FAX Numbers:        

804-698-1800 (House of Delegates)
804-698-7651 (Senate)

Bill Room: To request copies of bills (if one does not have access to the internet), one can request a bill be sent to them by the bill room at 804-786-6984. One can obtain copies of any bill, resolution and document by visiting the bill room in the basement of the General Assembly Building between 8:15 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. There is also a bill room on the first floor of the Capitol. 

E-mail Addresses for Legislators:        

House of Delegates:

del(first initial)(last name)@house.state.va.us

Senate of Virginia: district(__)@sov.state.va.us  

Parentheses ( ) indicate information that varies for each legislator. (e.g., after “district” insert the two digit number of the Senator’s district, such as 01. Do not include the parentheses in the e-mail address.   

Some legislators may prefer to use personal e-mail addresses rather than their legislative e-mail addresses. One should check with their offices to be sure.

Who’s my legislator?

At the following website you may enter your address and find your legislators:

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

Speaking and Acting on Behalf of Young Children: What Can I Do?
Download a list modeled on an activity on multicultural education from Roots and Wings (York, 1992). Check which actions you are willing to take on (now or at a later date) in support of children and their families. You are an advocate! [click here]