FFN testifies on early childhood bills, recommends legislation to watch

Nebraska state senators are now one-third of the way into this year's legislative session. They recently concluded two weeks of all-day public committee hearings and now are busy with morning floor debate and afternoon hearings. More than 375 bills have been heard in committee, about 45% of all bills introduced this session. Hearings are set to end on March 24 and full-day floor debate will begin March 28.

First Five Nebraska has testified on several bills to date, with more scheduled in March.

  • LB318 (Senator Eliot Bostar): Deputy Director Elizabeth Everett testified in support of LB318, which creates the Child Care Tax Credit and reauthorizes the School Readiness Tax Credit. The bill would ease the financial burden of parents and guardians with children in licensed child care, incentivize private investment in early childhood education and provide tiered tax credits to qualifying child care professionals and child care businesses. FFN testimony | FFN LB318 policy brief
  • Read TMCO CEO Diane Temme Stinton's guest blog post on how LB318 helps preserve Nebraska's workforce advantage

  • LB75 (Senator Tony Vargas): Policy Advisor Sara Howard testified in favor of LB75, which would allow a state team to review incidents during childbirth that threatened mothers' lives, in hopes recommendations to help prevent maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity can be made. FFN testimony
  • Read CityMatch Director Chad Abresch's guest blog post on the need for additional Nebraska data to better understand maternal mortality and morbidity

  • LB115 (Senator Jane Raybould): Policy Advisor Sara Howard testified in support of LB115, which defines "home visiting" in statute and asks the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to deliver an annual report on home visiting to the Legislature. FFN testimony


  • LB814 (Senator John Arch): Policy Advisor Mitchell Clark testified in support of the state budget bill, specifically on Governor Pillen's request to hire additional State Patrol employees to address the backlog of fingerprint background checks, which are required for child care workers. FFN testimony | FFN fingerprinting issue brief


FFN's Track Legislation web page enables users to follow the status of early childhood bills in the Legislature. You also can learn more about the bills we're actively advocating for by visiting our Policy Priorities page. Be sure to follow FFN on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to stay current on developments throughout the session.