Kentucky Health News Kentucky Youth Advocates 2025 policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session focus on a wide range of topics, from ones aimed at expanding access to safe, equitable prenatal and delivery care to others aimed at protecting youth from the harmful effects of vaping, sexual abuse, exploitation and more. “As we look ahead to the new year and legislative session, we are once again calling on the General Assembly and the governor to put kids first in their decision-making and policymaking,” Terry Brooks, KYA’s executive director, said in a news release. “From family housing stability to child safety in schools and online to ending the youth vaping epidemic, all kids deserve safe, healthy and thriving childhoods.” The priorities are outlined in KYA’s Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children, which is made up of a coalition of non-profit, public and private organizations that support the legislative priorities. The 2025 state policy priorities include: Reduce the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation and increase the safety of students by ensuring appropriate disclosures, checks, and training are complete for potential public and private school employees. Increase awareness of and ensure appropriate responses to sexual extortion. Protect kids from the harmful effects of vaping by ensuring compliance with the tobacco-21 law, including licensing retailers selling tobacco and nicotine products, conducting annual compliance checks and penalizing those selling to kids. Ensure JUUL settlement dollars are used to address youth nicotine dependence, including cessation programming support and initiatives to reduce youth initiation. Support the development of young children with special needs by requiring training for childcare providers on strategies to support children with disabilities and incentivize programs to serve children with disabilities through the Kentucky All STARS system. Exempt freestanding birth centers from certificate-of-need requirements to expand access to safe, equitable prenatal and delivery care. Uphold the basic legal rights of children by requiring minors to speak with a juvenile attorney before they waive their Miranda rights. Enact caregiver consideration legislation to expand the court’s options for alternative sentences to incarceration when the defendant is the primary caregiver to a dependent child. Promote family housing stability by sealing filings that do not result in eviction and prohibit minors from being named on eviction filings. Place common sense standards around utility disconnections and create avenues for families to get reconnected quicker. Each of the policy priorities comes with a fact sheet with details for why KYA deems it a priority. The fact sheets can be found at https://kyyouth.org/blueprintky/ Tags: advocacy children children’s health General Assembly health policy youth The post Kentucky Youth Advocates, partners announce 2025 policy priorities, aimed at improving the lives of children appeared first on The Lexington Times.