Proclamation of Children’s Health Day, 2022

Across America, parents are united in the common dream that their children’s lives will be healthier, happier, and more hopeful than their own. On Children’s Health Day, we recommit ourselves to making that dream a reality and recommit ourselves to providing every child with the quality health care, childcare and education they need to thrive.

Supporting our children means – first and foremost – keeping them safe. The devastating truth is that guns are currently the number one cause of death for children in the United States. This is unacceptable, and I signed the first major bipartisan legislation in nearly 30 years to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a danger to themselves and others, and to protect innocent children from widespread gun violence — especially in schools. This is just the beginning; I will continue to push for an assault weapons ban that will keep these dangerous weapons off America’s streets and into our communities. No child should live in fear.

At the same time, no parent should sleep at night wondering how to pay for the medical or hospital care their child needs. Thanks to the Save America Plan and other key initiatives of my administration, one million children have gained health coverage since I came into office. My inflation-reduction bill would lower health insurance premiums for 13 million Americans. I expanded the Child Tax Credit to give hard-working parents more breathing room during the pandemic — a measure that helped reduce child poverty by more than 40 percent last year. This money was often more than just a paycheck and life-changing for families who needed to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Also, in September, I convened the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in more than 50 years, during which we laid out a national strategy to create a path to free and healthy school meals for all children—starting with expanding free school to meals for 9 million more children by 2032. .

My administration’s efforts to address the national mental health crisis, especially among our nation’s youth, are based on these important steps. Today, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 10 and 24, and over the past several years, mental health emergencies have increased among young people of all ages. In response, my administration is making it easier for children across America to find mental health specialists at pediatricians’ offices. Social media use is helping to address youth mental health issues and invest billions of dollars to expand access to mental health services and professionals in schools. We are also teaching states ways to use all federal resources, including Medicaid, to improve health care delivery in schools. Already, we are making progress. As of July, the number of school social workers is up 54 percent from the year before the outbreak. At the same time, the number of counselors increased by 22 percent and the number of school nurses increased by 22 percent.

To help protect our children from the COVID-19 outbreak, my administration expanded immunizations for children 6 months and older, which will help ensure children and infants are safe in all public places, including classrooms and daycare centers. We’re bringing affordable high-speed Internet to every American so students don’t have to sit in a fast-food parking lot just to use Wi-Fi to do their homework. I’ve secured funding to replace every lead pipe in the nation so no one can guess the quality of the water a child is drinking. The Inflation Reduction Act would replace thousands of diesel school buses with electric buses to protect our children from inhaling harmful fumes.

I know there is much more work to do to build a future worthy of our children’s hopes and dreams. We must protect free, high-quality preschool for every American child and lower health care costs for American families. I will continue to call for tax relief for middle-class parents and new laws to protect our children from violence at school and at home. I will do everything I can to tackle the climate crisis and pass on a healthy planet to future generations. We must continue to build a healthy and safe country for our children to win the race for the future. Our family and our country depend on it.

Congress, by joint resolution of May 18, 1928, as amended (36 USC 105), requested that the first Monday in October be recognized as Children’s Health Day and requested that the President issue a proclamation in observance of this day. .

Now, therefore, I, Joseph R. BIDEN JR., PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, Monday, October 3, 2022, as Children’s Health Day. I call on families, child health professionals, faith-based and community organizations, and governments to keep America’s children safe and healthy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and forty-seventh.

Joseph R. BIDEN JR.