The policies outlined in the Five Freedoms for America’s Children, working in conjunction with one another, will have a substantial and positive impact on the well-being of children.

Pennsylvania’s public school children are being shortchanged by $4.6 billion — and those in the poorest school districts, who have fallen the furthest behind, are owed the most, according to a new analysis commissioned by advocates seeking to overhaul the state’s education funding system.

Between March and the beginning of September, more than 260 licensed child-care programs across Pennsylvania permanently closed, according to Department of Human Services records. More than 400 other licensed programs remain temporarily closed.