Conceptualizing a Rights-Based Framework for Public Institutions to Support Children

Publication Title

Harvard Law & Policy Review

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2025

Abstract

In law and policy and public discourse, children's interests are often pushed to the margins. Although children constitute more than twenty percent of the U.S. population, federal spending on children's programs is regularly below ten percent of the budget. Not only are children not a priority, but government agencies are also often not structured to account for and support the rights and healthy development of children. This article proposes a new framework, the VR3 model (Voice, Representation, Resources, and Remedies), which can help reform government institutions and agencies to be more supportive of children's rights and wellbeing. By developing policies and institutional structures and processes to implement the VR3 model, government agencies can reorient their work so that it better accounts for children's interests and supports the rights and healthy development of all children.

Recommended Citation

Jonathan Todres, Conceptualizing a Rights-Based Framework for Public Institutions to Support Children, 20 Harv. L. & Pol’y Rev. 147 (2025).

DOI

10.2139/ssrn.5839743

Volume

20

Issue

1

First Page

147

Last Page

176

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