Governors as Policy Entrepreneurs: Setting the Agenda for Children.

State public child welfare agencies have statutory responsibility for responding to allegations of child maltreatment and providing app­ropriate services. Governors have oversight of the work of the state agencies that provide this func­tion. Consequently, governors can be major policy actors in child wel­fare. When a tragedy occurs with a child in state care, governors often are visible on child welfare issues and a reactive response typically is employed. This raises questions about governors’ attention to child welfare in more routine circumstances. To further understand gover­nors’ attention, we provide an analysis of governors’ state­-of­-the-state addresses in early 2019. Our study used these data to answer two ques­tions: (1) How are governors addressing issues of child welfare? And (2) What other child­-focused issues are governors addressing? We conclude that there is insufficient attention to child maltreatment and other issues affecting child well­being. Consequently, advocates, prac­titioners, and researchers need to enhance efforts to gain governors’ (and other policy­makers’) attention to these issues. We offer ideas on how to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]