October 28, 2025 • 12 mins
As we approach the 2025 elections, we turn our focus to Pennsylvania’s children and families. Kevin Burgess from the Children First Action Fund joins us, along with parents Samia Evans-Bolling, Regina Brown, and Jazmin Banks, to discuss how judicial elections impact school funding, child welfare, and public safety — and why it’s essential for voters to make informed choices this November.
🌐 Learn more: childrenfirstactionfund.org/judicial-voter-guide
🌐 Learn more: childrenfirstactionfund.org/judicial-voter-guide
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we approach the twenty twenty five elections, the stakes
couldn't be higher for Pennsylvania's children and families. Decisions made
by our state's court to shape everything from school funding
to child welfare to public safety. Joining us are Kevin Burgess,
who leads outreach and voter education for the Children First
Action Fund, along with parents Samea Evans Bulling, Regina Brown,
(00:24):
and Jasmine Banks, each bringing a unique perspective on how
the justice system impacts kids and families. Together, they're helping
voters understand why judicial elections matter and how to make
informed choices. This November, Kevin, why does the Children First
Action Fund believe judicial elections are so critical to the
(00:44):
future of Pennsylvania's children and families?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
As you mentioned, Pennsylvania's courts make decisions every day that
impacts children and families. They are deciding on things about
like if families can access clean water, what sort of
edgetion cation students receive. They deal with child welfare issues.
So in nearly every aspect of children in families' lives,
(01:08):
the courts play a role. And here in Pennsylvania, we're
incredibly lucky that we get to choose the judges that
sit on our courts. We're one of the few states
in the country where voters elect judges. However, these elections
often have very low turnout and it can be very
challenging to find information on the candidates. And so you know,
(01:31):
this election season, we have endeavored to evaluate and engage
judicial candidates so that we can educate the public and
voters can understand where the judges and candidates stand on
issues that impect children and families.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
All Right, we're going to return to that in just
a minute, but I'd like to talk to Sama. As
a parent passionate about education and fair funding. What connections
do you see between our school systems and the decisions
made in the courts.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well, realize that as a parent, parents have the power,
and I think that a lot of what happens in
the school district and the courts is it's kind of
like a lapse in between because a lot of people
don't know how our judicial system works here and not
only the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but also the city. So
I'm thankful for our organization like Children's First that we
(02:21):
are able to have parent advocacy meetings and info sessions
where we have access to learn about how the judicial
process works. This past school year, I was involved to
be on the Pennsylvania Education Champions and that was a
parent cohort that I did along with people in Harrisburg
that are really fighting to make change and let parents'
voices be heard, because if we don't know these things,
(02:43):
a lot of people don't show up. You know, Statistics
show that with outside of the presidential election and a
mayoral election, a lot of people forget about things that
are important like judges and how these everyday decisions impact
not only our lives, our students' lives, and it carries
over as well as to the juvenile just system, school
funding and things that our schools and our children need
(03:05):
right now. And we still are waiting for a budget
to be passed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so that's
something that is carrying over as well, because as long
as we don't have a budget, things aren't able to
be put in place. And it's just really important that
parents are informed and we are allowed to have a
voice that lets us know that we have organizations again
like Children's First that let us know what's happening and
(03:27):
how we can make our voices heard, not only in
our local courts, but also our state wilde courts because again,
as Cavin mentioned, Pennsylvania is one of the few states
where we were a commonwealth where we're allowed to pick
our judges, where in Pennsylvania heavily influences you know what
happens in Washington. So this is a highly hot election
that people need to be made more aware of.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Regina, you've experienced firsthand how the juvenile justice system impacts families.
What changes would you like to see from the bench
to better serve young people.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I like to see the young people being able to
stay in their environment, to stay in their neighborhood and
their community, and receive the help and the things that
they need to help them, I guess, rebuild rehability, get
mental health services and things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Can you tell us a little more about how you
relate to this particular issue.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I have a child that was navigating the juvenile justice system.
He was like put into placement. Now he's in delt prison.
But I also have another son that actually got into
some trouble and for him the situation was different. He
was offered like first time Offenders program where instead of
like punishing him as long as he stays out of trouble,
(04:37):
he's able to be introduced to things that we would
like have to normally fight for, like mentor programs. He's
in a basketball program, he gets weekly check in they're
teaching them.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So you see how different policies can really impact your
children differently. So your first son had one way of
relating to the juvenile justice system, but your second son,
your other son, is able to navigate in a way
that seems to be more supportive and more able to
get him through the system in a positive way. Is
that right? Yes, Well, Jasmine, your experience in family court
(05:13):
highlight how parents and can can sometimes be sidelined. What
would a more compassionate and inclusive court system look like
to you?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
Well, thank you for the question, and thank you for
allowing the lived experience to have a voice, and of
course thanks to Children's First for being true champions for children.
So your question in terms of first, let me if
I could surround it. If you will real quickly that
I'm an inside parent, so I come from an inside
perspective who's unfortunately had positive and negative experiences within the
(05:45):
family court. Well, a compassionate system would certainly look like
having some knowledge of the lived experience of people, especially
who are raising children with disabilities. For example, I've raised
fifteen children and I adopted five older sons who live
with very very serious disabilities, So everything from autism and
intellectual disabilities to bipolar schizophrenia and medical issues like in
(06:08):
stage COPD, seiz your disorders, et cetera. So for those
families like who are very vulnerable, like me and like
Regina mentioned, we have children with disabilities, it's different. So
you would hope that people would first get to get
to understand us. It's hard. If you haven't lived in
our shoes, you really may not understand what it's like
to really raise very challenging children who often aren't liked
(06:29):
by the way by the public. So you hope that
the judges would have a relationship with us, begin to
know us, because typically in the family court in my experience,
and I'm writing a memoir about this as an inside
parent and a credible messenger and a parent advocate. Now,
so I'm writing a memoir and I've been gathering information
and have a very long paper trail that I hope
to turn into an actual memoir one day to talk
(06:51):
about things because right now we're talking a little bit
out of context, but it's very important what you've asked
in court. It's typically a one sided perspective, so and often,
unfortunately many of the workers. I'm not sure why, you know,
it's a whole other issue. We got to talk to
psychoanalysts about that, but many of them do not like parents.
I think they don't understand I'm talking about at risk parents. Now,
(07:14):
it's a difference between typical parents and at risk parents.
I'm an at risk parent. I didn't intend to be one,
but I became an at risk parent. So people who
are very what is an at risk parent and at
risk parent would be a person who is raising children
who have very serious disabilities. They typically are very stigmatized,
like if you have serious mental illness, for example, it's
more stigmatized than if you have autism. But even autism
(07:37):
can be stigmatized, especially for those parents who are raising
children who have severe autism. So there's sometimes behavior challenges,
they're kicked out of kindergartens, the children that are.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Pushed out of the schools.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
So at risk parents are those not only birth parents.
There are grandparents who are raising those children, aunts, uncles, cousins,
foster and adopted parents are also raising so they're also
at risk.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I'd like to talk to you, Kevin and unfortanate. We
were running a little bit out of time, but how Kevin,
can Children's First Action Fund help voters make sense of
this these often overlooked elections.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yes, thank you, Lorraine.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Children First Action Fund recently published our twenty twenty five
Judicial Voter Guide that is up on our website Childrenfirstactionfund
dot org and in our voter guide, we evaluated Supreme
and Superior Court decisions that impact children and families. We
evaluated those by justice and judge that are up for retention,
(08:33):
So we really encourage folks to visit the voter guide
and see for yourself how these judges and justices ruled
on these issues that impect children and families at the
Commonwealth Court and Court of common Police Family Court level.
We invited all of the candidates and judges up for
retention to sit for an interview with Children First lawyers,
(08:55):
family advocates, and excerpts from those interviews are posted in
the guide, and we also encourage folks to visit the
Committee of Seventies voter Guide to learn more about the
candidates that maybe we're not a part of our evaluation.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Well that's so important because, as you indicated before, we
don't pay a lot of attention to the judicial elections,
and we often go into the voting booth not knowing
anything about these candidates and sometimes randomly choose the candidate
of choice for a lot of very personal but not
necessarily well informed reasons. So I'd like the three of
(09:33):
you to just give us a final word, final sentence
message to the listeners out there who may not realize
how important these judicial elections are, but why people should
pay attention samea. Let's start with you.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I just always say experience is a good teacher. You
don't never want to be on the other side of
one of these judges and you don't know anything about him.
And it was like, oh, I wish that I had a
judge that you know, we will to give my child
a second chance, So we be willing to give you know,
what's a second chance. And they knew the family history
and the family courts if it was more intimate and personal.
(10:07):
So I would just say again, I want to say
thank you the children's first for doing the research. You know,
so a lot of us like we said, well, they'll
just hand you a sheet of paper just pulled straight down.
But no, it's very important nowadays to be an informed voter,
to know who your candidate is and what they stand
for and have questions of your own, just to know that. Again,
parents have the power and again, be an informed voter,
(10:30):
because that makes all the decision in the world, and
it has a huge impact not only for our children,
it also has an impact for our schools, our communities,
and the overall judicial system as well, because you would
want to have a judge that is fair and balanced,
and you wouldn't know that if you didn't have the
research and the knowledge about them. So again, parents have
the vowter have the power forgive me and be an
(10:52):
informed voter not only this election season but all election seasons.
Just know who you're voting for, and know the candidate
and know if they stand on this same issues that
you agree with.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Regina, what about you?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Just for the judges that have more compassion to not
just be so quick to punish, to actually teach so
that way the children can learn from the experience and
keep families together.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, that's great, And Jasmine, what's your final word.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Well, of course, as a former foster and adoptive parent
of multiple children, I'd say to the judges is not
to believe everything they read, unfortunately, and to try their
best to find some kind of way to have a relationship.
Especially at rich parents realize that a lot of the
children that they're mentioning, they're not mentioning that they have disabilities.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well, so, in other words, certainly the judges, but for
the voters, what would you say to them.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Well, the voters need to know that when you're talking
about the judges, you're also talking about family court. And
family court is where parents lose custody of their children,
and typically they lose permanent custody. That's how they end
up with families like me. And even though I feel
I'm a great parentar but it's the worst place for
children to be in foster current adoption. So let's do
our best to offer resources and supports for both parents
(12:07):
and even legal parents to keep them at home.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Well, God bless you for taking in these children, because
we know how important it is to have a safe
and loving environment, and we appreciate the fact that you've
taken in so many kids. And Kevin what is the website?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
For more information, please visit Children First Actionfund dot org.
There you will find a link to our voter guide,
our twenty twenty five election center, and make sure to
vote Honor before November fourth.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Absolutely, thank you so much, Kevin Burgess, who leads the
outreach and voter education for Children First Action Fund and
Parents Samea Evans Bowling, Regina Brown, and Jasmine Banks, each
bringing a unique perspective on how the justice system impacts
kids and families. And be sure to check out that
voter guide and be sure to vote
As we approach the twenty twenty five elections, the stakes
couldn't be higher for Pennsylvania's children and families. Decisions made
by our state's court to shape everything from school funding
to child welfare to public safety. Joining us are Kevin Burgess,
who leads outreach and voter education for the Children First
Action Fund, along with parents Samea Evans Bulling, Regina Brown,
(00:24):
and Jasmine Banks, each bringing a unique perspective on how
the justice system impacts kids and families. Together, they're helping
voters understand why judicial elections matter and how to make
informed choices. This November, Kevin, why does the Children First
Action Fund believe judicial elections are so critical to the
(00:44):
future of Pennsylvania's children and families?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
As you mentioned, Pennsylvania's courts make decisions every day that
impacts children and families. They are deciding on things about
like if families can access clean water, what sort of
edgetion cation students receive. They deal with child welfare issues.
So in nearly every aspect of children in families' lives,
(01:08):
the courts play a role. And here in Pennsylvania, we're
incredibly lucky that we get to choose the judges that
sit on our courts. We're one of the few states
in the country where voters elect judges. However, these elections
often have very low turnout and it can be very
challenging to find information on the candidates. And so you know,
(01:31):
this election season, we have endeavored to evaluate and engage
judicial candidates so that we can educate the public and
voters can understand where the judges and candidates stand on
issues that impect children and families.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
All Right, we're going to return to that in just
a minute, but I'd like to talk to Sama. As
a parent passionate about education and fair funding. What connections
do you see between our school systems and the decisions
made in the courts.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well, realize that as a parent, parents have the power,
and I think that a lot of what happens in
the school district and the courts is it's kind of
like a lapse in between because a lot of people
don't know how our judicial system works here and not
only the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but also the city. So
I'm thankful for our organization like Children's First that we
(02:21):
are able to have parent advocacy meetings and info sessions
where we have access to learn about how the judicial
process works. This past school year, I was involved to
be on the Pennsylvania Education Champions and that was a
parent cohort that I did along with people in Harrisburg
that are really fighting to make change and let parents'
voices be heard, because if we don't know these things,
(02:43):
a lot of people don't show up. You know, Statistics
show that with outside of the presidential election and a
mayoral election, a lot of people forget about things that
are important like judges and how these everyday decisions impact
not only our lives, our students' lives, and it carries
over as well as to the juvenile just system, school
funding and things that our schools and our children need
(03:05):
right now. And we still are waiting for a budget
to be passed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so that's
something that is carrying over as well, because as long
as we don't have a budget, things aren't able to
be put in place. And it's just really important that
parents are informed and we are allowed to have a
voice that lets us know that we have organizations again
like Children's First that let us know what's happening and
(03:27):
how we can make our voices heard, not only in
our local courts, but also our state wilde courts because again,
as Cavin mentioned, Pennsylvania is one of the few states
where we were a commonwealth where we're allowed to pick
our judges, where in Pennsylvania heavily influences you know what
happens in Washington. So this is a highly hot election
that people need to be made more aware of.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Regina, you've experienced firsthand how the juvenile justice system impacts families.
What changes would you like to see from the bench
to better serve young people.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I like to see the young people being able to
stay in their environment, to stay in their neighborhood and
their community, and receive the help and the things that
they need to help them, I guess, rebuild rehability, get
mental health services and things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Can you tell us a little more about how you
relate to this particular issue.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I have a child that was navigating the juvenile justice system.
He was like put into placement. Now he's in delt prison.
But I also have another son that actually got into
some trouble and for him the situation was different. He
was offered like first time Offenders program where instead of
like punishing him as long as he stays out of trouble,
(04:37):
he's able to be introduced to things that we would
like have to normally fight for, like mentor programs. He's
in a basketball program, he gets weekly check in they're
teaching them.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So you see how different policies can really impact your
children differently. So your first son had one way of
relating to the juvenile justice system, but your second son,
your other son, is able to navigate in a way
that seems to be more supportive and more able to
get him through the system in a positive way. Is
that right? Yes, Well, Jasmine, your experience in family court
(05:13):
highlight how parents and can can sometimes be sidelined. What
would a more compassionate and inclusive court system look like
to you?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
Well, thank you for the question, and thank you for
allowing the lived experience to have a voice, and of
course thanks to Children's First for being true champions for children.
So your question in terms of first, let me if
I could surround it. If you will real quickly that
I'm an inside parent, so I come from an inside
perspective who's unfortunately had positive and negative experiences within the
(05:45):
family court. Well, a compassionate system would certainly look like
having some knowledge of the lived experience of people, especially
who are raising children with disabilities. For example, I've raised
fifteen children and I adopted five older sons who live
with very very serious disabilities, So everything from autism and
intellectual disabilities to bipolar schizophrenia and medical issues like in
(06:08):
stage COPD, seiz your disorders, et cetera. So for those
families like who are very vulnerable, like me and like
Regina mentioned, we have children with disabilities, it's different. So
you would hope that people would first get to get
to understand us. It's hard. If you haven't lived in
our shoes, you really may not understand what it's like
to really raise very challenging children who often aren't liked
(06:29):
by the way by the public. So you hope that
the judges would have a relationship with us, begin to
know us, because typically in the family court in my experience,
and I'm writing a memoir about this as an inside
parent and a credible messenger and a parent advocate. Now,
so I'm writing a memoir and I've been gathering information
and have a very long paper trail that I hope
to turn into an actual memoir one day to talk
(06:51):
about things because right now we're talking a little bit
out of context, but it's very important what you've asked
in court. It's typically a one sided perspective, so and often,
unfortunately many of the workers. I'm not sure why, you know,
it's a whole other issue. We got to talk to
psychoanalysts about that, but many of them do not like parents.
I think they don't understand I'm talking about at risk parents. Now,
(07:14):
it's a difference between typical parents and at risk parents.
I'm an at risk parent. I didn't intend to be one,
but I became an at risk parent. So people who
are very what is an at risk parent and at
risk parent would be a person who is raising children
who have very serious disabilities. They typically are very stigmatized,
like if you have serious mental illness, for example, it's
more stigmatized than if you have autism. But even autism
(07:37):
can be stigmatized, especially for those parents who are raising
children who have severe autism. So there's sometimes behavior challenges,
they're kicked out of kindergartens, the children that are.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Pushed out of the schools.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
So at risk parents are those not only birth parents.
There are grandparents who are raising those children, aunts, uncles, cousins,
foster and adopted parents are also raising so they're also
at risk.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I'd like to talk to you, Kevin and unfortanate. We
were running a little bit out of time, but how Kevin,
can Children's First Action Fund help voters make sense of
this these often overlooked elections.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yes, thank you, Lorraine.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Children First Action Fund recently published our twenty twenty five
Judicial Voter Guide that is up on our website Childrenfirstactionfund
dot org and in our voter guide, we evaluated Supreme
and Superior Court decisions that impact children and families. We
evaluated those by justice and judge that are up for retention,
(08:33):
So we really encourage folks to visit the voter guide
and see for yourself how these judges and justices ruled
on these issues that impect children and families at the
Commonwealth Court and Court of common Police Family Court level.
We invited all of the candidates and judges up for
retention to sit for an interview with Children First lawyers,
(08:55):
family advocates, and excerpts from those interviews are posted in
the guide, and we also encourage folks to visit the
Committee of Seventies voter Guide to learn more about the
candidates that maybe we're not a part of our evaluation.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Well that's so important because, as you indicated before, we
don't pay a lot of attention to the judicial elections,
and we often go into the voting booth not knowing
anything about these candidates and sometimes randomly choose the candidate
of choice for a lot of very personal but not
necessarily well informed reasons. So I'd like the three of
(09:33):
you to just give us a final word, final sentence
message to the listeners out there who may not realize
how important these judicial elections are, but why people should
pay attention samea. Let's start with you.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I just always say experience is a good teacher. You
don't never want to be on the other side of
one of these judges and you don't know anything about him.
And it was like, oh, I wish that I had a
judge that you know, we will to give my child
a second chance, So we be willing to give you know,
what's a second chance. And they knew the family history
and the family courts if it was more intimate and personal.
(10:07):
So I would just say again, I want to say
thank you the children's first for doing the research. You know,
so a lot of us like we said, well, they'll
just hand you a sheet of paper just pulled straight down.
But no, it's very important nowadays to be an informed voter,
to know who your candidate is and what they stand
for and have questions of your own, just to know that. Again,
parents have the power and again, be an informed voter,
(10:30):
because that makes all the decision in the world, and
it has a huge impact not only for our children,
it also has an impact for our schools, our communities,
and the overall judicial system as well, because you would
want to have a judge that is fair and balanced,
and you wouldn't know that if you didn't have the
research and the knowledge about them. So again, parents have
the vowter have the power forgive me and be an
(10:52):
informed voter not only this election season but all election seasons.
Just know who you're voting for, and know the candidate
and know if they stand on this same issues that
you agree with.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Regina, what about you?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Just for the judges that have more compassion to not
just be so quick to punish, to actually teach so
that way the children can learn from the experience and
keep families together.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, that's great, And Jasmine, what's your final word.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Well, of course, as a former foster and adoptive parent
of multiple children, I'd say to the judges is not
to believe everything they read, unfortunately, and to try their
best to find some kind of way to have a relationship.
Especially at rich parents realize that a lot of the
children that they're mentioning, they're not mentioning that they have disabilities.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well, so, in other words, certainly the judges, but for
the voters, what would you say to them.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Well, the voters need to know that when you're talking
about the judges, you're also talking about family court. And
family court is where parents lose custody of their children,
and typically they lose permanent custody. That's how they end
up with families like me. And even though I feel
I'm a great parentar but it's the worst place for
children to be in foster current adoption. So let's do
our best to offer resources and supports for both parents
(12:07):
and even legal parents to keep them at home.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Well, God bless you for taking in these children, because
we know how important it is to have a safe
and loving environment, and we appreciate the fact that you've
taken in so many kids. And Kevin what is the website?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
For more information, please visit Children First Actionfund dot org.
There you will find a link to our voter guide,
our twenty twenty five election center, and make sure to
vote Honor before November fourth.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Absolutely, thank you so much, Kevin Burgess, who leads the
outreach and voter education for Children First Action Fund and
Parents Samea Evans Bowling, Regina Brown, and Jasmine Banks, each
bringing a unique perspective on how the justice system impacts
kids and families. And be sure to check out that
voter guide and be sure to vote
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