Child and Family Well-being Data
Number of unique resources found: 166
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America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2009
Description: This is the federal monitoring report on the status of the nation's children produced by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
Board on Children, Youth & Families Publications
Description: This Web page has links to previous reports from the Board on Children, Youth & Families. Reports are on topics ranging from children's health, engaging schools, and chronic neglect.
Description: This web site includes summaries of recent research, highlights of new reports, links to other sources of data and research on children, and a publication list. Child Trends Social Science Research: For Those Who Serve Children and Youth.
Description: Children Now is a nonpartisan, independent voice for America's children. Using innovative research and communications strategies, Children Now promotes pioneering solutions to problems facing America's children. Recognized nationally for its policy expertise, up-to-date information on the status of children, and leading work with the media, Children Now focuses particular attention on the needs of children who are poor or at risk, while working to improve conditions for all children by making them a top priority across the nation.
Description: The Children's Defense Fund is a lobbying group for the interests of children and families. They pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities.
Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development
Description: The Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development (CGECCD) is a global inter-agency consortium with strong links to regional networks and a track record of advocacy and knowledge generation and dissemination at an international level. This site provides information about Early Childhood Care and Development of young children (0-8). A history of how this Consultative Group began and information on initiatives is provided along with resources relating to ECCD.
Description: This website tracks the status of children in the U.S. and provides information on the well-being of children. You can sign up for their monthly e-mail to keep track of new information and resources. Searching by state is available also.
Description: This Web page lists Kids Count print and online publications as well as interactive online databases, divided into four categories: Data Books, Census 2000, Snapshots, and Other Publications. There are a number of publications based on Census information, including publications about children and families in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.
Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health
Description: This is the Web site for the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health which is devoted to promoting, protecting, and sustaining the health of children, with a focus on San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in Northern California. The foundation pursues its mission through fund raising, grant making, and public information and education.
Maternal and Child Health Bureau
Description: The is the web site of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, a bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This site has information on programs, funding opportunities, data, resources and publications. It also has links to other sites.
National Association of School Psychologists
Description: The National Association of School Psychologists' website that provides information and links to crisis resources and public policy issues. The resources include materials for the media, schools, parents, and students. There are numerous sources that have been contributed after the events of 9/11 to help deal with tragedy and trauma.
National Black Child Development Institute
Description: This website provides information on programs, workshops, and resources for African American children, their parents and communities.
National Center for Children in Poverty
Description: This website provides information on identifying and promoting strategies that prevent child poverty in the United States and that improves the lives of low-income children and families.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Description: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children serves as a focal point in providing assistance to parents, children, law enforcement, schools, and the community in recovering missing children and raising public awareness about ways to help prevent child abduction, molestation, and sexual exploitation. Resources are available to help keep children safe and provide guidance on the issues of missing and exploited children.
Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC)
Description: TriTAC administers federal child care programs to states, territories, and tribes for low-income children and families. Visit their Web site to learn more about the program.
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Changes in Children's Well-Being and Family Environments
Author: Vandivere, Sharon (1 more by this author); Kristin Anderson Moore; Megan Gallagher
Description: This paper discusses the indicators of child well-being and behavior and family environment between 1997 and 2002. School engagement declined from 43% in 1997 to 35% in 2002 among 6-11 year olds, and from 38% in 1997 to 31% in 2002 among 12-17 year olds.
Early Childhood Predictors of Early School Success: A Selective Review of the Literature
Author: Pati, Susmita ; Brett Brown; Kyleen Hashim; Christopher Forrest; Alex Fiks
Description: In this brief, scientific evidence from all literatures is reviewed as they relate to early school readiness, focusing on results from large longitudinal studies. The intention is that the results will provide a foundation for research that may lead to the development of practical clinical tools allowing health caregivers to identify young children at risk for early school performance problems, and target them for additional preventive and ameliorative care leading to improved outcomes.
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota's Pilot Quality Rating System
Author: Tout, Kathryn (1 more by this author)
Description: In this PDF of a pwpt presentation, Key Findings are shared from the Year 2 Evaluation Report of Minnesota's pilot Quality Rating System.
Harvard Family Research Project
Description: HFRP offers an exhaustive listing of HFRP's publications on early childhood care and education, family, parental involvement, school and community issues, evaluation and accountability information and professional development. Many are available for free download. The site also offers access to family involvement tools and resources via the FINE network (Family Involvement Network of Educators).
Vulnerable Infants and Toddlers in Four Service Systems
Author: Harbison, Elizabeth; Ehrle Macomber, Jennifer; Parnes, Joanna
Description: A new policy brief from the Urban Institute examines the characteristics of vulnerable young children in four service systems: Early Head Start (EHS); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the child welfare (CW) system; and Part C Early Intervention Programs (Part C). Data suggest that the children and families in these systems have notable similarities. The authors suggest that policy initiatives to support young children’s development might benefit from integrating common lessons from the different systems' research findings.
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A Look at Child Poverty in New York State
Author: De Masi, Mary ; Cate Teuten Bohn; Min Chen; Jihyun Shin; George Falco
Description: In this report, we examined the effects of policy changes, such as welfare reform and specific government cash and near cash benefits, on child poverty in the state of New York. These policies and benefits, coupled with other well-established programs and services, effectively promote the well-being of children.
For example, early learning opportunities through investments like Head Start and quality universal prekindergarten, as well as early access to health care make substantial contributions to children’s healthy development, and minimize the impact of poverty. Given evidence on the effects of such services, as well as the effects of benefits described in this report, it is apparent that many different service systems contribute to the positive well-being of poor and low-income children.
Description: This tool, part of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project, is designed to provide a policy framework that lays out child care subsidy policies that can be implemented to better support babies and toddlers and their families. Users can download and save a copy of this tool, then fill in the appropriate columns with their state's current policies and opportunities for change.
Addressing Child Poverty in America: Two Perspectives
Author: Bernstein, Jared; Ron Haskins
Description: Our goal at Voices for America's Children is not only to advance effective public policies for child well-being but also to spark innovative thinking and discussion. To that end, VOICES asked two leading experts to provide a range of perspectives on the consequences and solutions to poverty. Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute and Ron Haskins of The Brookings Institution are widely recognized thought leaders and researchers who bring different points of view to this important national discussion.
Presented here are reports in which each provides their analysis of child poverty’s causes and implications and their recommendations on addressing this issue that restricts the potential and future of so many of our nation’s children.
America's Report Card 2012: Children in the US
Description: America’s Report Card provides a holistic picture of unmet needs in five areas of a child’s life: economic security, early childhood education, K-12 education, permanence and stability, and health and safety. The report, co-released by First Focus and Save the Children also urges the American people to take action to boost children’s chances for success in school and life: vote in November’s general election for candidates who support investments in children; hold elected officials accountable for commitments to help children succeed; and engage with other local leaders to improve the lives of children in their own communities.
America’s Children in Brief, 2012
Description: Prepared by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, the report highlights 14 of the report’s 41 key indicators on important aspects of children’s lives and features 7 domains--family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. Includes indicator tables and figures.
The full report is available in pdf along with the press release.
Author: Thomas, Dawn; Roopa Seshadri; Bernard Cesarone; Susan Fowler; Robert Goerge; Natalie Danner
Description: Illinois faces the challenge of connecting data from disparate systems that contain
demographic data and information related to young children and their families to
help assess the needs of Illinois families. This report is divided into three parts, delineated by guiding questions; “What are the demographics of children and their families in Illinois?”, “What services are young children receiving?”, and “What do we know about the quality and effectiveness of programs?” Data was collected to answer these questions and to provide needed next steps.
Balancing Budgets and Health Services: Children's Mental Health Care in an Era of Budget Cuts
Author: Herman, Michelle
Description: This report discusses state and public policy as it relates to mental health services for children and the effects of budget cuts on services. It includes information on background, funding, and strategies for providing care.
Topics included in the report:Public Managed Behavioral Health Care, State Mental Health Agencies, Medicaid and SCHIP Funding, Other Stakeholders in the Children’s Mental Health System, Promising State Strategies, and Lessons for State Lawmakers.
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children 2010: Children Aged 6 to 11
Author: Addy, Sophia (2 more by this author); Vanessa R. Wright
Description: This fact sheet describes general demographic characteristics of children aged 6 through 11, in low-income families; their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, if they have health insurance, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent's education, employment, marital status, income level, and country of origin. It has been designed to provide comparable data for different age groups because young children are more likely to live in low-income families.
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children 2010: Children Under Age 3
Author: Addy, Sophia (2 more by this author); Vanessa R. Wright
Description: This fact sheet describes general demographic characteristics of children under the age of 3, in low-income families; their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, if they have health insurance, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent's education, employment, marital status, income level, and country of origin. It has been designed to provide comparable data for different age groups because young children are more likely to live in low-income families.
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children 2010: Children Under Age 6
Author: Addy, Sophia (2 more by this author); Vanessa R. Wright
Description: This fact sheet describes general demographic characteristics of children, birth to age 6, in low-income families; their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, if they have health insurance, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent's education, employment, marital status, income level, and country of origin. It has been designed to provide comparable data for different age groups because young children are more likely to live in low-income families.
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children: Birth to Age 18 (2008)
Author: Douglas-Hall, Ayana (2 more by this author); Chau, Michelle
Description: This fact sheet describes general demographic characteristics of children ages birth to age 18 in low-income families; their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent's education, employment, marital status, and country of origin. It has been designed to provide comparable data for different age groups because young children are more likely to live in low-income families.
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children: Birth to Age 3 (2008)
Author: Douglas-Hall, Ayana (2 more by this author); Chau, Michelle
Description: This fact sheet describes general demographic characteristics of children, birth to age 3, in low-income families; their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent's education, employment, marital status, and country of origin. It has been designed to provide comparable data for different age groups because young children are more likely to live in low-income families.
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children: Birth to Age 6 (2008)
Author: Douglas-Hall, Ayana (2 more by this author); Chau, Michelle
Description: This fact sheet describes general demographic characteristics of children, birth to age 6, in low-income families; their number and proportion, where they live and how often they move, their age distribution, race, and ethnicity, and their parent's education, employment, marital status, and country of origin. It has been designed to provide comparable data for different age groups because young children are more likely to live in low-income families.
Building a Competitive Future Right from the Start: How Paid Leave Strengthens 21st Century Families
Author: Ochshorn, Susan; Curtis Skinner
Description: This paper provides a brief history of paid family leave policy, in the United States and abroad; synthesizes cutting-edge knowledge about paid leave and its impact on family and civic life; and concludes with a set of recommendations – for policymakers, researchers, public health and early childhood stakeholders, business leaders, and federal,
state, and local education agencies – to guide the work going forward.
Building Comprehensive State Systems for Vulnerable Babies
Description: This fact sheet from CLASP discusses the essential components of state systems for vulnerable babies. It includes recommendations and action steps that states may take.
Child Care and Community Development
Author: Anderson, Kristen; Ellen Dektar
Description: This paper details how a robust local system of child care and early education programs has social, economic, and environmental benefits for the child, family and community. It provides useful examples of policies, strategies and on‐the‐ground child care projects for planners seeking to enhance child care services to build family friendly communities.
Child Care and Early Education Legislative Update: 2007
Description: In this report you will find a comprehensive look at state legislative activity that NCSL has tracked for the 2007 legislative sessions on child care and early education. The first section provides links to highlights of legislation and summaries of all state's enacted legislation. The second section provides information about proposed legislation from the beginning of the legislative sessions in 2007.
Child Care for Families Who Are Homeless: A bibliography
Author: Rafanello, Donna
Description: This bibliography provides references about homeless children that includes articles, fact sheets, books, information briefs, children's books, organizations, and web sites.
Child Care, Parents, & Work: The Economic Role of Child Care in Iowa
Author: Kathlene, Larson (1 more by this author); Daniel Otto; Susan Hegland; Georgeanne Artz; Yemisi Kuku
Description: This report examines child care usage patterns for the two types of families: households with a youngest child under 5 years of age and households with a youngest child aged 5 to 12 years. The report points to the significance of child care costs for families and the child care industry. Nearly half of parents with a youngest child under 5 years do not agree that child care in their community is affordable. Yet, reports from child care directors and family child care providers point to the delicate balance the child care industry is currently facing as it attempts to maintain and improve the quality of care, while meeting parents’ demands for cost of care that fits the household budget.
Child Food Insecurity: The Economic Impact on our Nation
Author: Cook, John (2 more by this author); Karen Jeng
Description: A report commissioned by Feeding America and The ConAgra Foods Foundation, and written by Children's HealthWatch, details the impacts that food insecurity in children has on the nation's economic future. The report explores data from Children's HealthWatch and other literature that demonstrates how food insecurity and hunger with other correlates of poverty can significantly alter the architecture of children's brains, thus affecting their ability to reach their full potential as adults.
Child Poverty in Massachusetts: A Tale of Two States
Author: Danzing, Benita; Jetta Bernier
Description: In this Massachusetts Kids Count data report we provide a broad overview of the scope and reasons for child poverty in the state, along with an introduction to the individual and broader social and economic costs. Child poverty is a root cause of many problems facing children, from inadequate housing and reduced educational opportunities, to poor nutrition, greater health risks, and neglect. The issue is more hidden in this state than in others, and yet it still affects children in nearly every one of our 351 towns and cities. In this report, we build on a new political momentum for alleviating poverty, and a growing receptivity by citizens to discussing it and supporting its elimination.
Child Welfare and School Readiness - Making the Link for Vulnerable Children
Author: McCart, Linda; Schene, Patricia; Bruner, Charles
Description: This resource brief is designed to strengthen the connections between child welfare and other early childhood services in state and national efforts to promote and enhance optimal child development. Part One of this resource brief serves as a primer for child welfare staff and state and local policymakers and advocates with an interest in vulnerable children. It provides a brief overview of the school readiness policy background and draws upon the growing evidence from brain research, child development, and child welfare to show the need to address developmental issues of children in the child welfare system. Part Two of the resource brief then describes roles that the child welfare system can play in better addressing the educational and developmental needs of young children in their system.
Author: Land, Kenneth (1 more by this author)
Description: The Foundation for Child Development has released its annual Child Well-Being Index (CWI), along with a Special Focus Report on Anticipating the Impacts of a 2008-2010 Recession. The Index tracks child and family well-being across a range of indicators, including preschool enrollment, health, and family income. This year's Index shows that progress in child well-being has been in fluctuation since 2002, and began to decline in 2008. While preschool enrollment increased overall between 2000 and 2006, it is expected to decline through 2010, along with family income, children's health, and other indicators. The Foundation predicts that through the recession, "virtually all the progress made in family economic well-being since 1975 will be wiped out." In response, the report calls for action to prevent well-being from decreasing further through the recession.
Author: Perry, Bruce (14 more by this author)
Description: Studies of childhood abuse and neglect have important lessons for considerations of nature and nurture. The neural systems responsible for mediating our cognitive, emotional, social and physiological functioning develop in childhood and, therefore, childhood experiences play a major role in shaping the functional capacity of these systems. When the necessary experiences are not provided at the optimal times, these neural systems do not develop in optimal ways.
Children Cared for by Relatives: What Do We Know about Their Well-Being?
Author: Billing, Amy (1 more by this author); Katherine Kortenkamp; Jennifer Ehrle
Description: This research brief examines the well-being of children living in kinship care. This study focuses on behavioral and emotional well-being, school and activity experiences, interaction with adults and physical health. Also available in PDF.
Children of Immigrants: National and State Characteristics 
Author: Fortuny, Karina (1 more by this author); Randolph Capps, Margaret Simms, Ajay Chaudry
Description: This brief describes the national and state characteristics of children of immigrants based on recent American Community Survey data. Since children of immigrants account for almost a quarter (24 percent) of children under age 5, their share in the school-age population will increase, with important implications for education policy. In addition, children of immigrants' poverty and low-income rates vary across states, highlighting the importance of state and local policies in promoting children's well-being.
Also see the accompanying Urban Institute's interactive Children of Immigrants Data Tool, http://capwiz.com/naeyc/utr/1/CQFLMBCQVP/COCZMBCQZT/4690456521.
Children, Families, and Foster Care: Analysis and Recommendations
Author: Bass, Sandra; Richard E. Behrman; Margie K. Shields
Description: An analysis of the current state of foster care and a discussion of specific measures for enhancing the accountability of the child welfare system and improving how children and families experience foster care.
Description: This publication is a compilation of essays on child poverty highlighting the driving concerns, ongo- ing efforts, and the vision of individual members of the Voices for America’s Children network and the broad child advocacy community. It is not intended to serve as a comprehensive review of the topic, but rather to jumpstart a crucial national conversation on alleviating child poverty and creating brighter futures for all children.
Description: This fact sheet, Agenda for Affordable, High-Quality Child Care, proposes comprehensive, systemic reforms to meet four overarching goals. These goals guide our recommendations for reauthorization of CCDBG: Child care will be healthy and safe; Children will be in stimulating early childhood and after-school environments that will help them succeed in school and in life; Low- and moderate-income families will have more help in meeting the cost of care;Families of infants and toddlers will have increased access to high-quality care.
Description: This newsbrief provides facts on how to ensure access to healthy and safe child care. It describes changes that need to be made in order to improve the health and safety of child care programs in the U.S.
Early Childhood Care and Education: What are States Doing? Family Impact Seminars
Description: This resource contains briefing reports and articles summarizing the seminar. Family Impact Seminars are a series of seminars, briefing reports, newsletters, and discussion sessions that provide up-to-date, solution-oriented research on current issues for state policymakers, legislators, legislative staff, Governor's Office staff, legislative support bureau personnel, and state agency representatives. Family Impact Seminars analyze the consequences an issue, policy, or program may have for families.
Early Childhood State Policy Profiles
Description: NCCP has recently updated their Early Childhood State Policy Profiles, which provide a comprehensive view of state policies in the areas of health, early care and education, parenting and economic supports affecting the health and well-being of young children in low-income families. Includes state by state data in a searchable database.
Early Childhood Supports in New Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities
Description: For many children, New Mexico is a difficult place to grow up. This newsbrief provides information on the challenges of being a child in New Mexico and what it being done to support children. Several agencies, from state-level departments to nonprofit advocacy groups, are working toward better outcomes for New Mexico’s youngest residents through improvements in direct services and public policies.
Early Experiences Can Alter Gene Expression and Affect Long-Term Development
Description: This report from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child summarizes in clear language why this growing scientific evidence supports the need for society to re-examine the way it thinks about the circumstances and experiences to which young children are exposed. The experiences children have early in life—and the environments in which they have them—shape their developing brain architecture and strongly affect whether they grow up to be healthy, productive members of society.
Economic and Labor Market Trends
Author: Nightingale, Demetra; Michael Fix
Description: An assessment of how economic and labor market trends affect the well-being of workers and their families, particularly those families that include immigrants, and the implications for social and economic policies designed to help such families and their children.
Encouraging Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care - A Quality Toolbox for ECEC
Description: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (a worldwide organization) has released a publication, that focuses on quality issues in early childhood. The Quality Toolbox looks at what defines quality and describes five policy levers that can enhance quality in ECEC. The online version includes a web page with examples of approaches used by governments to improve ECEC within their country, as well as links to websites, reports, frameworks, guides, training videos, and brochures that have been categorized by the five levers of the toolbox. The OECD, a collaborative organization with 34 member nations, aims to provide a forum for governments to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems.
Extending Home Visiting to Kinship Caregivers and Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers
Description: The report explores how home visiting programs are serving children in kinship care and in family, friend, and neighbor care, based on CLASP's interviews with major national models of home visiting and other stakeholders. It also presents detailed considerations for implementing home visiting with these caregivers, including matters of curricula, staffing, and service referral, and discusses opportunities that result from serving these caregivers. It concludes with recommendations for states and the federal government.
Failure to Thrive: The Continuing Poor Health of Medical Child Support
Author: Roberts, Paula (2 more by this author)
Description: This piece on child health care illustrates how important it is for children to be covered by some sort of health insurance, regardless of whether or not their parents receive health insurance through their employers. Children need health care not only when they are sick, but as a preventative measure. They need health insurance to be covering their vaccinations and their regular check-ups. This piece discusses the implications of the state child support enforcement program that assists uninsured children and how parents can effectively use this program to keep their children healthy.
Grandparents and Kin Raising Children
Author: Hanson, Laurie
Description: Over the past decade there has become a growing trend of grandparents becoming the legal guardians or primary care givers for their grandchildren. Many of these grandparents may feel some resentment towards their absent adult children because their dreams of retirement and relaxation are now lost. Many difficulties and problems may accompany raising their grandchildren and they may need to seek out support groups and services in order for them to obtain needed financial and emotional support as they are raising their grandchildren as their own.
Immigrant Families and Child Care Subsidies: What Federal Law and Guidance Says
Description: One in four young children in the United States lives in an immigrant family. Federal law establishes policies on immigrant eligibility for child care assistance, yet questions regarding eligibility remain at the state and local level. Most child care assistance is funded through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, which have differing rules regarding immigrant eligibility. This fact sheet lays out rules and guidance related to immigrant eligibility for child care subsidies through both funding streams.
In Their Own Voices: Parents and Providers Struggling with Child Care Cuts
Author: Schulman, Karen (4 more by this author); Helen Blank
Description: This report explores how such cuts have affected low-income families who otherwise would not be able to afford child care, child care providers serving these families, and the children who need high-quality care.
Description: This report takes a comprehensive look at key indicators of child well-being to assess how Colorado’s 254,000 children in immigrant families are faring in areas such as economic well-being, family structure and English proficiency. It offers recommendations to improve the outcome of immigrant children in Colorado.
Author: Raikes, Helen; Beth L. Green; Jane Atwater; Ellen Kisker; Jill Constantine; Rachel Chazan-Cohen
Description: The study demonstrates the powerful role of demographic and other characteristics as predictors of parent involvement in services and program outcomes. Family characteristics clearly corresponded to variability in program involvement.
KIDSCOUNT Data Snapshot on Children Living in High-Poverty Communities
Description: This Data Snapshot highlights newly available national, state, and city data in the KIDS COUNT Data Center that shows a 25 percent increase in the number of children residing in areas of concentrated poverty since 2000. The snapshot indicates how high-poverty communities are harmful to children, outlines regions in which concentrated poverty has grown the most, and offers recommendations to address these issues.
Longitudinal Surveys of Children
Description: The Longitudinal Surveys of Children is a browsable, free, publication that is provided by the National Academies Press on-line. The book provides survey and research instruction.
Low Income and Impoverished Families Pay More Disproportionately for Child Care
Author: Smith, Kristin (1 more by this author); Kristi Gozjolko
Description: This brief demonstrates how working families with young children who are living in poverty pay nearly five times more than families living at more than 200 percent of the poverty level.
Author: Johnson, Kay (2 more by this author); Marguerite Casey Foundation
Description: The National Center for Children in Poverty's fourth policy paper that discusses how to finance early childhood mental health services and how to promote healthy social and emotional development in young children so that they benefit.
Making it Happen: Overcoming Barriers to Providing Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health
Author: Cohen, Julie (2 more by this author); Cindy Oser; Kelsey Quigley
Description: This news brief highlights the scientific evidence for Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health (I-ECMH) policies; examines issues faced by national, state, and local program directors and mental health practitioners in providing I-ECMH services; and proposes a set of recommendations for policy improvements at the federal level.
- More about "Making it Happen: Overcoming Barriers to Providing Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health"
Maternal Depression Can Undermine the Development of Young Children
Description: This brief summarizes evidence on the potentially far-reaching harmful effects of chronic and severe maternal depression on families and children. When children grow up in an environment of mental illness, the development of their brains may be seriously weakened, with implications for their ability to learn as well as for their own later physical and mental health. This report examines why the continuing failure to address the consequences of depression for large numbers of vulnerable, young children presents a missed opportunity to help families and children in a way that could support the future prosperity and well-being of society as a whole.
Maximizing the Impact of State Early Childhood Home Visitation Program
Author: Szekely , Amanda (1 more by this author)
Description: The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices has published a new issue brief, Maximizing the Impact of State Early Childhood Home Visitation Programs, that looks at how governors can better integrate home visiting programs into effective, comprehensive state early childhood systems. Strategies include: promoting shared accountability across state agencies, developing research-based quality standards and improving data linkages to track outcomes and better target services.
Measure by Measure: The Current Poverty Measure v. the National Academy of Sciences Measure
Author: Smith, Dorothy
Description: This report highlights alternative poverty measures for each state and the District of Columbia using a Census tool that calculates alternative measures based on a National Academy of Sciences recommendation and an NAS recommendation that considers geographic price difference adjustment.
Description: The National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides a list of resources to help families, teachers, professionals, and children. You can download single copies or order multiple copies.
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish: Why Fighting Child Poverty in the Great Recession Makes Sense
Author: Holzer, Harry
Description: Child poverty generates serious long-term economic costs not only for those children (when they become adults), but for the U.S. economy as a whole. This paper argues that these long-term costs will rise because of the Great Recession, as child poverty rises substantially and remains elevated for years to come. Children growing in newly poor families, and/or those whose parents suffer permanent job loss, will likely have worse educational and employment outcomes. Those young people who enter the labor market during this period will suffer reduced earnings as well. This will impose fiscal as well as economic costs on the U.S. in the future. Investments to reduce child poverty in both the short and long-terms thus make economic sense for the U.S., despite the nation’s ongoing fiscal crisis.
Policies to Assist Parents with Young Children
Author: Ruhm, Christopher
Description: This article is part of a Journal on Work and Family.
This article looks at two potential interventions— parental leave and early childhood education and care (ECEC)—comparing differences in policies in the United States, Canada, and several European nations and assessing their consequences for important parent and child outcomes.
Poverty in America: Implications for Children, Programs, and Policy
Author: Bridgman, Anne (1 more by this author); Lawrence Aber
Description: This brief from the Society for Research in Child Development provides facts related to childhood poverty and the policy implications. Poverty in childhood, especially deep poverty, is linked to a range of physical-biological, cognitiveacademic, and social-emotional problems, and these problems persist into adulthood.
Preschool Education: Delivering on the Promise for Latino Children
Author: Beltran, Erika (4 more by this author)
Description: The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) report, highlights opportunities to improve the educational outcomes of Latino children beginning at an early age, a critical time for setting up children’s academic success. It examines the barriers to quality and access that limit the participation of Latino children and families in preschool and offers recommendations for state and federal policymakers on how to design high-quality early learning programs that serve all children, including Latino and English language learners (ELLs).
Protecting Children in a Time of Crisis: Save the Children Annual Report 2008
Description: This news brief is a report card developed by Save the Children that highlights the need for policies and procedures to be put into place to allow all disaster and recovery efforts to include a plan for children. Included are recommendations for policy changes and a report card on how states on doing in including children in their disaster recovery planning. Most states are failing to consider the unique needs of children in their planning.
Reports on America: Children in Immigrant Families Chart New Path
Description: This report culminates a three-year study of the characteristics of children in immigrant families funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The vast majority of the 16 million children in America's immigrant families are U.S. citizens who were born in the United States to foreign-born parents. The well-being of children in immigrant families varies based on their parents' country of origin, education, and the circumstances of their migration to the United States.
Author: Rogers, Carolyn
Description: Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB1) 6 pp, April 2005
This report provides the latest information on the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of rural children in families. Child poverty in 21st century America is higher (18 percent in 2003) than the rate for the general population (12.5 percent), as well as above the rates in most other industrialized countries. Child poverty is a significant social problem that negatively affects children's development. Although rural child poverty rates declined in the 1990s, they remain higher than the rates for urban children (21 percent vs. 18 percent). In 2003, 2.7 million rural children were poor, representing 36 percent of the rural poor. Nonmetro children are more likely than metro children to receive food stamps and free or reduced-price school lunches, in part a reflection of higher nonmetro poverty. The geographic distribution of child poverty—heavily concentrated in the South—is important for targeting poverty reduction policies and program assistance such as child nutrition programs, food stamps, and health insurance coverage in rural areas.
Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know about School Readiness: Revised and Expanded Toolkit
Author: Bruner, Charles (13 more by this author); Copeman, Abby; Floyd, Sheri
Description: Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know about School
Readiness was developed by staff at the Child and Family
Policy Center in response to requests for basic school
readiness information for new legislators. This toolkit organizes the information that policy makers need to know—both to make the case for investments in school readiness, and to develop the programs, practices, and policies to achieve school readiness. The toolkit includes 7 separate briefs that can be copied and distributed, one on each point. It also provides an annotated, 20-minute PowerPoint presentation on the topic (available for download from the SECPTAN website at www.finebynine.org) and offers recommendations for how to customize the presentation for a state or community by adding state-specific or community-specific information.
Shifting the Paradigm for Infant and Toddler Policy: A Place to Get Started
Author: Rappaport, Debbie (1 more by this author)
Description: This policy paper is a part of Early Experiences Matter Policy Guide and offers a sample list of policy strategies as a jumping-off point for strategic planning. Policymakers may want to consider these policy strategies as a starting point or use them as a guide for putting in motion other policy strategies that are most relevant and opportune.
Author: Schwab, Carol
Description: The state of North Carolina is giving more control to the parents over who raises children when death of a parent(s) occurs.
State Budget Cuts: America’s Kids Pay the Price
Description: The report provides an illustrative list of budget cuts in 2009 affecting children. Through December 2009, 42 states cut children's programs, including public health programs, higher education programs, programs for children with disabilities, and K-12 and early education programs such as child care.
Description: The State of Care Index is the first survey to measure families' attitudes towards caregiving, the unique pressures they face and how child responsibilities impact daily life. In this study, they explore how economic concerns and constraints have changed families’ child care arrangements, if these changes affect quality of care, and how much time and effort are devoted to researching and interviewing prospective child care providers before making a change.
Quick fact sheets as well as the entire report are available as pdfs on this site.
Staying Afloat in Tough Times: What States Are and Aren\'t Doing to Promote Family Economic Security
Author: Fass, Sarah (1 more by this author); Cauthen, Nancy; Briggs, Jodie
Description: This report focuses only on policies that benefit individual families (as opposed, for example, to broader job creation and economic development strategies) and only on those policies for which 50-state data sources are available. The report tracks three categories of state policy choices that affect the ability of low-wage workers to achieve financial security: work attachment and advancement, income adequacy, and asset development and protection.
Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families
Description: In this policy report, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Foundation explores the increased number of children living with extended family and close friends, a longtime practice known as kinship care. "Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families" includes the latest data for states, the District of Columbia, and the nation, as well as a set of recommendations on how to support kinship families. The report finds that in the past decade there has been an 18% increase in children living with relatives or close family friends, because their parents can no longer care for them.
Supplemental Resource: Children in Disasters Guidance
Description: Homeland Security Grant Program awards may be used by states and local jurisdictions to ensure that the needs of children are met through disaster planning. This supplement provides guidance for grantees to incorporate children into their planning and purchase of equipment and supplies; provide training to a broad range of child-specific providers, agencies, and entities; and exercise capabilities relating to children, such as evacuation, sheltering and emergency medical care.
The Changing Child Population of the United States: Analysis of Data from the 2010 Census
Author: O'Hare, William (1 more by this author)
Description: This report provides an overview of changes in the U.S. child population based on the first data released from the 2010 census. The detailed changes reported here will help readers appreciate some of the key demographic shifts among our country’s youngest cohort.
The Children of Immigrants Data Tool
Description: This tool is a comprehensive interactive resource for exploring the lives of the nation's 16.4 million children with foreign-born parents. The online tool uses recent American Community Survey data and enables users to generate detailed charts of the characteristics of children age 0 to 17 nationwide and by state.
Users can create charts and tables featuring one or more of 21 demographic, social, and economic characteristics, including citizenship and immigrant status of children and their parents; children's race, ethnicity, and school enrollment; parents' education and English proficiency; and family composition, income, and work effort. The tables can be downloaded in Excel. To help improve the Data Tool, users can provide feedback by email or by completing the brief online survey at the end of a session.
A companion publication, "Children of Immigrants: National and State Characteristics," highlights key national data and variations across states, http://www.urban.org/publications/411939.html.
The Costs of Disinvestment: Why States Can’t Afford to Cut Smart Early Childhood Programs
Description: The Partnership for America’s Economic Success has issued a new issue brief which argues that states can save money and stimulate their economies by protecting funding for effective pre-kindergarten and home visiting programs. The brief presents evidence showing that investing in early childhood programs is fundamental to achieving a globally competitive workforce and fiscal sustainability for states and the nation.
The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States
Description: This news brief is a report card developed by Save the Children that highlights the need for policies and procedures to be put into place to allow all disaster and recovery efforts to include a plan for children. Included are recommendations for policy changes and a report card on how states on doing in including children in their disaster recovery planning. Most states are failing to consider the unique needs of children in their planning.
The Future of Children - Children and Poverty
Description: This is a link to a research journal on the topic of Children and Poverty published by Princeton University and Brookings Institute. The journal itself contains 12 articles related to this subject. You may view the articles in html or download them in pdf. There is also an executive summary of the journal and the entire journal may also be downloaded.
The Future of Children - The Next Generation of Antipoverty Policies
Description: This volume of The Future of Children, published by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, contains a diverse and comprehensive set of recommendations for reducing poverty, two of which focus primarily on young men. The purpose of this brief is to review these two quite different approaches to helping poor men and to suggest how
the proposals could be tested to see whether they can be implemented successfully and cost effectively.
The journal itself contains 8 articles related to this subject. You may view the articles in html or download them in pdf. There is also an executive summary and policy brief of the journal and the entire journal may also be downloaded.
Description: This 62-page booklet describes the findings from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). The NICHD started the SECCYD in 1991 to collect information about different non-maternal child care arrangements, about children and families who use these arrangements and those who do not, and child outcomes. This booklet explains the Study's findings for children from birth to age 4 1/2 years.
The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain
Description: Deprivation or neglect can cause more harm to a young child’s development than overt physical abuse, including subsequent cognitive delays, impairments in executive functioning, and disruptions of the body’s stress response. This Working Paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains why significant deprivation is so harmful in the earliest years of life and why effective interventions are likely to pay significant dividends in better long-term outcomes in learning, health, and parenting of the next generation.
The State of the World's Children 2005 (executive summary)
Description: The Official Summary of The State of the World's Children 2005 provides an overview of the report, which focuses on poverty, armed conflict and HIV/AIDS. These three threaten children's survival and development, undermining the promise of a childhood based on human rights as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The State of the World's Children 2005 (full report)
Author: Bellamy, Carol
Description: The State of the World's Children 2005 focuses on childhood, defined as the state and condition of a child's life. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, offers a new definition of childhood based on human rights. Yet for hundred of millions of children the promise of childhood that undergirds the Convention already appears broken as povery, armed conflict, and HIV/AIDS threaten their survival and development. The report examines these three key threats in detail, and offers a comprehensive agenda of action to combat them.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: The Administration for Children and Families
Description: This Web site is a representation of what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides in the form of national, local and tribal assistance to children and families.
When One Family Is Not Enough: The Lives of Young Children in Foster Care
Author: Harrison, Judy
Description: This article discusses children in foster care. It provides information on who these children are, why they are placed in foster care, the role of foster families, the challenges the children may come with, and how teachers can support the children.
Why Young Children Enter Early Intervention Services
Description: This newsbrief includes information on a study that examines the reasons why infants and toddlers entering Part C early intervention services are eligible and provides information on what the demographics are for the children receiving services.
Description: This Web page provides information and links to other sources concerning the issue of women's health policies.
Work and Family: Introducing the Issue
Author: Waldfogel, Jane (1 more by this author); Sara McLanahan
Description: This introduction to the journal includes an overview of the articles included in the journal, Work and Family. A group of experts was commissioned to write eight articles. The first article provides an overview of the demographic changes that set the stage for the current situation. The next four articles consider the challenges of employees who have care responsibilities for particular types of family members—young children, schoolaged children, children with special health care needs, and elderly relatives. The final three articles consider possible policy responses, focusing, respectively, on the role of employers, the role of government, and what other countries do.
The individual articles can be downloaded at http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/journal_details/index.xml?journalid=76.
Work-family Conflict: Look to Employers and Communities for Solutions (policy brief)
Author: Haskins, Ron (1 more by this author); Sara McLanahan; Jane Waldfogel
Description: This policy brief provides an overview of the new journal from the The Future of Children entitled Work and Family. Work-family conflict promises to be on the nation’s agenda for policy development in both the public and private sectors for many years to come. In the near term, improvements are likely to be achieved primarily by voluntary changes in work policy by employers and by adaptations made by communities and families themselves.
The Journal may be located at http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/21_02_FullJournal.pdf.
Workforce Development, Welfare Reform, and Child Well-Being
Description: This brief summarizes evidence from a series of evaluations of family self-sufficiency programs. These studies show that policies can be successful in achieving both positive economic benefits for parents (increased employment, for example) and positive educational effects on their children. It need not be the case that increasing mothers’ work effort, for example, simply increases their time away from the family and harms their children. Certain types of economic policies can in fact benefit children’s school performance and social behavior.
Description: The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) has released an online tool, The Young Child Risk Calculator, which shows users how many children under age six in each state are experiencing serious risks to their development. The tool allows users to select from three age groups: 0-3, 3-5, and 0-6, as well as three economic and various other risk factors known to affect children’s development.
Young Children at Risk: National and State Prevalence of Risk Factors
Author: Robbins, Taylor; Sheila Smith; Shannon Stagman
Description: The Young Child Risk Calculator provides national and state-specific information
about the number of young children who are at risk of poor outcomes in such areas
as school performance, health, and mental health due to family or life circumstances
known as “risk factors.” T
– Professional Development –
Children of Immigrant Families: Analysis
Description: This analysis discusses a background of immigrant families; recommendatios for education, support groups, and community; and article summaries of similar topic. According to the 2000 Census, 1 of every 5 children in the United States is an immigrant, or a child of immigrant parents. To ensure a brighter futher not just for the children of immingrants themselves, but for our entire nation, we must provide the education and supports they need to become American's productive, engaged citizens of tomorrow.
Children of Immingrant Families: Analysis and Recommendations
Author: Shields, Margie; Richard E. Behrman
Description: This journal issue explores the strengths and challenges that set children of immigrant families apart from the mainstream population. Investing in the healthy development of all our nations' children, including children iof immigrants, is to invest in a brighter future- not just for these children themselves, but for our entire nation.
Children, Families, and Foster Care: Analysis and Recommendations
Author: Bass, Sandra; Richard E. Behrman; Margie K. Shields
Description: An analysis of the current state of foster care and a discussion of specific measures for enhancing the accountability of the child welfare system and improving how children and families experience foster care.
Description: This web site offers easy access to federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education.
Demographic Change and the Life Circumstances of Immigrant Families
Author: Hernandez, Donald (2 more by this author)
Description: A description of the major demographic shifts over the past half-century, including a wide range of statistics reflecting cultural, family, social, economic, and housing circumstances of the nation's children across various racial/ ethnic and country-or-origin groups.
Description: This newsbrief provides facts on how to ensure access to healthy and safe child care. It describes changes that need to be made in order to improve the health and safety of child care programs in the U.S.
Economic and Labor Market Trends
Author: Nightingale, Demetra; Michael Fix
Description: An assessment of how economic and labor market trends affect the well-being of workers and their families, particularly those families that include immigrants, and the implications for social and economic policies designed to help such families and their children.
Author: Wulczyn, Fred
Description: A discussion of family reunification in the law, in policy, and in practice, and an analysis of family reunification trends in six states. A child's age and race are associated with the likelihood that he or she will be reunified and nearly 30% of children who were reunified in 1990 reentered foster care within 10 years.
Five Commentaries: Looking to the Future
Author: Badeau, Susanna; Ernestine S. Gray; Will Lightbourne; Alfred G. Perez
Description: A series of responses from experts representing various disciplines and backgrounds to the question: "How can the child welfare system be improved to better support families and promote the healthy development of children in foster care?"
Four Commentaries: Looking to the Future
Author: Greenburg, Mark; William D. Novelli; Karen M. Kaufman; Harris N. Miller
Description: A series of responses from experts across various organizations and backgrounds to the question "How should policymakers, advocates, stakeholders, and practitioners respond strategically and proactively to demographic change and increasing diversity in order to promote the healthy development, productivity, and well-being of our nation's children in to the future?"
Author: Johnson, Kay (2 more by this author); Marguerite Casey Foundation
Description: The National Center for Children in Poverty's fourth policy paper that discusses how to finance early childhood mental health services and how to promote healthy social and emotional development in young children so that they benefit.
meeting the challenges of contemporary foster care
Author: Chipungu, Sandra; Tricia B. Bent-Goodley
Description: An analysis of the major challenges facing foster care and specific recommendations for making the foster care system more responsive to birth and foster families, and more sensitive to the developmental needs of children in foster care.
Newsletters: Treasures or Trash? Parenting Newsletter Series Results in Positive Behavior Changes
Author: Garton, Martha
Description: A study that takes a look at whether or not parents read parenting newsletters and if they do, to what extent do their parenting behaviors change as a result.
Safety and Stability for Foster Children: A Developmental Perspective
Author: Brenda, Harden
Description: A review of the research on the effects of child maltreatment and foster care on child development, and a discussion of what steps can be taken to promote the healthy development of children in foster care.
Safety and Stability for Foster Children: The Policy Context
Author: Allen, MaryLee; Mary Bissell
Description: A detailed analysis of the federal foster care policy framework and a discussion of policy recommendations for improving the foster care system.
The Evolution of Kinship Care Policy and Practice
Author: Green, Rob
Description: An analysis of how states are responding to the growing number of kin foster families and a discussion of the unique challenges these families face. Kin caregivers can provide continuity and connectedness for children who cannot remain with their parents, which is one reason why kinship care has become the prefferred placement option for foster children.
The State of the World's Children 2005 (executive summary)
Description: The Official Summary of The State of the World's Children 2005 provides an overview of the report, which focuses on poverty, armed conflict and HIV/AIDS. These three threaten children's survival and development, undermining the promise of a childhood based on human rights as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The State of the World's Children 2005 (full report)
Author: Bellamy, Carol
Description: The State of the World's Children 2005 focuses on childhood, defined as the state and condition of a child's life. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, offers a new definition of childhood based on human rights. Yet for hundred of millions of children the promise of childhood that undergirds the Convention already appears broken as povery, armed conflict, and HIV/AIDS threaten their survival and development. The report examines these three key threats in detail, and offers a comprehensive agenda of action to combat them.
When Children Cannot Return Home: Adoption and Guardianship
Author: Testa, Mark
Description: An analysis of how states are using adoption and legal guardianship to help children find permanent families. A primary goal, since the early 1970s, of the child welfare sytem has been to find alternative permanent families for children in foster care who could not return to their birth parents.
– Programming Resource –
A New Approach to Early Intervention: Virtual Home Visits
Description: This newsletter features a discussion with Sue Thain Olsen and Amy Henningson of the Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD). CPD is doing research on the benefits and challenges of providing early intervention services to families in remote rural areas via virtual home visits. Their research is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Steppingstones of Technology Innovation for Children with Disabilities program.
The article provides information on how the program has evolved and the challenges they encountered. The benefits of the program are also included.
Better Strategies for Babies: Strengthening the Caregivers and Families of Infants and Toddlers
Author: Gilman, Elizabeth; Ann Colins
Description: Families in poverty often have specific challenges to obtaining quality child care. This report outlines these challenges and offers promising strategies for improving child care for low-income families. The executive summary and full text are available in pdf.
Author: Knitzer, Jane
Description: "This guide sets forth a framework for community and state action to help families and caregivers address the widespread emotional challenges that young children are facing all across this country. It describes the scope of the problem; highlights emerging strategies, challenges, and opportunities; and provides concrete tips from early leaders for those seeking to move this agenda, as well as more general recommendations."
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Description: This website provides links to many articles about current policy or budget issues.
Children of Immigrant Families: Analysis
Description: This analysis discusses a background of immigrant families; recommendatios for education, support groups, and community; and article summaries of similar topic. According to the 2000 Census, 1 of every 5 children in the United States is an immigrant, or a child of immigrant parents. To ensure a brighter futher not just for the children of immingrants themselves, but for our entire nation, we must provide the education and supports they need to become American's productive, engaged citizens of tomorrow.
Children of Immingrant Families: Analysis and Recommendations
Author: Shields, Margie; Richard E. Behrman
Description: This journal issue explores the strengths and challenges that set children of immigrant families apart from the mainstream population. Investing in the healthy development of all our nations' children, including children iof immigrants, is to invest in a brighter future- not just for these children themselves, but for our entire nation.
Children, Families, and Foster Care: Analysis and Recommendations
Author: Bass, Sandra; Richard E. Behrman; Margie K. Shields
Description: An analysis of the current state of foster care and a discussion of specific measures for enhancing the accountability of the child welfare system and improving how children and families experience foster care.
Description: This web site offers easy access to federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education.
Continuity in Early Childhood: A Framework for Home, School, and Community Linkages
Description: This paper offers a framework for communities to develop the type of services that best nurture healthy families. It focuses on the importance of community connections in easing family transitions between service providers.
Author: Wulczyn, Fred
Description: A discussion of family reunification in the law, in policy, and in practice, and an analysis of family reunification trends in six states. A child's age and race are associated with the likelihood that he or she will be reunified and nearly 30% of children who were reunified in 1990 reentered foster care within 10 years.
Five Commentaries: Looking to the Future
Author: Badeau, Susanna; Ernestine S. Gray; Will Lightbourne; Alfred G. Perez
Description: A series of responses from experts representing various disciplines and backgrounds to the question: "How can the child welfare system be improved to better support families and promote the healthy development of children in foster care?"
Food Research and Action Center
Description: This Web site provides links to many articles and much information pertaining to childhood hunger, food stamps, food assistance, USDA food programs, and much more.
Four Commentaries: Looking to the Future
Author: Greenburg, Mark; William D. Novelli; Karen M. Kaufman; Harris N. Miller
Description: A series of responses from experts across various organizations and backgrounds to the question "How should policymakers, advocates, stakeholders, and practitioners respond strategically and proactively to demographic change and increasing diversity in order to promote the healthy development, productivity, and well-being of our nation's children in to the future?"
Description: This Web site contains links to information and research on families. "The Jordan Institute for Families--the research, training and technical assistance arm of the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--is a resource for discovering effective practices and policies that build sound and supportive families."
Description: ZERO TO THREE has published a EARLY CHILDHOOD HOME VISITATION SYSTEM Self-Assessment Tool for States to use to
• Define the home visiting system
• Assess the home visiting system’s capacity
• Prioritize areas for improvement
In addition to assisting states in preparing for the federal home visiting grant application process, the tool will be useful for ongoing assessment and continuous quality improvement.
Author: Johnson, Kay (2 more by this author); Marguerite Casey Foundation
Description: The National Center for Children in Poverty's fourth policy paper that discusses how to finance early childhood mental health services and how to promote healthy social and emotional development in young children so that they benefit.
Author: Johnson, Kay (2 more by this author); Roxane Kaufmann; Jane Knitzer
Description: "This policy paper highlights the most innovative approaches states and communities are currently using to finance early childhood mental health services and explores what else might be done to mix, match, and leverage all available resources. The focus is on prevention and early intervention services to not only help children directly, but equally important, to help their families and other caregivers address the social and emotional challenges children face."
meeting the challenges of contemporary foster care
Author: Chipungu, Sandra; Tricia B. Bent-Goodley
Description: An analysis of the major challenges facing foster care and specific recommendations for making the foster care system more responsive to birth and foster families, and more sensitive to the developmental needs of children in foster care.
National Association of Child Advocates
Description: The Web site of Voices for America's Children, formerly the National Association of Child Advocates, offers in-depth information about child advocacy. Learn more about advocacy, find out what is happening in your state, or learn about their initiatives.
Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program
Description: This Web page describes the Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program. Newborn screening is a prevention program in which infants are tested for metabolic and genetic diseases. It is intended to quickly identify infants with these disorders so timely treatment can be provided.
Newsletters: Treasures or Trash? Parenting Newsletter Series Results in Positive Behavior Changes
Author: Garton, Martha
Description: A study that takes a look at whether or not parents read parenting newsletters and if they do, to what extent do their parenting behaviors change as a result.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development
Description: This document contains the findings of the NICHG Study of Early Child Care. The researchers believe this to be one of the most comprehensive child care studies conducted to date, that examines how variations in child care in the early years are related to children's development. Current information is based on 13 years of data collection. Data is still being collected.
Description: This Web site tells all about the program No Child Left Behind, which is an act that will determine if children are learning in the public schools. You can also find links to news and policy related to student achievement on this Web site.
Description: The Office of Migrant Education works to improve teaching and learning for migratory children. Their Web site contains information about their programs, publications, grant funding, and state initiatives.
Author: Rogers, Carolyn
Description: Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB1) 6 pp, April 2005
This report provides the latest information on the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of rural children in families. Child poverty in 21st century America is higher (18 percent in 2003) than the rate for the general population (12.5 percent), as well as above the rates in most other industrialized countries. Child poverty is a significant social problem that negatively affects children's development. Although rural child poverty rates declined in the 1990s, they remain higher than the rates for urban children (21 percent vs. 18 percent). In 2003, 2.7 million rural children were poor, representing 36 percent of the rural poor. Nonmetro children are more likely than metro children to receive food stamps and free or reduced-price school lunches, in part a reflection of higher nonmetro poverty. The geographic distribution of child poverty—heavily concentrated in the South—is important for targeting poverty reduction policies and program assistance such as child nutrition programs, food stamps, and health insurance coverage in rural areas.
Safety and Stability for Foster Children: The Policy Context
Author: Allen, MaryLee; Mary Bissell
Description: A detailed analysis of the federal foster care policy framework and a discussion of policy recommendations for improving the foster care system.
Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children
Description: This is an abridged version of Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children, the report of the Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children. It explores the challenges and barriers to healthy families and quality child care facing families today.
Starting School at a Disadvantage: The School Readiness of Poor Children
Author: Isaacs, Julia (1 more by this author)
Description: The Brookings Institute recently published a new report, which shows that only 48% of poor children are ready for school at age five, compared to 75% of children from families with moderate and high income, a 27 percentage point gap. The paper discusses why poor children are less ready for school and evaluates three interventions that can improve their school readiness.
Preschool programs offer the most promise for increasing children’s school readiness, according to a simple simulation that models the effects of three different interventions. Expanding preschool programs for four-year olds has more direct effects on school readiness at age five than either smoking cessation programs during pregnancy or nurse home visiting programs to pregnant women and infants, the two other alternatives considered.
Successful Early Childhood Home Visitation State Systems
Description: ZERO TO THREE has published a collection of resources related to its June 22, 2010, webinar on Successful Early Childhood Home Visitation State Systems. Resources include: Key Components of a Successful Early Childhood Home Visitation System: A Self-Assessment Tool for States; one-page descriptions of four model states (CO, NJ, VA, WA); and a recording of the webinar and all webinar materials.
The Clearinghouse on International Developments in Child, Youth and Family Policies
Description: "This website provides cross-national, comparative information about the policies, programs, benefits and services available in the advanced industrialized countries to address child, youth, and family needs. Coverage focuses on 23 advanced industrialized countries. Expansion to other countries and other parts of the world is planned. "
The Evolution of Kinship Care Policy and Practice
Author: Green, Rob
Description: An analysis of how states are responding to the growing number of kin foster families and a discussion of the unique challenges these families face. Kin caregivers can provide continuity and connectedness for children who cannot remain with their parents, which is one reason why kinship care has become the prefferred placement option for foster children.
Author: Reardon, Sean
Description: In new report, findings from a Stanford study show that the gap in test scores between wealthy and poor children has grown by about 40% since 1960 and is now nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap. The Stanford researcher who conducted the study suggests that early childhood interventions might be the best way to start bridging the gap.
When Children Cannot Return Home: Adoption and Guardianship
Author: Testa, Mark
Description: An analysis of how states are using adoption and legal guardianship to help children find permanent families. A primary goal, since the early 1970s, of the child welfare sytem has been to find alternative permanent families for children in foster care who could not return to their birth parents.
– Research –
2010 Child Well-Being Index (CWI)
Author: Land, Kenneth (1 more by this author)
Description: The 2010 annual release of the FCD Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is the first report to offer comprehensive data on the impact of the Great Recession on American children's quality-of-life.
The 2010 CWI finds: The impact of the recession on children is reaching new lows in 2010; the recession will wipe out virtually all progress for children since 1975, in the Family Economic Well-being Domain; the rate of children living in poverty in 2010 will be the highest in 20 years; the number of detached youth will increase in 2010; risky behaviors will increase in 2010; child obesity will continue to rise, bringing down the Health Domain.
This page includes links to a press release, an info graph, and the full report.
A Century of Children's Health and Well-Being
Description: This research brief describes the great strides that have been made in children's health during the last century and outlines areas that are still in need of improvement. Racial and ethnic disparities still exist in this area.
Author: West, Jerry (2 more by this author); Elvira Germino-Hausken; Kristin Denton
Description: This report provides national data on children’s skills, knowledge and experiences upon entering kindergarten. The data are the first findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. The data for this report was collected in the fall of 1998 from approximately 22,000 kindergarten children attending about 1,000 public and private schools. It provides estimates concerning childrenÂ’s cognitive skills and knowledge, their social skills, their physical well-being, their approaches to learning and their family environments and experiences.
Changes in Children's Well-Being and Family Environments
Author: Vandivere, Sharon (1 more by this author); Kristin Anderson Moore; Megan Gallagher
Description: This paper discusses the indicators of child well-being and behavior and family environment between 1997 and 2002. School engagement declined from 43% in 1997 to 35% in 2002 among 6-11 year olds, and from 38% in 1997 to 31% in 2002 among 12-17 year olds.
Children Cared for by Relatives: What Do We Know about Their Well-Being?
Author: Billing, Amy (1 more by this author); Katherine Kortenkamp; Jennifer Ehrle
Description: This research brief examines the well-being of children living in kinship care. This study focuses on behavioral and emotional well-being, school and activity experiences, interaction with adults and physical health. Also available in PDF.
Children Cared for by Relatives: What Services Do They Need? (PDF)
Author: Ehrle, Jennifer; Green, Rob
Description: This research brief shares data from the National Survey of America's Families which demonstrates that kin involved with child welfare agencies enjoy greater access to services compared with kin caring for children privately. Among low-income children in kinship care, 73 percent of those involved with child welfare agencies received government assistance compared to 25 percent of children in kinship families with no contact with child welfare agencies. Researchers analyzed receipt of TANF child-only payments, foster care payments, health insurance, food stamps, housing assistance, and child care. Also available in HTML at http://www.urban.org/publications/310511.html
Description: This web site offers easy access to federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education.
Culture and Parenting: Family Models Are Not One-Size-Fits-All
Description: A new study by Frank Porter Graham researchers examines the utility of two family process models for families with young children from five different cultural groups. FPG investigators explored the relationships between cultural group, sociodemographic variables, various mediators, and children’s academic outcomes. The findings highlight the importance of ensuring that researchers and policymakers do not conceptualize parenting solely based on theoretical models primarily validated with middle-class EA populations, using their values and practices.
Early Childhood Predictors of Early School Success: A Selective Review of the Literature
Author: Pati, Susmita ; Brett Brown; Kyleen Hashim; Christopher Forrest; Alex Fiks
Description: In this brief, scientific evidence from all literatures is reviewed as they relate to early school readiness, focusing on results from large longitudinal studies. The intention is that the results will provide a foundation for research that may lead to the development of practical clinical tools allowing health caregivers to identify young children at risk for early school performance problems, and target them for additional preventive and ameliorative care leading to improved outcomes.
Family Relations - Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies
Description: This is the Web site for the Family Relations journal. Some content is available for free on-line and you can sign up for table-of-contents e-mail alerts.
Federal Programs for Children and Families: A Tool for Connecting Programs to People
Description: This report summarizes 140 major federal programs supporting children and families. It is a tool for policy makers, program administrators and advocates to learn about federal programs and how to use public resources wisely.
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center
Description: The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute is one of the nation's oldest multidisciplinary institutes for the study of young children and their families. This website focuses on research and education activities for child development and health, especially factors that may put children at risk for developmental problems.
Harvard Family Research Project
Description: HFRP offers an exhaustive listing of HFRP's publications on early childhood care and education, family, parental involvement, school and community issues, evaluation and accountability information and professional development. Many are available for free download. The site also offers access to family involvement tools and resources via the FINE network (Family Involvement Network of Educators).
Description: This issue of The Future of Children Journal is dedicated to topics related to children and health insurance. It contains 18 articles, a glossary of selected terms and acronyms, and a selected bibliography.
Home Visitation and Young Children: An Approach Worth Investing In?
Author: Astuto, Jennifer; LaRue Allen
Description: The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) has published a new Social Policy Report. The report reviews studies of large, established home visitation program in the U.S. and discusses major concerns and current developments in the field of home visitation.
Description: This Web site contains links to information and research on families. "The Jordan Institute for Families--the research, training and technical assistance arm of the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--is a resource for discovering effective practices and policies that build sound and supportive families."
Journal of Marriage and Family
Description: This is the Web site for the Journal of Marriage and Family. Some content is available for free on-line and you can sign up for table-of-contents e-mail alerts.
Description: This Web site provides information about KIDS Count initiatives throughout the United States. KIDS COUNT is a program of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Author: Hodgkinson, Harold
Description: This report offers a perspective on the possible unintended outcomes of the No Child Left Behind reform. It looks at factors not addressed by this reform, such as poverty, parental education level, child abuse, and race.
National Center for Children in Poverty Data Wizards
Description: From this Web page you can link to four Data Wizards developed by the NCCP. These wizards can be used to compare programs and policies, demographics, and economic conditions across states. You can also use the Income Converter to convert between income, percent of federal poverty level, and percent of state median income.
National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health
Description: The National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health (TA Center) works nationally in partnership with families and many other leaders to reform services for children and adolescents who have, or are at risk for, mental health problems and their families. Special areas of emphasis and expertise include strategic planning, leadership development, evaluation, interagency MIS, interagency collaboration, cultural competence, family partnerships, policy development, prevention and early intervention, managed care and financing.
Newsletters: Treasures or Trash? Parenting Newsletter Series Results in Positive Behavior Changes
Author: Garton, Martha
Description: A study that takes a look at whether or not parents read parenting newsletters and if they do, to what extent do their parenting behaviors change as a result.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development
Description: This document contains the findings of the NICHG Study of Early Child Care. The researchers believe this to be one of the most comprehensive child care studies conducted to date, that examines how variations in child care in the early years are related to children's development. Current information is based on 13 years of data collection. Data is still being collected.
Preliminary Rural Analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort
Description: This brief introduces the first results from a rural analysis of selected national data sets. Here we provide key findings concerning kindergarten readiness of rural children from an analysis of the Kindergarten Cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS).
Relationship of English-only to Young Children\'s Social and Language Skills
Author: Chang, F; Bryant, D., Howes, C., Burchinal, M., et al.; Early, D.; Crawford, G.
Description: In this snapshot, researchers show that Spanish-speaking children with teachers who spoke some Spanish in the classroom were rated by their teachers as having better social skills and closer relationships with their teachers than children with teachers who did not speak Spanish in the classroom. The amount of Spanish spoken in the classroom was not related to a child’s English proficiency.
Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health
Description: This is the Web site for the Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health. The Center conducts research and serves as a resource for other researchers, policy makers, administrators in the public system, and organizations representing parents, consumers, advocates, professional societies, and practitioners. Visit this site to learn more about research done at the Center and its annual conference.
Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health
Description: This is the Web site of the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health. The purpose of the Center is promoting effective community-based, culturally competent, family-centered services for families and their children who are, or may be affected by mental, emotional or behavioral disorders. This site contains research related to children and families. You can also sign up for their free e-mail newsletter.
Author: Rogers, Carolyn
Description: Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB1) 6 pp, April 2005
This report provides the latest information on the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of rural children in families. Child poverty in 21st century America is higher (18 percent in 2003) than the rate for the general population (12.5 percent), as well as above the rates in most other industrialized countries. Child poverty is a significant social problem that negatively affects children's development. Although rural child poverty rates declined in the 1990s, they remain higher than the rates for urban children (21 percent vs. 18 percent). In 2003, 2.7 million rural children were poor, representing 36 percent of the rural poor. Nonmetro children are more likely than metro children to receive food stamps and free or reduced-price school lunches, in part a reflection of higher nonmetro poverty. The geographic distribution of child poverty—heavily concentrated in the South—is important for targeting poverty reduction policies and program assistance such as child nutrition programs, food stamps, and health insurance coverage in rural areas.
Safety and Stability for Foster Children: A Developmental Perspective
Author: Brenda, Harden
Description: A review of the research on the effects of child maltreatment and foster care on child development, and a discussion of what steps can be taken to promote the healthy development of children in foster care.
Description: Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities.
Forty developmental assests based on research on children and adolscents is included.
The Case for Investing in Disadvantaged Young Children
Author: Heckman, James (1 more by this author)
Description: This chapter in the report, Big Ideas for Children, Investing in Our Nation's Future, examines the origins of inequality and analyzes policies to alleviate it. Families play a powerful role in shaping adult outcomes. The accident of birth is a major source of inequality. Compared to 50 years ago, a greater fraction of American children are being born into disadvantaged families where investments in children are smaller than in advantaged families. Growing unassimilated immigrant populations in Western Europe create similar adverse trends there. Policies that supplement the child rearing resources available to disadvantaged families reduce inequality and raise productivity.
The Clearinghouse on International Developments in Child, Youth and Family Policies
Description: "This website provides cross-national, comparative information about the policies, programs, benefits and services available in the advanced industrialized countries to address child, youth, and family needs. Coverage focuses on 23 advanced industrialized countries. Expansion to other countries and other parts of the world is planned. "
The Economic Impact of the Early Care and Education Industry in Montana
Author: Traill, Saskia (1 more by this author); Melissa Ramos
Description: This 43-page report outlines findings from the study "The Economic Impact of the Early Care and Education Industry in Montana" and offers policy recommendations based on these findings for the state of Montana.
The executive summary can be accessed at http://www.insightcced.org/uploads///publications/ece/EIR-exec-summ-MT.pdf.
The Future of Children - Children, Families, and Foster Care
Description: This Future of Children journal issue is dedicated to issues surrounding foster care. It contains ten articles and a selected bibliography.
The Health and Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families
Author: Reardon-Anderson, Jane; Michael E. Fix; Randolph Capps
Description: This study examines the well-being of children of immigrants in several areas: family income and environment, child physical and emotional health, involvement in school, and access to needed benefits and services. The study concludes that children in immigrant families are more likely to be financially poorer, in poorer health, and less able to draw on community resources than native children.
The National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health
Description: This is the Web site of the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health (NCEMCH). NCEMCH is focused on providing education, program development and research knowledge to improve the health and well-being of the nation's children and families.
The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children
Author: Heckman, James (1 more by this author); Dimitriy V. Masterov
Description: This article presents the case for investing more in young American children who grow up in disadvantaged environments. Adverse environments place children at risk for social and economic failure. This article argues that, on productivity grounds, it makes sense to invest in young children from disadvantaged environments. Substantial evidence shows that these children are more likely to commit crime, have out-of-wedlock births, and drop out of school. Early interventions that partially remediate the effects of adverse environments can reverse some of the harm of disadvantage and have a high economic return. They benefit not only the children themselves, but also their children, as well as society at large.
The State of America's Children: 2010 Report
Description: CDF's The State of America's Children 2010, is a compilation of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on poverty, health, child welfare, youth at risk, early childhood development, education, family income and gun violence.
According to the CDF report, children in America lag behind almost all industrialized nations on key child indicators. The United States has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized nations in relative child poverty, in the gap between rich and poor, in teen birth rates, and in child gun violence.
Download sections in pdf by topic.
Unintentional Injuries in Childhood
Description: This issue of The Future of Children Journal contains eight articles and a bibliography on unintentional injuries in childhood. Information is included on: analysis and recommendations; a historical overview of injuries in the U.S. and related current knowledge; the impact of clinical interventions; community-based prevention programs; an analysis of laws designed to prevent unintentional injuries; and examples of successful models.
Why Young Children Enter Early Intervention Services
Description: This newsbrief includes information on a study that examines the reasons why infants and toddlers entering Part C early intervention services are eligible and provides information on what the demographics are for the children receiving services.