A new study in Preventive Medicine Reports describes how authors surveyed Vermont WIC participants with questions on food insecurity risk and an understudied form of material hardship: diaper need. Authors found that half of participating households were at risk for food insecurity and one-third reported diaper need, with a strong association between the two measures. … Read more
Spotlight on Poverty has published an overview of the two major child poverty alleviation policy proposals currently under debate. Both proposals improve upon the existing child tax credit, which is effective but does not reach all families since it is restricted to those with annual incomes above $2,500. The current annual Child Tax Credit pays … Read more
Scholars from the American Enterprise Institute partnered with experts in academia, state departments, and the law to outline some of the challenges that COVID-19 has wrought for child welfare systems, and the lessons to be gleaned from this era. The report notes that while the stressors of the pandemic have likely heightened child maltreatment incidence, … Read more
As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, students continue to face significant challenges to their mental and physical health. In an April 2020 survey from Active Minds, 60 percent of high school students reported that their mental health has worsened during the pandemic. Pandemic-related school closures have also caused many students to lose access to necessary school-based … Read more
This first-of-its-kind effort Thriving Families, Safer Children: A National Commitment to Well-Being will work across the public, private and philanthropic sectors to assist jurisdictions in developing more just and equitable systems that benefit all children and families and break harmful intergenerational cycles of trauma and poverty. Thriving Families will help select jurisdictions move from traditional, … Read more
A paper published through the National Bureau of Economic Research uses an innovative methodology to estimate the number of children whose living arrangements have been disrupted by parental drug use. Using cause-of-death data, the authors calculate a cumulative drug-related death rate for childrens likely parents as a proxy for exposure to the drug crisis. The … Read more
