Recently in Children Category

Source: Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, and Elizabeth Rigby, Health Affairs, Vol. 29 no. 3, 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Amid growing concern about childhood obesity, the United States spends billions of dollars on food assistance: providing meals and subsidizing food purchases. We examine the relationship between food assistance and body mass index (BMI) for young, low-income children, who are a primary target population for federal food programs and for efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Our findings indicate that food assistance may unintentionally contribute to the childhood obesity problem in cities with high food prices. We also find that subsidized meals at school or day care are beneficial for children's weight status, and we argue that expanding access to subsidized meals may be the most effective tool to use in combating obesity in poor children.

Source: Child Trends, February 24, 2010

From the press release:
Child Trends, with support from Casey Family Programs, launches the State Child Welfare Policy Database to provide information on child welfare laws, procedures, and agency guidance for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Database can help elected officials, administrators, advocates, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders keep up to date with the policies that protect our nation's most vulnerable children.

The site can be navigated by state or by topic. You can learn about your state's expenditures on child welfare services, policies for relatives and "kin" caring for children involved in the child welfare system, benefits and services provided to foster youth after age 18, and much more. In addition to the traditional web version, the site is designed to be compatible with your mobile device, allowing for easily accessible information on the go.

Source: Center for Law and Social Policy, January 21, 2010

Below are links to fact sheets for each of the 50 states on child welfare financing. In addition to data on child welfare expenditures and the sources of this funding, the fact sheets include contextual data such as the number (and percent) of children living in poverty, the number and types of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect, and the number of children in foster care.

Each fact sheet contains sections that:

1. Describe the context for child welfare spending by providing data on abused and neglected children, children in foster care, children who have left foster care, and children living with kin;

2. Identify how much child welfare funding comes from federal, state, and local sources;

3. Identify the major federal funding streams that are used to support child welfare and the amount of child welfare funding that comes from each; and

4. Highlight expenditures and trends within the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Programs, including expenditures for foster care maintenance and adoption assistance payments, administrative and child placement costs, and training.

Source: National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, January 2010

In 2008, America's children saw the nation's financial system melt down and the worst recession in decades commence. In 2009, the nation's children paid the price. At least 42 states have cut public health, programs for children with disabilities, K-12 and early education, and higher education. Next year doesn't look any better with states needing to close as much as $260 billion dollars in budget deficits.

Congress will need to make investments in children's programs a priority in both the jobs bill and the 2011 federal budget if children's programs are not to be cut further.

This is grim news for America's children. They make up more than 35 percent of those in
poverty, yet they comprise only 24.6 percent of the population. Children did not cause the
recession, but they certainly are feeling the effects of it. States cut the most basic of services
for children this year with deeper cuts on the horizon for next year. This report includes an illustrative list of state-by-state budget cuts affecting children.

Source: Kristin Gavin, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, December 2009

From a School Transportation News article:
While state and federal programs continue to advocate students walking and biking to school to achieve physical fitness and mitigate traffic congestion and resulting pollution, the children who utilize these modes of transportation are open to significantly more injuries and fatalities than if they rode the school bus.

The five-year, $612 million federal Safe Routes to School Program passed in 2005 is currently up for reauthorization the of surface transportation act (SAFTEA-LU). But, the National Safe Routes to School Task Force estimated that the funds will only reach about 7.5 percent of U.S. schools in the United States, and only for a portion of their needed infrastructure improvements and programming. In response, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership is calling on Congress to increase funding by $600 million.

Source: Teresa Lim, Center for Law and Social Policy, December 10, 2009

As we enter the holiday season, CLASP urges you to remember those families who are the hardest hit by the economic recession. Now more than ever we need public and private resources to help ensure that children and families have what they need to thrive.

* CLASP Releases National and State Fact Sheets on Child Care and Development Block Grant Participation in 2008
* Extending Home Visiting to Kinship Caregivers and Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers
* New Infant/Toddler Resources on Core Competencies and Training
* Update on State Child Care and Early Education Advisory Councils
* Updated Fact Sheets Provide Information on Children of Immigrants in the U.S. and Basic Facts About Low-Income Children
* A Review of Home Visiting Program Models and Their Effectiveness
* The State of City Leadership on Supporting Early Childhood in 2009
* Tennessee Releases Evaluation Report on State's Pre-Kindergarten Program
* Early Literacy Gaps in Maryland
* Promoting Community-Based Early Childhood Education Partnerships in Texas

Source: Hannah Matthews, Center for Law and Social Policy, December 1, 2009

Based on preliminary data from the Child Care Bureau, this fact sheet provides a snapshot of participation in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program in 2008. CCDBG served a monthly average of 1.6 million children. While 19 states increased the number of children served, 29 states served fewer children in 2008 than in the previous year. This fact sheet reviews data, including the ages of children receiving assistance, the types of child care settings used, and the reasons families receive assistance.

Source: Margo Pedroso and Robert Ping, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, November 2009

From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation summary:
In May 2007, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership launched a three-year Safe Routes to School (SRTS) State Network Project to leverage resources in nine states and the District of Columbia to make it safer and easier for children to be physically active by walking and bicycling to school. This report summarizes the progress that the State Network Project has achieved in its three years of operation, outlines lessons learned, highlights accomplishments in each State Network and suggests next steps to maintain the momentum necessary to build the SRTS program at state levels.

Source: Mark R. Rank, Thomas A. Hirschl, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Vol. 163 no. 11, November 2009
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Between the ages of 1 to 20 years, nearly half (49.2%) of all American children will, at some point, reside in a household that receives food stamps. Households in need of the program use it for relatively short periods but are also likely to return to the program at several points during the childhood years. Race, parental education, and head of household's marital status exert a strong influence on the proportion of children residing in a food stamp household.

American children are at a high risk of encountering a spell during which their families are in poverty and food insecure as indicated through their use of food stamps. Such events have the potential to seriously jeopardize a child's overall health.

Source: Harry J. Holzer, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Greg J. Duncan, Jens Ludwig, Journal of Children and Poverty, Volume 14 Issue 1, March 2008
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
This paper attempts to estimate the aggregate annual costs of child poverty to the US economy. It begins with a review of rigorous research studies that estimate the statistical association between children growing up in poverty and their earnings, propensity to commit crime, and quality of health later in life. We also review estimates of the costs that crime and poor health impose on the economy. Then we aggregate all of these average costs per poor child across the total number of children growing up in poverty in the United States to obtain our estimate of the aggregate costs of the conditions associated with childhood poverty to the US economy. Our results suggest that these costs total about $500 billion per year, or the equivalent of nearly 4% of gross domestic product (GDP). More specifically, we estimate that childhood poverty each year: (1) reduces productivity and economic output by an amount equal to 1.3% of GDP, (2) raises the costs of crime by 1.3% of GDP, and (3) raises health expenditures and reduces the value of health by 1.2% of GDP.