Map and Track 1998
State Initiatives for Young Children and Families

This new edition updates and expands the information provided in the 1996 Map and Track report on the level of commitment to young children and families across the states. It continues to map state initiatives for young children and families (program development strategies, community mobilization and systemic change strategies, high-level leadership) and track them over time. New in the 1998 edition is information on whether states are implementing explicit strategies to link welfare reform with children’s initiatives.

This edition also contains additional state-by-state indicators of young child and family well-being (e.g., more indicators of health status, parental structure, employment and schooling, extreme poverty and near poverty), new data to indicate state-by-state investments in basic support services for young children (e.g. health care, child care, and early education), young-child related state welfare provisions (e.g., work exemptions, asset and earnings allowed, child support given), and information on state tax credit programs and other income-promoting supports to low-income families (e.g., job training to noncustodial parents). While eight states have started new programs since 1996, the report shows that commitment to programs for young children and families is not evident in every state or throughout the states that have programs, and that state indicator levels suggest enormous state-by-state variation.