Parent Engagement from Preschool through Grade 3: A Guide for Policymakers

Learn about our Expanding Opportunities for Parent Engagement project. Parent engagement in children’s education is increasingly viewed as an essential support to children’s learning in early care and education programs and throughout the school years. While there are many definitions of “parent engagement,” the term is used here to describe parents’ efforts to promote their […]

Young Children at Risk: National and State Prevalence of Risk Factors

Learn about our Improving the Odds for Young Children project. Introduction Across the U.S., large numbers of young children are affected by one or more risk factors that have been linked to academic failure and poor health. Chief among them is family economic hardship, which is consistently associated with negative outcomes in these two domains. […]

Practices for Promoting Young Children’s Learning in QRIS Standards

Learn about our Expanding Opportunities for Parent Engagement project. This is an excerpt from the full brief. Introduction Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS) have emerged as a central strategy in states’ efforts to improve the quality of early care and education programs and the capacity of these programs to promote positive outcomes for children. Currently, […]

Building Strong Systems of Support for Young Children’s Mental Health: Key Strategies for States and a Planning Tool

  Learn about our Supporting Young Children’s Mental Health project. What’s Inside… This report describes key strategies for creating a comprehensive system of supports for young children’s mental health and provides examples from states using these strategies. It also includes a tool that state planners can use to assess progress and plan steps toward building […]

Adolescent Substance Use in the U.S.: Facts for Policymakers

Learn about our Improving the Odds for Adolescents project. Adolescence is an important period of physical, social, psychological, and cognitive growth. No longer children and not yet adults, adolescents make significant choices about their health and develop attitudes and health behaviors that continue into adulthood. Substance use disorders among adolescents can impede the attainment of […]

Environmental Health in Early Childhood Systems Building: Opportunities for States

Learn about our Project Thrive project. This is an excerpt from the full report. Introduction Exposure to environmental hazards has negative outcomes for healthy child development. Household and community pollutants affect people of all ages, but for a number of important reasons young children face a significantly higher risk of developing disease and experiencing cognitive […]

Improving Supports for Parents of Young Children: State-level Initiatives

Learn about our Project Thrive project. This is an excerpt from the full report. Introduction Most states are working to strengthen supports for young children’s health and development across the different systems that affect family and child wellbeing. Increasingly, efforts to support parenting are an important focus of this work. While states’ strategies are varied, […]

Unclaimed Children Revisited: California Case Study

Learn about our UCR: California Case Study project. Executive Summary (2M) Alameda County Profile (469K) Butte County Profile (473K) Humboldt County Profile (479K) Imperial County Profile (474K) Los Angeles County Profile (485K) Placer County Profile (474K) San Diego County Profile (486K) San Francisco County Profile(484K) San Mateo County Profile (485K) Santa Clara County Profile (493K) […]

Children’s Mental Health: What Every Policymaker Should Know

Mental health is a key component in a child’s healthy development; children need to be healthy in order to learn, grow, and lead productive lives. The mental health service delivery system in its current state does not sufficiently meet the needs of children and youth, and most who are in need of mental health services […]