Our Approach to Research & Policy

NCCP FOCUS AREAS

Economic supports for low-income families

  • Reducing inequities in public benefit supports
  • Mitigating benefit cliffs
  • Expanding paid family and medical leave

Access to high-quality early education

  • Expanding high quality programs
  • Providing fair compensation and essential supports for teachers
  • Improving the quality of early education

Supports for young children and their parents with mental health needs

  • Promoting policies that identify and address the mental health needs of infants, toddlers, and young children
  • Elevating supportive policies across systems, including child care, child welfare, early intervention

Access to supports and services for children and families living with disabilities

  • Reducing barriers to health care for people with developmental disabilities
  • Improving access to paid leave for families living with disability
  • Strengthening the Part C Early Intervention Program

Two-generation supports for families with young children

  • Promoting programs and policies that help families access both supports for child development and adult education and job readiness

Inclusion of immigrant families

  • Ensuring state public benefit programs include immigrants
  • Assessing the impact of immigration enforcement on children of immigrants
  • Documenting community needs for immigrant serving organizations
HOW WE DO OUR WORK

NCCP engages in the following types of activities to promote the best policies for low-income children and families.

Research Approach

NCCP uses research to identify strong policy options and strategies for effective policy implementation. We do this through:

  • Conducting rigorous research
  • Evaluating program and policy impacts
  • Conducting needs assessments
  • Examining policy implementation
  • Synthesizing evidence

We conduct our research in partnership with a wide range of organizations and stakeholders to support the development and implementation of policies that help low-income children and families thrive.

Public Comments
To ensure our research informs best practices for public benefits, our staff comments on proposed federal and state rule changes that affect access to public benefits for vulnerable families. Please click here for more information.


Online resources that provide policy and demographic data
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