Accessible, affordable, high-quality child care and early education are vital for the economic well-being of families, communities, and the nation. However, families, especially those of color with low incomes, face significant challenges in accessing these services due to systemic racial and economic barriers. Federal programs like the Child Care…

Policymakers, child care providers, and parents face tradeoffs in determining how much to spend on child care, including how many hours to purchase, and the features of programs that might influence quality. Given these tradeoffs, it is useful to understand what constitutes quality, the cost of care features associated with quality, the effects of…

Children and youth vary in their developmental health due to differences in family economic security and exposure to toxic stress. The economic downturn has increased the challenges facing low-income children. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the President's first budget made significant down-payments on investments in…

Researchers have long known that poverty in childhood is linked with a range of negative adult socioeconomic outcomes, from lower educational achievement and behavioral problems to lower earnings in the labor market. But few researchers have explored whether exposure to a disadvantaged background affects immigrant children and native children…

Following the ongoing increase in nonmarital fertility, policy makers have looked for ways to limit the disadvantages faced by children of unmarried mothers. Recent initiatives included marriage promotion and welfare-to-work programs. Yet policy might also consider the promotion of three generational households. We know little about whether…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996 reformed public assistance programs and reduced the safety net of supports for low-income families. Children living in low-income immigrant families face particular challenges in the current policy environment. In this article, the authors consider what these changes have meant for…

This digest, which is based on findings from a large variety of studies, reviews the known effects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 on children to date and discusses the Act's possible future effects. Federal statistics show a positive trend in poverty reduction, though other sources are not optimistic…

This policy brief describes children from "Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study," using data from the first wave of the study which involved a random-sample survey of about 2,400 low-income children and their caregivers (mainly mothers) in low-income neighborhoods. Researchers collected information from mothers on their…

This report examines how state welfare-to-work programs have affected young children since the 1996 welfare reform act, which moved millions of women into low-wage jobs. Researchers followed a sample of 948 mothers and young children for 2-4 years after the women entered new welfare programs in California, Connecticut, and Florida. After…

The issue brief describes the research base for the National Center for Children in Poverty's (NCCP's) framework to assess welfare changes from a children's perspective and points to lessons from current and past welfare-to-work evaluations. Many changes are now implemented in welfare policies due to new legislation titled the Personal…