Nearly all governors have designated a state early childhood advisory council to advise policymakers in the state on how to best meet the needs of children from birth to school entry. Early childhood advisory councils in the states vary in their structure and scope, but all of them provide recommendations on improving the quality, availability,…

Quality improvement centers were created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Children's Bureau beginning in 2001 to promote knowledge development through an innovative approach to applied collaborative research in child welfare. The National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services was funded to…

Asserting that President Bush's proposal to shift responsibility for Head Start to the states would allow the federal government to abandon its promise to truly give children a head start, this report, with accompanying executive summary, outlines what is known about children receiving Head Start services and how the program addresses their needs.…

This document describes current and recently completed projects at the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children, an interdisciplinary research body which considers the needs of children and ways to meet those needs through public policy. The descriptions of current funded projects are divided into three sections: (1) "Exploring…

This book is a description of a three-year project to develop and sustain a network of very diverse people who could mutually contribute to each other's resource needs through ideas and resource exchange. People from schools, colleges, and universities, and public and private agencies joined together to form the Essex Network for two major…

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) became involved in the problem of homelessness through the establishment of the Search for Shelter program, a collaboration with several other architectural organizations. The program, led by the AIA Housing Committee, sought solutions to the housing crisis through a series of workshops held around the…

The first of a 3-volume series describing the 17 Early Head Start (EHS) programs in fall 1997, this report discusses the main features of the research programs and identifies the key challenges and successes they experienced during their first year of serving families. Chapter 1 of the report discusses the historical and national context of the…

This report describes the response of the American Institute of Architects' Housing Committee to the homeless crisis in the United States. Based on information shared at two conferences held by the Committee in 1985, this publication examines the question of how to provide secure, dignified shelter for those with little financial resources. It…

The final report of a 3-year child abuse project (PFL-Panel for Family Living) cites progress in goal areas and includes papers presented at regional and local seminars. Provided are reports on the following topics: child abuse in non-white communities in Pierce County (Washington); PFL client characteristics and service provision; a parent…

As Congress is scheduled to reauthorize the entire Head Start program in 2003, it is important to understand more about Early Head Start and the children and families the program serves. This policy brief, third in a series analyzing Head Start Program Information Report (PIR) data, synthesizes Early Head Start data from the most recently…

This collection describes over 340 projects in which the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) has played a role in the past two years. The CURA offers a program of research and outreach on urban problems, which brings the resources of the university to bear on the problems of urban communities.…

In order to create a base of information about early childhood and related services that would be useful to chief state school officers and other education policymakers, the Study Commission of the Council of Chief State School Officers developed and distributed a questionnaire to its members. The commission's aim was to collect information on the…

To learn what happens to children and families who come into contact with the child welfare system, the Children's Bureau of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families has undertaken the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). As part of this longitudinal study of the characteristics, needs, experiences, and outcomes…

This document contains 16 issues of the first 5 years of a newsletter encouraging collaborative research and informed policy on welfare reform and focusing on the use of an on-line database of child welfare research projects, as well as research and policy issues related to implementation studies, indicators of well-being, and administrative data.…

The federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) has launched a five-year initiative that will support state efforts to build comprehensive early childhood service systems. This initiative--the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative--provides planning and implementation grants to the state and territory Maternal and…