These National Center for Children in Poverty policy briefs provide a two-generation view of current policies affecting children from birth to age eight, nationally and state-by-state, in the areas of health and nutrition, early care and education, and parenting and economic supports. The profiles are updated and expanded regularly.

A college education can provide a path out of poverty, but low-income students face many obstacles along the way. Many face difficulty selecting the best college for them, and some have trouble navigating financial aid options. While overall college graduation rates are rising, the gap between the top and bottom income groups has widened considerably over the past four decades. This article reviews research on policies that could help increase college completion for low-income students, such as interventions to increase college preparedness and providing on-campus support to help students stay on track and eventually graduate.

This webinar, hosted by the National Disability Institute, provides background information and resources on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) time limits and their effects on low-income adults with disabilities.

Compared to a few decades ago, low-income children today have better access to healthcare, fewer are born to teen mothers, fewer live in foster care, and their parents have more education. However, the circumstances and outcomes of higher-income children have advanced even more rapidly, leading to expanding inequality in the resources that boost child development. Additionally, in some ways, the circumstances of low-income children have gotten worse. This report consists of a consensus plan from researchers at the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. The plan would reduce poverty and improve opportunities for those at the lowest income levels.

The Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES) is a longitudinal study in 89 Early Head Start programs around the country. This report describes findings from the second wave of data collection for Baby FACES. Baby FACES follows two cohorts of children through their time in Early Head Start, starting in 2009. This report focuses primarily on children in the 1-year-old Cohort who were 2 years old in 2010. The report addresses Early Head Start program characteristics, services, and outcomes.

This brief from the Institute for Research on Poverty explores the crisis that poor families face in finding and maintaining affordable housing. It outlines trends that led to the current housing situation of rising costs, stagnant or falling incomes, and a shortfall of housing assistance from the Federal Government. Most poor renting families now devote over half of their income to housing costs. Additionally, eviction has become more common in low-income communities. The brief describes consequences of eviction for parents, children, and communities, as well as suggestions for policy changes.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Family Unification Program (FUP) provides low-income families in the child welfare system with housing vouchers. FUP is critical to understanding the overlap between the child welfare system and housing/homelessness, as well as how to provide housing to vulnerable families and facilitate partnerships between public housing agencies and child welfare agencies. This report highlights FUP implementation in eight sites and offers innovative practices and impacts.

This testimony before Congress, from a Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, highlights the importance of accuracy and integrity in school meal programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Each day, the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs provide meals to more than 30 million children, 72% of whom qualify for free or reduced-price meals due to their economic circumstances. WIC provides nutritious foods, counseling on healthy eating, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals to over 8 million low-income women, infants, and children at nutritional risk.

The Office of Family Assistance held a webinar on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 from 2:00-3:30 pm EST on Service Options for Relative Caregivers in Child-Only Cases. Today almost half of the national TANF caseload consists of child-only cases, where the child is the only individual in the household receiving cash assistance. In a significant portion of these cases, a relative is caring for the child. There has been limited literature, however, on the strengths, barriers and needs of these children and their relative caregivers. There has also been limited information about the supportive services they may receive through TANF or other human services programs. In this facilitated webinar, presenters provided a descriptive and demographic overview of the relative child-only caseload, as well as the policies and practices that support them. It included examples from a kinship navigator program, as well as a TANF and child welfare system collaboration initiative.

In this webinar participants were able to:

• Understand the importance and prevalence of, as well as the strengths, barriers, and outcomes related to, relative caregivers and children in TANF child-only cases.
• Hear experiences and lessons learned from a kinship navigator program that is providing supportive services to relatives and children in child-only cases.
• Learn about collaborations between TANF and Child Welfare systems to share data and provide services to relative caregivers and children.

For users interested in the transcript of the webinar, the webinar recording is closed-captioned. 

In 2011, fourteen tribes and tribal organizations received grants from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) for Coordination of Tribal TANF and Child Welfare Services to Tribal Families. These grants were designed to provide innovative and relevant approaches to coordinating services between TANF and child welfare systems. This report from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation summarizes the grantees’ experiences with direct services and interagency coordination thus far. One key finding was that most grantees reported challenges in staffing, engaging project partners, and retaining the highest-risk families. However, all of the grantees reported progress toward their goals.