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Indiscriminate enforcement and worksite raids, a revival of anti-immigrant activity at the state level, and the undermining of our legal immigration system are all putting nearly 6 million U.S. citizen children at risk of separation from their families. And many of these children are Latino. Beyond the "Border: Family Separation in the Trump Era" outlines the harm to children, families, and communities caused by these policies in the areas of education, health and mental health, public safety and economic opportunity. It is a plight that affects not just Latinos or immigrants. It's having an impact on our entire country's future and long-term vitality.

We study the links between family configuration and formation on the one hand and adult literacy skills on the other by analysing data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), a survey of 250,000 people aged 16 to 65 conducted by the OECD in 33 countries and economies. Literacy proficiency has an effect on many aspects of the formation and development of families, such as age of parents at birth of first child, or age of partners at cohabitation, even when educational attainment and age are taken into account. Moreover, having children and living with a partner have consequences for adults' job opportunities and participation in the labour market, which can be particularly negative for the women with the highest literacy proficiency.

Our paper examines the prevalence and determinants of children's transitions into and out of food insecurity since 2001. We use longitudinally linked data from the Food Security Supplements to the Current Population Surveys to estimate one-year transition probabilities of entry and exit from food insecurity. Our results indicate that child hunger is typically short-lived, but children experiencing very low food security frequently experience multiple consecutive years of food insecurity. We demonstrate large demographic and socioeconomic differences in rates of entry into very low food security and persistence in children's food insecurity. Income and employment shocks are important predictors of child hunger transitions. Finally, we find that the Great Recession increased the likelihood that children entered into and persisted in food insecurity among children.

We conducted a survey covering 20% of villages with 200-1000 population in rural Guinea-Bissau. We interviewed household heads, care-givers of children, and their teachers and schools. We analysed results from 9,947 children, aged 7-17, tested for literacy and numeracy competency. Only 27% of children were able to add two single digits, and just 19% were able to read and comprehend a simple word. Our unannounced school checks found 72% of enrolled children in grades 1-4 attending their schools, but the schools were poorly equipped. Teachers were present at 86% of schools visited. Despite surveying 351 schools, we found no examples of successful schools where children reached reasonable levels of literacy and numeracy for age. Our evidence suggests that interventions that raise school quality in these villages, rather than those which target enrolment, may be most important to generate very sharp improvements in children's educational outcomes. [Additional financial support for this research was provided by Effective Intervention, a UK charity.]

This paper exploits a source of variation in the eligibility for federal nutrition programs to identify the program effects on food insecurity. Children are eligible for the WIC [Women, Infants and Children] program until the day before they turn 61 months old. The result is an age discontinuity in program participation at the 61-month cutoff. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth-cohort dataset, we find strong evidence of a sizeable increase in household food insecurity at the 61-month cutoff. Our findings are robust to different model specifications, datasets, and various bandwidth choices using various non-parametric estimations. A section on data sources is appended.

This paper provides an overview of trends in physical health outcomes of young people over the last several decades. It makes the argument for the importance of physical health and well-being for the individual and society, including its role in education outcomes. The paper then examines interventions, identifying common factors of effective intervention design to improve physical health among young people. It ends with a discussion of remaining gaps in our knowledge and the implications of this body of research on education, communities and families.

This paper focuses on children with a migration background and conceptualises their migration experience as adversity. The paper adapts the resilience framework to understand how immigrant children can overcome adversity. The paper discusses policy models that can be derived from adopting a resilience approach to the measurement of immigrant students' integration prospects and proposes a policy analysis framework. The "CHARM" framework helps to assess the extent to which destination country policies and practices support the educational and socioemotional well-being of immigrant children. Namely, it evaluates whether policies to consider (1) Cumulative adversity; adopt a (2) Holistic approach; consider (3) Adjustment as a dynamic process; identify a (4) Relational development; and implement a (5) Multilevel approach. The paper finally applies the CHARM framework to the education policies of Ontario, Canada and underscores the relevance of applying the CHARM framework across countries and jurisdictions to evaluate education policies that can promote the resilience of immigrant children.

Using data linked across generations in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I estimate the relationship between exposure to volatile income during childhood and a set of socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. The empirical framework is an augmented intergenerational income mobility model that includes controls for income volatility. I measure income volatility at the family level in two ways. First, instability as measured by squared deviations around a family-specific mean, and then as percent changes of 25 percent or more. Volatility enters the model both separately and interacted with income level. I find that family income instability during childhood has a small, positive association with high school dropout--one which appears driven by volatility among children from lower income households. Evidence suggests that volatility exposure generally has a minimal impact on intergenerational outcomes relative to permanent income.

Rates of food insecurity in households with children have significantly increased over the past decade. The majority of children, including those at risk for food insecurity, participate in some form of non-parental child care during the preschool years. To evaluate the relationship between the two phenomenon, this study investigates the effects of child care arrangements on food insecurity in households with children. To address the selection bias problem that arises from the fact that enrollment in different types of child care is not a random process, this study uses propensity scores techniques. The authors compare outcomes across five child care arrangement patterns: no non-parental care (i.e., exclusive parent care), relative care, non-relative care, center care, and Head Start. Our results demonstrate that for low income preschoolers, compared to no non-parental care, attending a child care center reduces the probability of both food insecurity and very low food security, relative care reduces the probability of food insecurity, and non-relative care increases the probability of very low food security.

This paper addresses the issue of how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to commercial and other private sector Web sites. Beginning with a brief discussion of the role electronic communication plays in our lives, the paper then considers the placement of the ADA in the context of current technology and of computer usage in the country. The paper next analyzes the legal background to the ADA and Internet access issues, pointing out authorities and scholarship on both sides of the question. The paper goes on to identify the narrow legal issues, bearing most upon the definition of the word "place" in Title III of the ADA. It analyzes the meaning and application of this term, in light of the ADA's legislative history, its plain meaning, and court decisions applying this term in nontechnology-based settings. The paper concludes that the law does clearly contemplate the coverage of the Internet by Title III of the ADA. Finally, the paper explains the practical and economic arguments that should guide those implementing the law, suggesting strategies by which the accessibility principle can be broadly implemented without disruption and with benefit to consumers and businesses alike. (Contains 87 references.) (DB)

The most recent figures place the number of juvenile arrests in the United States at 2.11 million. (OJJDP, 2009). In some states, children as young as 10 years old are incarcerated for violent offenses. Crowded juvenile facilities are often unable to meet the needs of these large numbers of youth. The cost to treat offenders within long-term residential facilities is expensive. States spend anywhere from $4 million (in smaller states like Hawaii) to $450 million in larger states such as California on their annual juvenile corrections budget (freelibrary.com, 2010). Locked confinement in a state juvenile correction institution can run in excess of $60,000 annually (Tyler, Ziedenberg, and Lotke, 2006). As an alternative to incarceration for adjudicated youth, several forms of adventure therapy programming have been used. Most of these programs were developed around the premise that the structure of the adventure experience and associated facilitation could produce beneficial changes more effectively than time spent within a locked treatment facility. Just as the type of adventure therapy programs are mixed, so are the outcome research findings associated with juvenile delinquency. Several studies criticize adventure therapy with adjudicated youth for having insignificant or no lasting evidence of effectiveness, including Aos, Miller, and Drake (2006), Brown, Borduin, and Henggeler, (2001), Moote and Wodarski (1997), and Wilson and Lipsey (2000). As recognized in these studies, the key to unlocking the understanding of what is an effective adventure therapy program for juvenile delinquents is the inclusion of certain critical elements. Gass (1993), and more recently in Gillis and Gass (2010), identified seven key factors that seem to predominate the treatment elements of successful programs. These seven elements include treatment: (1) enhanced through action-oriented experiences, (2) centered on the use of unfamiliar client environments, (3) producing a climate of functional change through the positive use of stress, (4) highly informed with client assessment, (5) conducted in a small group, supportive atmosphere, (6) focused on solution oriented principles and techniques, and (7) that changed the role of therapist to remain more "mobile" to actively design and frame interventions.

This report looks at the development and socialisation of children under 5 years of age in two Caribbean countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica. It involved fieldwork in four very different communities as well as extensive discussion with academics and professionals. Too little is known about child socialisation in the Caribbean, and this research, the authors believe, breaks new ground. It shows that although most children are loved and cared for, the lives of many are scarred by poverty. The two countries the authors worked in are by no means the poorest in the developing world. But they both have substantial poor populations. Poor families are offered only the most basic help by the state. Child-rearing in the communities they studied remains highly traditional. Corporal punishment is common and children are often ignored, shouted at or belittled. Both countries have signed up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and their laws and policies pay attention to it. But the day-to-day lives of children have changed little. This applies particularly to children living in poverty, with a disability or with some other form of disadvantage. But the picture is not one of unrelieved gloom. Child-rearing in the region does seem to be getting less regimented and more caring, and there is a growing realisation that the first few years of a child's life are vital to his or her social as well as intellectual and physical development. However, many of the people they met said that Caribbean communities are less supportive than in the past. This means that children are cared for increasingly by their mothers. Despite stereotypes of extended Caribbean families, many mothers are not involved in a wide network of female support. The feeling is that families are drawing in on themselves because of cultural change, including more television watching, and the fear of crime, especially from gangs of drug-fuelled young men. A bibliography is included. (Contains 1 footnote.) [This paper was written with Martin Ince.

Using data from the 2000 Census, this study examines the relationship between household living arrangements and economic resources among Mexican immigrant families with children. I model separately the relationships between family income and household structure and proportion of total household income contributed and household structure. The results show that families that coreside with extended kin and non-kin have higher incomes, all else equal, relative to those that reside in single-family households. In addition, Mexican immigrant families that reside in extended-household living arrangements contribute about three quarters of total household income. While families may gain some economic efficiency through extended household living arrangements, the results are consistent with expectations that Mexican immigrant families expend scarce resources in support of the migration and settlement of extended kin. The Mexican delayed assimilation thesis suggests such support inadvertently diverts resources away from immigrant children and slows intergenerational progress. (Contains 2 footnotes and 3 tables.)

Within the last 50 years, the work-family-household arrangements upon which social policy systems in industrial nations were formulated have disappeared. This briefing paper examines how social policies of the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, and France have responded. The paper is presented in two major sections. The first section describes family policies in each country concerning parental leave, child benefits/family allowances, child care, marriage/cohabitation, and divorce. The second section discusses the mixed effects of maternity leave on womens employment, the lack of a relationship between fertility and maternity leave and fertility and cash benefits, and factors that complicate the relationship between countries' social spending and child poverty. Job-protected maternity leave is described as the most basic entitlement reflecting public acknowledgment of the economic necessity of working motherhood. Analyses suggest that fertility rates do not seem responsive to cash benefits or other policies, such as extended maternity leave, that function as wages for motherhood. In countries where child care provisions are not widely available, lengthy paid leaves have the effect of bringing women into the home for long periods of time. The most important role of cash benefits is to reduce child poverty, as illustrated by patterns in the U.S., France, and Germany. The paper concludes by asserting that Western European nations family policy can be divided into two types, one in which the social welfare system provides a comprehensive array of universal family benefits and services, and the other in which benefits are nonuniversal and accompanied by higher child poverty rates. The United States fits neither of the European patterns and is characterized by several contradictions contributing to the lack of political support for families. (Contains 98 references.) (KB)

This paper examines risk factors that exist in the lives of incarcerated parents and their children, focusing on the living arrangements of the children. It uses data from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities to address three issues: risk factors present in the lives of incarcerated parents and their children, how children in some living arrangements might be more vulnerable than others, and whether these risk factors predict where a child is placed during the parent's incarceration. The paper begins by reviewing the literature on the effects of parental incarceration on children, then discusses how substitute care arrangements relate to child outcomes. Study results indicate that there are many risk factors in the lives of incarcerated parents and their children. Children are increasingly likely to be placed with someone other than a parent, and are particularly likely to be placed in foster or agency care, as the number of risk factors rises. For both mothers and fathers, four risk factors significantly relate to child placement in foster care or an agency (history of physical or sexual abuse, less than a 12th grade education, and welfare benefit receipt). History of mental health problems is not a significant factor. Some gender and racial differences are present. (Contains 92 references and 6 tables.) (SM)

The concept of social exclusion has been widely debated in Europe, though there has been little discussion of its application to children. This paper examines what is meant by exclusion of children, considering the choice of reference group, the geographical dimensions of exclusion, and the issue of who is responsible for any exclusion of children. It looks at social exclusion in the United Kingdom and in the European Union, then it goes on to discuss the use of the concept of exclusion in the United States, where in contrast to Europe, it has achieved little penetration to date. To assess whether there are grounds for discussion of social exclusion as it relates to children in the United States, the paper focuses on various features of U.S. society and institutions, including the measurement of poverty, analysis of children's living standards, state versus federal responsibilities, welfare reform, the emphasis on personal responsibility, and politics and the economy. (Contains 58 references.) (SM)

In the 1996 and 1997 Massachusetts legislative sessions, several of Boston's key business leaders became active child advocates in alliance with more traditional advocates and other civic leaders, convincing public policymakers to create and fund several initiatives benefiting children. This working paper presents reflections on successful legislative advocacy for children and describes the advocacy strategy development and implementation. Section 1 of the paper presents reflections in the following areas: (1) why business leaders make a positive difference in child advocacy; (2) what convinces business leaders to become legislative child advocates; (3) recruiting business leaders to be "messengers" for children; (4) where advocates can find business leaders; (5) how advocates can work effectively with business leaders; (6) what strategies work best for advocates in such an alliance; and (7) the number of business leaders needed and the necessary conditions for sustaining involvement. Section 2, presented as a case study, describes the United Way's role in developing a strategy for enrolling business leaders as advocates for the "Success By 6" initiative to support preventive approaches to improve the lives of young children and their families. Other areas discussed include developing a role for business leaders, deciding what issues to support, training business leaders for legislative advocacy, and examining business leaders' actions as advocates. Included throughout this section are quotations from interviews with 27 business leaders and others involved with the initiative, descriptions of key findings on effective child advocacy, the "Success By 6" public awareness campaign, and descriptions of state legislation. (KB)

We examine how changes in maternal work hours affect adolescent children's school participation and performance outcomes using data from interviews in 1998 and 2001 with 1,700 women who in May 1995 were welfare-reliant, single mothers of adolescents living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in four urban counties. We find unfavorable effects of maternal work hours on several aspects of adolescents' schooling: Full-time maternal employment (31 hours or more per week) increases the likelihood of skipping school, decreases school performance, and increases the likelihood of parent contact by a school about behavior problems. Sons seem to be particularly sensitive to changes in mothers' average hours of work, with notable increases in incidences of being late for school and declines in school performance when mothers work more hours. These findings hold up controlling for a rich array of mothers' characteristics, including their psychological and physical health and experiences with domestic violence and substance. Appended are: (1) Criteria to be Eligible for Cross-Sectional Analysis Sample; and (2) Comparison of Means for Wave 2 Analysis Sample and Children Excluded from Sample. (Contains 7 tables and 8 footnotes.)

There is growing acknowledgement that optimal early childhood development is crucial not only for health, well-being, and competence but also for society at large. This second paper in a series focuses on the period from birth to age 6 and draws on research from Canada and other countries to address several questions of children's development, including the following: (1) What are the known threats to young children's optimal development?; (2) Which types of targeted programs promote the development of vulnerable children and under what circumstances?; and (3) To what extend is the current approach to targeting early childhood programs consistent with what we know about what is required to promote young children's development? The paper discusses research evidence from evaluations of three categories of programs intended to promote development of at-risk children: child-focused programs, parent-focused programs, and two-generation programs. The research evidence examined clearly demonstrates that the most effective way of enhancing the development of at-risk children is through center-based, group programs. The research evidence shows that the development of at-risk children is not promoted by programs that are solely parent-focused or by two-generation programs. Following an executive summary, the paper's chapters are: (1) "Supporting the Development of Canada's Children; (2) "Identification of Vulnerable Children"; (3) "Targeted Child-Focused Programs"; (4) "Targeted Parent-Focused Programs"; (5) "Two-Generation Programs"; (6) "Universal Programs"; and (7) "Policy Implications." (Contains 232 references.) (HTH)

This paper reviews research on processes linking low incomes, deprived neighborhoods, and adverse outcomes for British children, identifying gaps and limitations in existing datasets and research strategies. Four domains are examined: education, health and psychological outcomes, crime and related behavior, and items linked to transitioning to adult life (e.g., unemployment, homelessness, and early family formation). The paper describes the basic model, which identifies household resources, particularly income, and distinguishes between transmissions and processes broadly within the family and individual sphere. It then examines possible data requirements and mechanisms in more detail, evaluating how far the available data sources include the appropriate data. After discussing neighborhood effects and data on service quality, the paper explores the technical questions of data linkage and ethical and legal constraints. It concludes that there is not one study that encompasses all that would be needed to chart and explain the relationship between poverty in childhood and the major outcomes in the short and medium term, though with the increasing sophistication of research measurement, studies demonstrate state-of-the-art data collection. Recommendations for future research are noted. Three appendices present information on modeling individual effects, the dataset, and modeling neighborhood effects. (Contains 67 references.) (SM)

The dramatic decline in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseloads in the 1990s has focused attention on the process of exit from, and, to a lesser extent, entry into, the welfare system. This paper charts the process of turnover in the TANF program in three major U.S. cities over an 18-month, post-PWORA period and documents its income, employment, other-program participation, and demographic correlates. The results show a high rate of turnover and significant increases in employment among all groups--stayers, leavers, and those never on welfare. The findings also indicate that the income gain from leaving welfare is modest, on the order of 11 to 18 percent, for the losses of benefits attendant upon leaving largely cancel out the earnings gains. Because of low benefit reduction rates, staying on welfare and working results in higher income than leaving for many families. Finally, the data suggest that caseload declines may have been as much the result of work and other requirements, and diversion policies, as the financial gain from leaving or entering welfare. A description of the Three-City Study is appended. (Author/SM)

The experience of long-term poverty affects many child outcomes, in part through a family stress process in which poverty is considered to be one of the major factors causing family dysfunction, depression among caregivers and inadequate parenting. Recent scholarship extends the classical Family Stress Model by researching the ways in which neighbourhood contexts might mediate or modify these relationships. Neighbourhoods vary from the affluent to the economically deprived and since the long-term poor rarely live in well-off neighbourhoods, measures of neighbourhood disadvantage add little to family poverty in the prediction of child health and behaviour problems. But neighbourhoods also differ in the degree to which they are socially organized, cohesive and supportive to the enterprise of raising children. Sociologists refer to this as the "social capital" of neighbourhoods and propose that such social capital may ameliorate the effects of poverty and help parents raise children to achieve their full potential. This study reports the construction of measures related to social capital (Collective Efficacy and Social Support) at the neighbourhood, rather than the individual level, and the use of these along with a battery of census characteristics and other explanatory variables in the prediction of outcomes for longitudinal children aged 4 to 15 in the NLSCY [National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth]. The authors used statistical modeling to study the impact of higher or lower amounts of social capital in a national sample and in a smaller sample of some 200 neighbourhoods (as defined by census enumeration areas). The results support some aspects of an expanded family stress theory in that the effects of long-term poverty upon child outcomes are mediated, but also moderated by neighbourhood social capital, and by family "burnout" (dysfunction and parental depression). The study confirms previous research showing that certain parenting styles are strongly associated with children's health and behaviour problems, and that neighbourhoods account for small but significant proportions of the variation in child outcomes. An innovative result is that the degree to which long-term poverty impacts child outcomes varies according to the characteristics of neighbourhoods. The authors caution that their study cannot provide national estimates of the impact of neighbourhood social capital on child outcomes. A bibliography is included. (Contains 3 figures, 12 tables, and 30 footnotes.) [This paper is available in French under the title: "La pauvrete, le capital social, les competences parentales et les resultats des enfants au Canada."

"Medicaid undercount" occurs when the number of people enrolled in exceeds the number estimated to be eligible for the program. One hypothesis proposed for this phenomenon has been inadequacies in the estimation of the number eligible for benefits, including health insurance status reporting error. This paper presents a methodology for calculating the number of Medicaid-eligible children by combining multiple sources of data, using as a case study Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The analysis includes adjustments for undercount and uncertainty about the population size and income distribution. It finds that for most age categories and income levels, the number of children enrolled exceeds the estimated eligible population. It discusses three possible explanations for this apparent over-enrollment and speculates on the likelihood of severe census undercount of America's poorest children. (Contains 44 references.) (SM)

To provide a baseline for assessing how welfare reform affects child welfare agencies, this paper reviews the challenges that state child welfare systems face, and how states respond to these challenges. Information in this paper is based on studies of the 13 focus states included in the Urban Institute's New Federalism project. In each state, Urban Institute staff interviewed state and local child welfare administrators and front-line staff, legislators, interest groups, and state-based researchers. Site visits were also conducted. The first section of the paper documents the challenges child welfare agencies were facing when the welfare reform legislation passed, and the second section describes the intense scrutiny focused on child welfare systems. The third section describes how states have responded to both the challenges and the scrutiny, and the fourth section assesses the potential implications of welfare reform for child welfare. The final section discusses implications of the report's findings, especially as they relate to welfare reform implementations. (Contains 14 end notes and 75 references.) (SLD)

This White Paper on child care is the second of four to be published by the Action Alliance for Virginia's Children, and focuses on the affordability and availability of quality child care in Virginia. The paper states that despite federal attempts to simplify funding, funding remains complicated due to differences in the federal and state fiscal years and multiple programs administered through multiple departments. The paper asserts that public funding must supplement parent fees and that diversified funding is needed. The fragmented, uncoordinated child care system compounds funding problems, with concomitant problems in values and increasingly complex funding streams and policies. There is a shortage of care, particularly quality care, care at nontraditional hours, care for infants and school-age children, and care for children who are ill or who have special needs. Topics addressed by the paper include: (1) the affordability of child care; (2) the funding problems created by a fragmented, uncoordinated child care system; (3) the availability of child care, including care at times required by parents' schedules, infant and school age care, sick child care, accessibility to public transportation, and time delays; and (4) funding sources for child care, including parent fees, the Child Care and Development Fund, and smaller government programs. The paper concludes with recommendations for child care advocates to lobby for more dollars to be well spent, to insist that spending be based on the best information available, and to work persistently for a coordinated, systematic approach to child care in Virginia. (KB)

Over recent years, there has been an explosion in the collection of state and local level child and youth indicator data by federal statistical agencies and in the dissemination of those data through agency Web sites. This paper reviews these resources and provides information needed to access the data. Data sources are presented in five topical areas: economics and demographics (e.g., decennial Census and Census 2000 Supplementary Survey); health (vital statistics, disease surveillance systems, and health surveys); education (e.g., Common Core of Data and Schools and Staffing Survey); crime and juvenile justice (e.g., Easy Access System and Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook); and child welfare (National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System). Each section begins with an overview of what is available, including descriptions of data portholes that agencies have developed to facilitate access to data, and descriptions of individual data resources, including surveys, administrative data sets, and publications available on agency Web sites. Internet addresses to those resources are provided. Selected nonfederal sources are also briefly covered. An appendix presents a summary listing of federal Web sites containing indicator data on children and youth. (SM)

This paper examines trends in federal spending on children, assessing changes in spending between 1960-97 and classifying federal programs within eight budget categories: tax credits and exemptions (including the Earned Income Tax Credit and dependent exemption); income security (including Aid to Families with Dependent Children); nutrition (including Food Stamps); health (including Medicaid); education; housing; social services; and training. Federal spending on children grew 246 percent, from $48.6 billion to $168.5 billion, while the number of children grew just 9.7 percent. In terms of gross domestic product, this growth in spending is just 11 percent. Federal spending on poor children increased 23-fold. Until recently, programs that put money into parents' pockets lost ground to targeted, in-kind spending. The dependent exemption declined from 65 percent of all federal spending on children to 16 percent. Three new programs account for half of the increase in total spending on children (Earned Income Credit, Medicaid, and Food Stamps). Nutrition and health programs rank third and fourth among categories of spending on children. Federal education funds shifted from targeting children of military or government personnel toward targeting disadvantaged children. Spending on children increasingly shifted from broad-based middle class relief to programs designed for the poor. (SM)

In recent years, the belief that marriage bestows large economic gains has generated enthusiasm for policy proposals that encourage the formation and continuation of two-parent families. This study examined the effects of family structure on economic resources, controlling for unobservable family background characteristics. Data were drawn from the 1968 through 1993 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal survey conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The present analysis was based on a sample of children born into two-parent families, used to estimate the effects of divorce, and a second sample of children born into single-parent families, used estimate losses associated with being born out-of-wedlock. Findings indicated that family structure has a significant impact on the economic status of families with children. In the long run, family income of children who parents divorce and remain divorced for at least 6 years falls by 45 percent, and food consumption is reduced by 16 percent. Among the less-studied population of children born to single parents, there is no evidence of an increase in food consumption, but those whose parents marry and remain married for at least 6 years experience income gains of around 70 percent. The more modest effects of living with a single parent on food consumption suggest that children's access to essentials may be somewhat better protected than income estimates indicate. While these estimated effects are large, it is important to note that: because estimates are based on variation within the same families over time, they are substantially smaller than estimates based on cross-national comparisons of different types of families; the estimated changes do not apply to the typical child who experiences a parental divorce at a point in time, but rather to those whose parents are currently divorced; and while the estimate that single-parent families have substantially lower incomes than they would if a second parent were in the household, these income losses do not necessarily translate into a decline in children's resources. (Contains 38 references.) (HTH)

This study examined the enrollment process for the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the outcomes of that process. Data were collected during spring and summer of 2000 through telephone interviews with state program officials from eight states selected based on a variety of demographic and programmatic variables; the states were Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and North Carolina. States had a difficult time producing outcome data and varied considerably in data collection and reporting practices. The major findings include the following: (1) states have implemented many similar strategies for simplifying the SCHIP enrollment process, but simplifications to Medicaid policies and procedures are less extensive; (2) inconsistencies between SCHIP and Medicaid eligibility rules and requirements made enrollment more difficult and confusing for families; (3) in most states, less than half of applicants were approved for SCHIP eligibility, with a large proportion referred to Medicaid; (4) large proportions of SCHIP applications were denied for procedural reasons; (5) SCHIP programs ask families about existing health insurance coverage as part of the application process, and deny coverage to families covered by other insurance; and (6) state SCHIP and Medicaid data systems are highly variable in their capacity to report eligibility outcome data. Implications of these findings for future policy include the need to ensure that appropriate referrals for Medicaid translate into approvals for Medicaid, to consider available alternatives for reducing the number of children denied coverage for procedural reasons or incomplete submissions, to monitor the relationships between public and private health coverage, and to improve states administrative data systems. (A discussion of the limitations of state data systems is appended. Contains 13 references.) (KB)

This study examined states efforts to retain children in their State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Data were obtained during spring and summer of 2000 through telephone interviews with state program officials from eight states selected based on a variety of demographic and programmatic variables; the states were Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and North Carolina. The major findings include the following: (1) states procedures for conducting SCHIP eligibility redetermination were quite similar to one another, but had not been simplified to the same level as initial enrollment processes; (2) less than half of enrolled children retained SCHIP eligibility at redetermination; (3) high rates of parents who do not respond to renewal notices nor submit renewal applications for their children may be cause for concern; (4) denial of eligibility for failure to pay premiums did not provide information on premium affordability because the denial code reflected several possible outcomes; and (5) state SCHIP and Medicaid data systems were highly variable in their capacity to report eligibility and redetermination outcome data. Implications of findings for future policy include the need to simplify eligibility redetermination procedures, to monitor the dynamics of families with children enrolled in SCHIP, to make renewal notices more user-friendly, and to improve states administrative data systems. It was concluded that if states are to make informed improvements in their eligibility renewal policies, they need either to invest in improving administrative data systems, or to periodically conduct research to understand better what happens to children once they lose their SCHIP eligibility. (Contains 11 endnotes and 9 references.) (KB)