This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief examines the well-being of adolescents who had recently experienced homelessness with their families. The brief uses data from the Family Options Study to explore the housing situations, academic development, and social development of these teens.

Recent studies have begun to show that inhibited brain development and functioning in children raised in poverty may be an important explanatory factor behind the relationship often seen between growing up in poverty and lower educational attainment. This brief from the Institute for Research on Poverty summarizes an April 2016 workshop, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers in the area of poverty and developmental neuroscience discussed the current status of the research and how it can be appropriately and effectively used to inform public policy.

Youth summer jobs programs have experienced a resurgence of interest and investment since the Great Recession, driven by concerns about high unemployment rates among young people, particularly those who are low-income, black, or Hispanic. Recent research points to summer jobs programs as a positive lever for change that can reduce violence, incarceration, and mortality, and improve academic outcomes; but the research has not yet linked summer jobs programs to improved employment outcomes. On July 14, 2016, the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program hosted an event that explored core elements associated with high-performing programs and offered recommendations to strengthen summer jobs programs. The Brookings website includes resources from that event.

Practitioners and policymakers can use this database from Youth.gov to find information and resources about relevant federal programs, evidence-based and promising practices, and a range of support services for young parents and children experiencing homelessness. The topics covered include behavioral health (mental health and substance use), early childhood and parenting supports, and a review of relevant home visiting research. The database also provides links to webinars relevant for serving this population on topics such as engaging young fathers, integrating early childhood home visiting and homelessness systems, and access to health care for pregnant and parenting youth.

These video presentations, released by the Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, provide overviews and key highlights of a variety of topics related to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. They have been released in anticipation of future webinars on WIOA. Topics include the WIOA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Performance Accountability System, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, and more.

The TANF work participation rates for fiscal year (FY) 2014 have been released and posted on the OFA website. Nationwide, the overall work participation rate increased from 33.5 percent to 36.6 percent, and fewer states failed the work requirement in FY 2014 than in FY 2013. The national average overall rate for FY 2014 is 36.6 percent, up from 33.5 percent in FY 2013, while the two-parent rate is 30.8 percent, two percentage points lower than FY 2013’s 32.9 percent.