This Child Trends two-brief series highlights information on access to care for homeless children and families. The first brief, Facilitating Access to Early Care and Education for Children Experiencing Homelessness, covers barriers to accessing early care and education among families experiencing homelessness and how states and communities can increase early care and education enrollment of children experiencing homelessness. The second brief, Leveraging Data to Identify Children Experiencing Homelessness, points to the challenges that states and communities encounter when using data to identify children experiencing homelessness who need early care and education.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration will host a webinar on June 10, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. This second webinar in a series will continue discussing WIOA performance and reporting requirements and will share information about technical assistance resources and tools. Presenters will cover technical assistance resource development, how and when local and state staff and board members would find these resources helpful with performance accountability, and where the resources are published.

This factsheet summarizes a report from the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation on the access to internet services for low-income families, as well as differences in access by demographic characteristic and geography. Charts illustrate: Fastest Household Internet Connection by Percent of People by Poverty Status, Household Internet Access by Geographical Location and Poverty (broken down by metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan areas), Household Internet Access by Age and Poverty Status, and Percentage by State of Low-Income People that Have No Internet Access.

This checklist prepared by the American Psychological Association identifies areas for psychological counselors to consider concerning technology and a virtual office environment to utilize with their patients. Several of these considerations could be incorporated for line staff as they work with TANF participants in a virtual capacity.

This report presents findings of 160 frontline staff and managers in the workforce systems of seven states and summarizes three virtual roundtable discussions with 31 participants who received workforce services. The report identifies where “second responders” or workforce development professionals in the field adapted to a virtual environment, as well as concerns for providing workforce services over the long haul when staff have limited knowledge or training in virtual technology.

This letter from the Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau provides program instruction and announces changes to allow videoconferencing for monthly caseworker visits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter also identifies changes in the Child and Family Services Review Program Improvement Plans, Title IV-E Eligibility Reviews, flexibility for conducting child abuse and neglect investigations by state and local child protective services agencies, and other legislative and regulatory flexibilities.

This report overviews the goals and structure of the Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF), which offers funding support to states and tribes to improve the health, educational, economic, and social outcomes of expectant and parenting teens and young adults, their children, and their families. The report also examines the participants and communities that the PAF serves and its services, provides data on the program’s reach and success, and identifies lessons learned from PAF grantees on how to enhance services to produce the best outcomes for participants.

This tip sheet from Child Trends identifies strategies to assist front-line staff and their managers who support clients remotely. The tip sheet is organized into three areas where administrators might experience the greatest challenges in a virtual work environment: supervision and support of line staff, client communication and service provision, and community collaboration and resource sharing among colleagues.

The Children’s Bureau and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation convened an expert meeting on March 28, 2019 to discuss self-regulation and how the child welfare system can address youth development in foster care and youth transitioning into adulthood. The meeting’s purpose was to describe self-regulation, identify knowledge gaps, and point to learning opportunities. The meeting and summary report complement earlier work on toxic stress that the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has conducted.