This Child Trends blog post reflects on the results of 11 state initiatives to increase retention among early care and education (ECE) providers. These initiatives, reflecting 16 programs, are intended to increase pay among ECE staff as frequent turnover has been associated with negative outcomes for the children served. Beyond increased wages and bonuses, some state initiatives require ECE providers to participate in career lattice programs to streamline application processes.

This updated and expanded report from the Congressional Research Service provides a summary of TANF block grant information and addresses frequently asked questions. The report covers TANF funding and expenditures, TANF caseload data, level of TANF cash benefits, and TANF work participation standards.

This blog post from Child Trends presents findings from a recent Early Childhood Data Collaborative survey, which noted that 22 states have created data sharing systems to measure the utilization and outcomes of early childhood services. However, this study also suggested that most states have not yet included home visiting data in their integrated systems due to challenges in linking data across a range of home visiting programs with varying data collection requirements and data storage capacity.

In this article issued by the Institute for Research on Poverty, discussion highlights the effects of paid leave on mothers’ post-birth employment and on child well-being. Policies, such as work requirements, time limits, and child care subsidies, are effective levers for increasing employment. Yet this research also suggests that any assessments of these policies must consider not only benefits of increased maternal employment, but also the potential costs associated with reduced child well-being.

While much attention is given to healthy family care of children, non-parental care is talked about far less. This October 16 webinar from the Annie E. Casey Foundation will be directed toward kin caregivers and professionals who work with kin caregivers. Presenters will focus on the ways in which kinship care can be different from nonrelative care and on helping relatives navigate children’s emotions around their parents in a healthy way. For more information on Annie E. Casey Foundation resources for kinship families and professionals, visit the webinar registration page or the foundation’s website.

In response to several proposed federal changes to safety net program requirements, the Urban Institute developed a Well Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) and published a report on the status of individual and family health and well-being. The data serves as a baseline against which to measure deviations as a result of potential policy change. Despite a low unemployment rate and growing labor market, the first round of WBNS data from 2017 shows that nearly 40 percent of adults had trouble meeting at least one basic need, a number which may increase due to proposed safety net changes. Hispanic, black, female, young, ill, and less educated demographics are the most likely to face hardships. The survey will continue to measure potential effects of policy changes and highlight areas of programmatic need.

In 2009, Washington, D.C. began offering two years of full-day public preschool, citing literature on better school performance and higher parental work hours that come with preschool enrollment. This report from American Progress studies the effects of D.C.’s program on maternal labor force participation (LFP) and finds that the program caused a 10-percentage point increase in maternal LFP, as well as a large increase in employment. The effects come mainly from low- and high-income women, since LFP for middle-income families remained the same. Overall, the researchers conclude that universal full-day preschool positively affects maternal labor supply and suggests that the United States should consider expanding child care for all.

This interactive tool provided by the National Center for Children in Poverty allows users to identify current legislation and policies across states regarding these following key policy areas and others: child care and development fund subsidies, family and medical leave, SNAP eligibility, Medicaid income limits, and TANF eligibility criteria. The tracker enables policy and decision makers to learn about policies in the social and poverty domain.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions I through IV hosted the OFA Regions I-IV East Coast TANF Directors’ Meeting, Leveraging Partnerships to Help Families Achieve Economic Stability, on July 24-26, 2018 at the Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The meeting convened representatives from TANF programs from Regions I-IV and provided TANF representatives with an opportunity to learn about promising practices, discuss shared challenges faced by TANF programs, and share ideas with peers from other states about how to respond to the needs of low-income families. The meeting also included practitioners and researchers who shared information about their own work, and who looked to TANF representatives and federal partners for future research opportunities. Representatives attended presentations from experts and program administrators, and worked with other states to think of innovative practices during Team Work sessions.