On the Home Front: Early Care and Education a Top Priority for Military Families

Presents survey findings on military families' needs, priorities, and challenges in accessing early care and education programs, including Child Development Centers on military bases: cost, wait lists, and concerns about quality. Recommends solutions

Ensuring Quality Care for Low-Income Babies: Contracting Directly With Providers to Expand and Improve Infant and Toddler Care

Outlines current state childcare subsidy policies and the need to provide high-quality early childhood care to all families. Recommends contracting directly with providers to secure spaces for low-income babies and to ensure higher standards of care

Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and America's Families

Since the onset of the Great Recession, the nation has been focused on a steady stream of mostly discouraging unemployment, poverty and housing foreclosure numbers. While this data is important, it tells us only about those suffering the most severe of financial crises. It does not help identify the millions within the United States who live above the poverty line and yet struggle to pay ever-increasing housing, food, health care and other expenses. Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) has compared working-age adults' earnings and household incomes to The Basic Economic Security Tables (BEST) for the United States, a measure of the basic needs and assets workers and their households require for economic security. This report compares pre-tax incomes from 2007 through 2011 to BEST basic needs budgets for more than 400 family types,and finds that approximately 45% of Americans live on incomes that fail to provide basic economic security.This report identifies who, specifically, within the United States is living below the BEST Indexes. It tells an important story about the contemporary value of work and the relationship between economic security and gender, race/ethnicity, family structure and education

Child care licensing and regulation: A Key Topic Resource List

A compilation of selected Research Connections resources focused on child care licensing and regulation, covering the areas of regulatory policies and practices, and the relationship of licensing to quality of care, child outcomes, and both child care and labor market

Measuring Poverty in America

Written Statement Submitted to the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support Committee on Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on Measuring Poverty in America

Shaping a Healthier Generation: Successful State Strategies to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Provides an overview of the socioeconomic and environmental risk factors and costs of childhood obesity. Presents examples of state policies to prevent the epidemic by promoting healthy behaviors in child care, school, community, and healthcare settings

Quality improvement in home-based child care settings: Research resources to inform policy

This Topic of Interest provides a comprehensive list of research in the Research Connections collection that was published in 2005 or later addressing issues related to quality improvement specifically in home-based child care. The resources are grouped under the following headings: Overviews, Summaries, and Reviews of Quality Improvement Strategies & Interventions that Included Home-Based Child Care; Evaluations of Specific Quality Improvement Strategies & Interventions that Included Home-Based Child Care; Evaluations of QRIS Quality Improvement Interventions that Included Home-Based Child Care; Measuring Quality in Home-Based Child Care Settings; Factors Affecting Quality and Participation in Quality Improvement in Home-Based Child Care Settings; Characteristics, Interests, Needs, Experiences, and Perspectives of Home-Based Child Care Providers; and Policy Issues and Options for Home-Based Child Care

California Report Card, 2010

Reviews 2009 policy developments and the state of child well-being. Proposes a children-first agenda, including access to comprehensive health care, education reforms and investments, and addressing cross-system issues, such as child safety and obesity

Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care: Expand Monitoring and Technical Assistance

Highlights findings about the need for regular monitoring, unannounced inspections, and technical assistance for childcare providers of infants and toddlers to ensure that licensing regulations and health and safety measures are implemented correctly