November is National Adoption Month, so it seems fitting to take a moment to discuss how Kentucky’s foster care system is working for children waiting for a permanent home. The North American Council on Adoptable Children recently released adoption fact sheets for every state in the U.S. with data collected in 2011. The fact sheets provide analysis on data indicators like the amount of time a child waits to be adopted, or the number of [...]
On October 23rd, the National Women’s Law Center released a new report comparing state child care assistance programs. Child care assistance is a proven support to help low-income parents retain employment as well as provide a stable and consistent place for children to learn and develop. Each state sets their own criteria and policies for child care subsidies which can either help more working families find and maintain employment or limit families’ access to this [...]
Recently a report called, Raising Smart, Healthy Kids in Every State was released, which discussed greatly expanding early childhood initiatives throughout the United States, including Kentucky. This report was produced through the collaboration of 9 national organizations that focus on early learning or public health. It contains information about how every state could benefit from supporting an increase in the federal cigarette tax in order to increase the availability of funding that supports an expansion [...]
The Washington Post recently published an article that outlined the release of the first major study of child abuse and neglect in the last 20 years from the researchers at the National Academy of Sciences. The report, New Directions on Child Abuse and Neglect Research, was compiled after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requested updated findings and new recommendations for action. The brain grows rapidly as children grow, especially from birth to [...]
“Invest in prevention-not remediation.” That was the primary message of Dr. James Heckman’s lecture that took place in Henderson, Kentucky on Tuesday July 23, 2013. The Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago has been a part of several studies surrounding early childhood development and the relationship that early education has with the economy. Dr. Heckman is also considered an expert in the economics of human development. Dr. Heckman’s research of [...]
What happens when the kids we label as ‘at-risk’ for maltreatment grow up? They become at-risk adults and the research on these adults paints an unfortunate picture of what happens when you grow up in an environment exposed to those risks. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the negative impact of child maltreatment doesn’t end in childhood. An infographic was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Veto Violence initiative this past year. The [...]
