Age, Gender & Gender Identities

This brief describes progress in the Child Welfare and Health Infrastructure for Linking and Data Analysis of Resources, Effectiveness, and Needs (CHILDREN) Initiative, which is in its fourth year. At this time, four jurisdictions participate in the CHILDREN Initiative: District of Columbia, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

The Kidney Care National Plan highlights the continued commitment of HHS to advance kidney care and identifies opportunities for policy reform and improvement across the Department’s efforts. The relative lack of innovation in kidney care is the structural outcome of anti-competitive and burdensome actions that have maintained the national crisis of kidney disease and kidney failure.

The Administration for Children and Families’ initiative, A Home for Every Child, is designed to help achieve at least a one-to-one ratio of foster homes available for children and youth in foster care, where the numerator is the number of foster homes available and the denominator is the number of children in care.

The goal of the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) A Home for Every Child initiative is to have a safe and supportive home available for every child or youth in foster care. ACF measures the initiative’s success by a one-to-one home-to-child ratio, meaning there are as many foster homes available as there are children in foster care.

The use of psychotropic medications in children is a complex issue for parents, caregivers, health care professionals, researchers, and policymakers. Psychotropic medications are used to treat behavioral health conditions. When these medications are prescribed appropriately, they can be effective in managing behavioral health symptoms.

This brief describes available data on the licensing status of Head Start service locations and child care programs, and outlines existing infrastructure that can support alignment and coordination between Head Start and state licensing systems.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYMedicare reimbursement is administered, but it is not insulated from markets for provider labor, capital, facilities, and technology. Traditional Medicare payment formulas incorporate market-basket input prices, geographic wage indexes, case mix, and quality adjustments; total spending also depends on utilization.

This brief reviews the literature on the relationship between teacher-child ratios and child outcomes, then describes how Head Start ratio standards compare with existing state licensing standards. Key findings include:

KEY POINTSCoverage of non-recurring adoption expenses can help reduce upfront adoption costs for families – covering expenses like legal fees, court costs, home studies, and necessary transportation, food, and lodging – supporting permanency for children with special needs.

This brief synthesizes national caseload and expenditure data related to Title IV-E foster care eligibility and summarizes the Children’s Bureau’s published Title IV-E foster care eligibility review findings. Key findings include: