Child Trends has five tips for parents, caregivers, and youth‑serving adults to help boys use technology with respect and care for themselves and their peers. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Rates of post-secondary enrollment have remained low but steady since 2015 among 21-year-olds with foster care experience, according to a recent Child Trends analysis of the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) Outcomes file. www.childtrends.org/publications...

What helps young people with intellectual disabilities participate in program evaluations in meaningful ways? Child Trends' Elizabeth Cook and co-authors recently shared insights in a blog post for the American Evaluation Association. aea365.org/blog/youth-f...

In federal fiscal year (FY) 2023, 81% of foster youth ages 18 to 21 emancipated from foster care—the lowest rate in the past decade—according to a new Child Trends analysis of federal foster care data. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Home-based child care (HBCC) is a common and preferred care arrangement for millions of children and families in the United States. Our recent brief outlines five key considerations for an HBCC-specific mental health consultation framework. www.childtrends.org/publications...

The number of 13- to 17-year-old foster youth in congregate care decreased between 2023 and 2024, according to a our analysis of federal foster care data. This decline is consistent with a downward trend since 2009, with the exception of a spike in 2023. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Looking to get celebrate Juneteenth? Join Black Families Flourishing on June 15 at 1pm ET for a virtual panel discussion that will challenge participants to examine & rethink the policies, narratives, and systems needed for Black families—and all communities—to flourish. zoom.us/webinar/regi...

According to a new Child Trends analysis of federal foster care data, nearly 344,000 children under age 21—or 1 in 1,000—spent time in foster care in 2024. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child welfare agencies reported spending $1.1 billion from a variety of small federal funding streams in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, representing a 45% increase from SFY 2020 to SFY 2022 and a 170% increase over the past decade. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Explore our recently updated child welfare data interactive with 2022 and 2023 national and state data on foster care, relative caregiving, permanency, and older youth. Use the interactive to view national data or data for all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. www.childtrends.org/publications...

We need maternal mortality data that are timely and coordinated, community-informed, and of higher quality to build better and more accessible mental health supports for Native families during the perinatal period. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A Child Trends review of recent CDC data found that mental health conditions are the leading underlying cause of maternal death during pregnancy and up to one year postpartum among American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people (36% of all AIAN maternal deaths). www.childtrends.org/publications...

According to recent Child Trends analysis, in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, child welfare agencies across the country spent $17.3 billion in state and local funds—representing a 1% increase over the past decade. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Infant and early childhood mental health consultation is not adequately being adapted, implemented, and tested in home-based child care. We outlined 5 key considerations for an HBCC-specific mental health consultation framework. www.childtrends.org/publications...

These declines illustrate how it can be difficult for child welfare agencies to rely on TANF for ongoing services and activities, especially during economic downturns when there can be increased pressure on the TANF block grant for cash assistance support. www.childtrends.org/publications...

According to recent Child Trends analysis, in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, child welfare agencies spent $2.9 billion in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, a 13% decrease over the past decade and a 6% decline since SFY 2020. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Youth engagement is the cornerstone of developing effective programming for adolescents, yet many youth-serving professionals struggle to authentically collaborate with youth. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Our latest blog post highlights 3 participatory action research practices that can help other researchers create an engaging, supportive, learning-focused environment. www.childtrends.org/publications...

According to recent Child Trends analysis, in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, child welfare agencies across the country spent $1.5 billion in Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funds, a 24% decrease over the past decade. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A recent Child Trend blog provides strategies for researchers and program staff to keep young people engaged throughout the duration of a voluntary after-school program. www.childtrends.org/publications...

We analyzed 30 years of data on low-income young adults to see how public benefit programs and financial aid facilitate college to shape long-term economic well-being. Our recommendations can help higher ed practitioners support their sustained economic mobility. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child Trends has developed six research-informed recommendations for policymakers to consider as they develop equitable and inclusive paid parental leave policies. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Our blog post shares lessons from @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social's Generation Work, an initiative that aimed to connect America’s young adults with meaningful employment by changing the ways public and private systems prepare them for success in the workplace. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child Trends has published evaluation findings showing how investments in the early care and education industry by Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, have supported young children and their families. www.childtrends.org/project/geor...

According to recent Child Trends analysis, in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, child welfare agencies across the country reported spending a collective $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid funds for child welfare activities. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Nearly half of U.S. child welfare agencies’ spending is on out-of-home placements, according to new Child Trends analysis. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A recent Child Trend blog post provides five strategies for researchers and practitioners for recruiting and enrolling adolescents in voluntary after-school sex education programs. www.childtrends.org/publications...

May is #NationalFosterCareMonth. Our experts present a framework for measuring progress on the federal A Home for Every Child initiative, to strengthen measurement and improve usefulness without increasing reporting burden on states and Tribes. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Our tipsheets for workforce development program staff, developed for @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social's Generation Work initiative, provide strategies to help employers have open and productive conversations with young adult workers. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child Trends' and @rand.org's comprehensive study of a cohort of youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds reveals how major public benefit programs and financial aid shape educational decisions and long-term earnings. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Parental drug use is a factor in roughly 1 in 3 children’s entry into foster care, according to a new Child Trends analysis of federal foster care data. This proportion varies widely by state. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Our recent blog post reviews lessons from an evaluation of Partnership for Community Action’s pilot Baby Bonds program and offers insights for states interested in designing legislation or implementing and evaluating Baby Bonds programs. www.childtrends.org/publications...

This resource builds on existing work by Child Trends and its partners—including youth partners—related to youth engagement. In particular, it draws on the Authentic Youth Engagement in Policy Framework and extends it to youth engagement more broadly. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child Trends’ new resource categorizes types of youth engagement and addresses the challenge of authentic program collaboration with youth by providing frontline facilitators and other youth-supporting professionals with a practical framework and case studies. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Youth overdose deaths are down—significantly. Andra Wilkinson parses the data and which factors are likely supporting this positive trend. www.childtrends.org/publications...

New: Only 13 states and Washington, DC have mandatory paid family and medical leave (PFML) policies, and more than half of states have no PFML policies. www.childtrends.org/publications...

The percentage of infants in families enrolled in the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program who received any breast milk at age 6 months has risen since FY 2017, according to recent Child Trends Analysis. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A recent Child Trend blog provides strategies for researchers and program staff to keep young people engaged throughout the duration of a voluntary after-school program. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child Trends’ new brief identifies several strengths and areas for continued growth in organizations' youth engagement efforts. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Our recent blog highlights three policies and practices—automatic enrollment, program re-entry after exit before age 21, and robust supportive housing services—that some states have implemented to boost participation in extended foster care programs. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Child Trends’ interactive map shows how Maryland's Child Care Scholarship program helps tens of thousands of families with low incomes access highly rated child care each month: On average, nearly half of recipients in any given ZIP code use highly rated programs. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A new Child Trends blog identifies existing gaps in the research on CTE in youth correctional settings and highlights promising approaches, including strong partnerships, labor market alignment and credential pathways, hands-on learning, and post-release support.

In 2025, 13 states enacted legislation pertaining to the intersection of youth justice systems and schools. A new Child Trends blog post illustrates these trends by presenting the most common legislative approaches enacted in 2025. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Our recent resource provides three areas of decision making for assessing whether children can experience safe and stable homes. They reflect how system-level policies and capacities shape children’s day-to-day experiences of safety, stability, and permanency. www.childtrends.org/publications...

From October 2024 to May 2025, Vermont families participating in the child care subsidy program spent about 5% of their income on child care, according to our brief exploring the effects of Vermont’s recent policy changes on families’ child care cost burden. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A Child Trends analysis of federal foster care data shows that, nationally, 30% of U.S. children in foster care were in kinship care and states vary widely in using formal kinship care placements—largely due to differences in state-level practices and policies. www.childtrends.org/publications...

A recent Child Trend blog post provides five strategies for researchers and practitioners for recruiting and enrolling adolescents in voluntary after-school sex education programs. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Access to ECE is about more than increasing the number of slots in care. It’s about designing systems that give families meaningful choices—options that match their schedules, cultures, budgets, and hopes for their children. www.childtrends.org/research-cen...

The @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social's Generation Work Initiative partnered with local partnerships to integrate positive youth development (PYD) approaches in workforce training settings for youth. We produced case studies about five of these local partnerships. www.childtrends.org/project/gene...

Our experts outlined ways to improve child care costs for households receiving housing assistance. www.childtrends.org/publications...