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We use data from the US Financial Diaries study to relate episodic poverty to intrayear income volatility and to the availability of government transfers. The US Financial Diaries data track a continuous year’s worth of month-to-month income for 235 low- and moderate-income households, each with at least one employed member, in four regions in the United States. The data provide an unusually granular view of household financial transactions, allowing the documentation of episodic poverty and the attribution of a large share of it to fluctuations in earnings within jobs.

The share of children living in poverty in the U.S. remains higher than it was before the Great Recession. According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), nearly 20 percent of children were living in poverty in 2016, compared with 18 percent in 2007. Also, the number of children in poverty increased over this period by 1 million, from 13,097,100 to 14,115,713. Child poverty rates continue to be highest in the South and Southwest, particularly in counties with cocentrations of Native Americans along the Mississippi Delta.

The EMPOWERED study, conducted on behalf of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, examines the use of performance measures, work requirements, and child support cooperation requirements across human services programs. This issue brief examines the use of child support cooperation requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program and child care subsidy programs funded under the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF). (Author summary)

Apprenticeship and other forms of work-based learning are important tools for helping workers acquire skills employers need. To reach the most workers and businesses, more work needs to be done to diversify the apprenticeship pipeline to include more women, low-wage workers, and parents of young children.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is conducting the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) as part of a broader initiative to encourage disability beneficiaries to return to work. The demonstration provides youth ages 14 through 25 with employment-related services and waivers of certain rules governing the Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance programs, including childhood disability benefits. The waivers augment existing financial incentives for beneficiaries to work.

This study examined the relationship between parental substance misuse and child welfare caseloads, which began rising in 2012 after more than a decade of decline. We examined county level variation in both phenomena and qualitative interviews documented the perspectives and experiences of local professionals in the child welfare agency, substance use disorder treatment programs, family courts, and other community partners in 11 communities across the country.

To compare preconception health indicators (PCHIs) among non-pregnant women aged 18–44 years residing in Appalachian and non-Appalachian counties in 13 U.S. states. Data from the 1997–2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to estimate the prevalence of PCHIs among women in states with ≥1 Appalachian county. Counties were classified as Appalachian (n = 36,496 women) or non-Appalachian (n = 88,312 women) and Appalachian counties were categorized according to economic status.

The mental health needs of children and families in the child welfare system require consistent, ongoing attention of all of the systems that work with the child. The child welfare system, schools, and the network of community-based organizations serving the needs of maltreated children will be most effective by working both individually and jointly to respond to the unique mental health needs of children and youth with histories of abuse and trauma. This is a report on the results of a survey conducted among child-serving agencies in a number of states.

We explore the role of workplace accommodations in reducing employment barriers and improving the employment of people with disabilities. We do so using data from the 2015 Survey of Disability and Employment on people with disabilities who applied for vocational rehabilitation services in three states. The results show that at least one third of nonworking people with disabilities reported employment barriers that could be addressed by workplace accommodations, such as lack of transportation and an inaccessible workplace.

This PowerPoint presentation from the 2017 NAWRS workshop discusses the likelihood of low-income children who received federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) - subsidized care in early childhood - being held back in school, from kindergarten onward. Additionally, this presentation explores whether this association is particularly pronounced for low-income Black and Hispanic children relative to low-income children from other race/ethnic groups.