America's Diversity of Children

Investing in Public Programs Matters: How State Policies Impact Children’s Lives, focuses on the results of the 2012 STATE Child Well-Being Index (CWI) — a comprehensive state-level index of child well-being modeled after the Foundation for Child Development’s NATIONAL CWI. The STATE CWI draws from the most comprehensive set of data used to form a state index of child well-being.

We investigate primary school precursors to criminal involvement in early adulthood.

Although school attainment is a cumulative process combining mastery of both academic and behavioral skills, most studies have offered only a piecemeal view of the associations between early childhood capacities and subsequent schooling outcomes.

The 2011 annual release of the CWI reports that children are bearing the brunt of America’s widening income gap and that cuts to education, food stamps, and health insurance programs would drastically worsen the situation.

The Foundation for Child Development’s New American Children (NAC) initiative builds knowledge about the well-being of children living in low-income immigrant families, how best to nurture and educate our newest Americans, and how to foster evidence-based policies and practices to enhance their life prospects.These key resources aim to inform policymakers, educators, researchers, and others about NAC issues.

PowerPoint from the Foundation for Child Development’s Former President Ruby Takanishi’s presentation on the Dual-Generation Strategy before the United Kingdom’s Child Poverty Unit.

A report from First Focus, Living on the Edge: America’s Low-Earning Families, finds that 40 percent of all children — 30 million kids — grow up in households in which their parents are employed, yet the family still struggles with making ends meet.