The Center for the Study of Social Policy is pleased to announce a new Board Chair and a new Senior Fellow

CSSP’s board of directors recently elected Carol W. Spigner, D.S.W. to serve as the new leader of the organization, guiding CSSP through the next stages of growth and development. Frank Farrow, board member and Executive Director of CSSP, said “The board is delighted to welcome Dr. Spigner as the new chair. She was chosen based on her unquestionable knowledge and commitment to this nation’s most vulnerable children and families.” Dr. Spigner stated “I am honored to have been invited by my colleagues to help build on the foundation of expertise and dedication to developing public policies and practices that strengthen families and communities. I look forward to our work together, as we take CSSP forward in the future.”

Bill Traynor, the Executive Director of Lawrence Community Works (LCW) has joined CSSP as a Senior Fellow. Mr. Traynor leads a 5000 member network of resident stakeholders in Lawrence, Massachusetts and has achieved national acclaim for inspiring new investments to the city and creating new grass roots initiatives in family asset building, youth development, community organizing, and housing. While continuing his duties at LCW, Bill will work with an array of CSSP projects and initiatives to incorporate community and network organizing into the Center’s longstanding organizational priority to engage residents, constituents and customers’ perspectives into the work to improve outcomes for children, families and communities.

Facilitating State JJDPA Compliance and Advancing Juvenile Delinquency Prevention

A new report by Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) presents the findings from the Survey of the State Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) Compliance Challenges and Successes, administered by the CJJ and the Justice Policy Institute in 2008. Fifty-five of 56 states and territories currently voluntarily adhere to the standards of care and custody laid out by the 1974 legislation, though challenges with compliance were expressed in the survey. The report outlines these findings and makes recommendations to key stakeholders for support state efforts. Findings include:

• After 35 years, states remain committed to goals and purposes of the JJDPA.
• Overall, the President, OJJDP and Congress continue to provide bipartisan leadership and resources to support the mandates of the JJDPA.
• States embrace OJJDP as a critical partner to provide training, technical assistance, research and evaluation in support of JJDPA compliance and best practices around juvenile justice.
• Dramatic decreases in federal JJDPA appropriations threaten states’ abilities to maintain compliance with the JJDPA, and OJJDP’s ability to support states in those efforts.
• States need special assistance from OJJDP and other knowledgeable partners to better safeguard status offenders, achieve measurable reductions in DMC (Disproportionate Minority Contact) and increase compliance successes in Native American and rural/frontier communities.
• The JJDPA is at a pivotal moment, and renewed commitments from the President, Congress and other JJDPA stakeholders are critical to sustaining the success and enhancing the future of the JJDPA.

Policies to reduce juvenile detention.

Risk and Recovery: Understanding the Changing Risks to Family Incomes

A new paper by the Urban Institute examines the characteristics and circumstances of families vulnerable to sharp income drops and those most likely to recover financially.

More than 13 percent of nonelderly adults in families with children will see their incomes fall by half at some point over the course of a year, and about 40 percent fully recover within a year. Those who lose jobs or have an adult leave the family are more likely to have a substantial drop in income and are less likely to recover.

Policies to improve family economic success.

How Can States and Communities Reduce Disproportionality in Juvenile Justice?

A new bulletin by the DOJ Office of Justice Programs’ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention outlines strategies states and communities can use to reduce disproportionate minority contact, the disproportionate representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. Public attitudes about crime, race, and youth present challenges to reform efforts but can inform local preparatory strategies., which include identifying funding, establishing a local steering committee with strong leadership, and defining clear goals. These core steps help prepare local leaders to develop strategies for reducing disproportionality.

Policies to reduce racial disparities in juvenile detention.

State Child Care Policies Losing Ground

As a result of worsening budgets, many states have lost ground on key child care assistance policies—limiting eligibility, placing more children and families on waiting lists, increasing parent copayments, or reducing reimbursement rates. A new report from the National Women's Law Center shows that stimulus funding helped but

many state policies are behind where they were in 2001 and many low-income families remain unable to receive child care assistance, or receive child care assistance that fails to provide sufficient support. ... Affordable, reliable child care that enables parents to work and children to develop and thrive is essential.

Policies that support increasing quality early care and education to support child development and policies that support access to child care to support working families

New Quality Improvement Center for Early Childhood

The Children’s Bureau funded the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) to create the National Quality Improvement Center on Preventing the Abuse and Neglect of Infants and Young Children, better known as the QIC on Early Childhood (QIC-EC). CSSP has partnered with ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, and the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds. The purpose of this 5-year project is to generate and disseminate robust evidence and new knowledge about program and systems strategies that contribute to child maltreatment prevention and optimal developmental outcomes for infants, young children, and their families. This project was initiated because of growing research that points to the critical importance of early life experiences in shaping the developmental outcomes for children in later life. The QIC-EC has the following roles and responsibilities:

• Develop knowledge about evidence-based and evidence-informed strategies aimed at preventing the abuse and neglect of infants and young children.
  
• Promote collective problem solving through funding selected early childhood and child abuse prevention research and demonstration projects that advance innovative evidence-based and evidence-informed practice improvements and knowledge about preventing child maltreatment and promoting child and family well-being.
  
• Establish a national information-sharing network to disseminate promising practices.
  
• Evaluate the impact of projects implementing evidence-based or evidence-informed child abuse prevention programs in reducing the risk of child maltreatment.
  
• Identify barriers to prevention and recommend changes in policies, procedures, and practice.

State Examples from Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care

CLASP recently updated its Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project, which profiles state examples of specific policy initiatives to improve child care for infants and toddlers. State examples include links to relevant legislation and regulations, a description of how the state developed and implemented the policy, and any cost data and evaluations or other data. (From author abstract) For policies to increase quality early care and education.

Governor's Guide to Drop Out Prevention

The National Governor's Association has just issued a new guide called Achieving Graduation for All, A Governor's Guide to Drop Out Prevention and Recovery. The report outlines the scope of the problem, noting that no state has higher than an 88% graduation rate and 10 states are below 66%. As we noted in our previous post on the "The High Costs of High School Drop Outs" the consequences of dropping out are severe, creating a greater likelihood of dismal outcomes for both the youth who drop out and their children. This NGA guide recommends that governors take four actions: 1) Promote high school graduation for all; 2) Target youth at risk of dropping out; 3) Reengage youth who have dropped out of school; and 4) Provide rigorous, relevant options for earning a high school diploma.

Improving Urban Service Systems for Children and Families

Chapin Hall hosts a webcast on Improving Urban Service Systems for Children and Families, on November 19, 2009 at 10 a.m. ET / 9 a.m. CT / 8 a.m. MT / 7 a.m. PT Program length: 1.5 hours To Register

This forum will examine the many challenges of systems reform--through the lenses of education, health care and child welfare--and the steps, partnerships, and strategies required to help foster the successful development of vulnerable children and families. The panel will examine questions such as:

• What does it take to reform urban systems?
• What are the lessons for suburban and rural services?
• What can one service system learn from another?
• How can research on practices and policies contribute to reform?

Panel: Juanona Brewster, director of Early Childhood Development Projects at the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Olivia Golden, Institute fellow at the Urban Institute; John Simmons, president of Strategic Learning Initiatives; Cheryl Smithgall, research fellow, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; and Moderator: Matthew Stagner, executive director, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

Raising Poverty’s Political Profile and Increasing Access to Opportunity

“Increasing Low-Income Access to Opportunity” by Jodie Levin-Epstein, deputy director of the Center for Law and Social Policy, briefly argues that poverty has become a more visible issue in the political discourse and outlines possible reasons for this shift. The article, which appears in the Fall 2009 issue of Communities & Banking (a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston), also discusses recent efforts by state governments, localities, nonprofits, and volunteers in New England to promote discussion of anti-poverty policies and increase access to economic opportunity for low-income people.

Policies to reduce poverty and promote family economic success.