Child Trends

04/10/2026

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 a Child Trends brief that explores the effects of Vermont’s recent policy changes on families’ child care cost burden. These changes have expanded families’ access to child care subsidies while making care more affordable for families with lower incomes. Understanding how much families pay for child care can help states and territories design family payment structures that offer better access to care for families with lower incomes while expanding eligibility to families with higher incomes.

Read Vermont’s Child Care Subsidy Program Expands Access and Reduces Cost from Child Trends.

04/08/2026

A new Child Trends analysis of federal foster care data shows that, nationally, 30% of U.S. children living in foster care were in kinship care and that states vary widely in their use of formal kinship care placements. Studies show that kinship care—an arrangement in which a child lives with relatives or close family friends when their parents are unable to provide a safe home—helps children stay connected to family, culture, and community while supporting their emotional well-being, academic success, and healing from trauma. Over the past 20 years, federal funding and regulations have increasingly promoted kinship care, but each state is responsible for instituting its own kinship care policies—including eligibility and licensing requirements and financial support for kinship caregivers—resulting in a wide range of policies across the country.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/data-reveal-variation-states-formal-kinship-care

04/07/2026

Researchers need strong enrollment numbers to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of their programs, but they often face challenges in recruiting youth into voluntary after-school programs. Child Trends’ new blog post shares five key lessons for recruiting and enrolling adolescents in voluntary programs, drawn from our evaluation of Many Ways of Being (MWB)—an innovative s*x education curriculum developed by Equimundo and delivered by the Latin American Youth Center as an after-school program to adolescents ages 15-19.

Although MWB is a s*x education program, the following strategies are more broadly applicable to youth-serving programs and evaluations, particularly in after-school settings. We hope they can help other researchers and practitioners develop and refine effective strategies for youth recruitment.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/strategies-recruiting-youth-after-school-programs

04/06/2026

If you’re focused on equity, you know that access to ECE is about more than increasing the number of slots in care. Rather, it’s about designing systems that give families meaningful choices—options that match their schedules, cultures, budgets, and hopes for their children. The ECE Access Center can partner with you to make equitable access a reality.

Opening doors for families by strengthening early childhood systems. Vision: Our vision is that every family is able to access high-quality early care and education that meets their needs and helps t

04/03/2026

Child Trends served as a national partner for Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Generation Work™ initiative, helping local partnerships integrate positive youth development approaches into their programming and their employer engagement efforts. Through these efforts, we produced case studies about five of these local partnerships. Read more about what we found working in each city:

Philadelphia https://www.childtrends.org/publications/adult-learning-communities-fostered-positive-youth-development-in-philadelphias-generation-work-partnership

Seattle https://www.childtrends.org/publications/strategic-relationships-contribute-to-cross-system-collaboration-in-seattles-generation-work-initiative

Cleveland https://www.childtrends.org/publications/building-partnerships-improve-employment-training-programs-young-adults-cleveland-cuyahoga-county

Indianapolis https://www.childtrends.org/publications/integrating-a-racial-and-ethnic-equity-lens-into-workforce-development-training-for-young-adults

Hartford https://www.childtrends.org/publications/hartfords-generation-work-initiative-prioritized-youth-voice-in-its-youth-advisory-council

04/02/2026

Among households with children that paid any out-of-pocket costs for child care, those that receive a housing voucher and have children under age 4 pay more than households with children ages 4–6, according to Child Trends’ new resource. This resource features two interactive maps that compare out-of-pocket child care costs for children under age 4 and for children ages 4-6. New strategies to decrease child care cost burden and address gaps in care for infants and toddlers would support families’ economic stability by supporting children’s healthy development.

Read Households Receiving Housing Vouchers and Paying Out-of-Pocket for Child Care Pay the Most When Their Children Are Younger from Child Trends.

04/01/2026

Extended foster care programs are most beneficial when their implementation fosters the development of young adults with foster care experience and meets them where they are in life. A new Child Trends 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 and provide these young people with greater access to life skills training and foundational supports.

Read Extended Foster Care Policies and Practices That Boost Young Adults’ Participation from Child Trends.

03/31/2026

In the United States, 20% of children under age 18 (14.5 million children) have a special health care need. While some existing policies support access to child care for families of children with disabilities, many still experience challenges accessing care. Child Trends’ new brief examines two categories of policies from state Child Care and Development Fund policies to see how they are associated with the use of paid child care, use of full-time child care, and weekly cost of care among lower-income families of children with disabilities.

Read State CCDF Policies and Child Care Access for Families of Children With Disabilities from Child Trends.

03/30/2026

Why focus on development at age 3? Because it provides a critical window into how children are developing and how early investments are paying off.

The Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRTL) measure uses data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) to track development at both the national and state levels. Assessing development at age 3 can help monitor the impact of early investments and identify needs that can still be addressed before kindergarten. Our new dashboard presents the most recent HRTL data and offers a timely snapshot of how 3-year-olds are doing.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/healthy-ready-learn-national-state-data-3-year-old-development

03/30/2026

Consent is the foundation of safe and respectful relationships, but research shows that young people don't always understand how to put it into practice. Activate Center's new resource breaks down the three interconnected processes of consent (seeking, giving, and receiving) and highlights what research says about how these dynamics shape communication and decision-making in s*xual relationships.
https://activatecenter.org/resource/seeking-giving-and-receiving-consent/

03/27/2026

Recent federal funding expansions have created opportunities to strategically harness the benefits of home visiting services for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children and families. Child Trends’ brief highlights opportunities to serve more AIAN families, align performance measures, and facilitate and enhance collaboration across programs that serve AIAN families in the same geographic region. Home visiting programs connect expectant and new parents of young children (typically birth to age 5) with a trained home visitor who helps families strengthen parenting skills, build their knowledge of child development, and connect with community resources.

Read Opportunities to Maximize Home Visiting Benefits for Native Families Through Data and Collaboration from Child Trends.

03/27/2026

If you’re leading efforts to build stronger, more responsive early childhood systems that align with families’ needs, we can help! The ECE Access Center brings together evaluation, data analysis, peer learning, and customized technical assistance to offer you the level of support you need—no matter where you are in your system-building journey.

Opening doors for families by strengthening early childhood systems. Vision: Our vision is that every family is able to access high-quality early care and education that meets their needs and helps t