In 2023, Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative developed and conducted a statewide survey from their position as evaluators of the Illinois Preschool Development Birth through Five Planning Grant (PDG B-5). The survey queried families (with small children) and community members (with and without small children) about three key…

Home visiting may be particularly beneficial for families involved with the child welfare system. These families are often dealing with an array of interrelated challenges such as poverty, mental health problems, substance abuse, domestic violence, and housing instability, that may adversely affect parents' ability to address their children's…

Within special education policy and practice, parents are expected to advocate for their children to receive appropriate special education and related services. However, the majority of parents report feeling disempowered to advocate; families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds may feel especially disempowered. Federally…

Purpose: This study examines foster care reentry after adoption, in Illinois and New Jersey. The provision of services and supports to adoptive families have garnered recent attention due to concern about the long-term stability of adoptive homes. Method: This study used administrative data to examine the pre-adoption characteristics associated…

As the U.S. population ages, Extension's need for associated organizational readiness increases. We conducted a needs assessment with a sample of 1,028 Extension professionals in the Extension North Central Region (NCR) to identify the current scope of aging-related community needs. Health care, chronic disease prevention and management, housing,…

During a time of historic COVID-related federal investment in child care and early education, states are working to leverage this opportunity to provide significant relief and recovery to providers and families. This fact sheet highlights the actions that select states have implemented to make the most of this critical time and opportunity. As…

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) conducted the first ever multi-state study of the effects of the current immigration climate on young children under age 8. In 2017, CLASP interviewed early care and education providers, community-based social service providers, and immigrant parents in six states. The findings, detailed in "Our…

This Research-to-Impact brief is the sixth in a series by Chapin Hall's Voices of Youth Count on understanding and addressing youth homelessness. This brief draws exclusively on the in-depth interview (IDI) component from Voices of Youth Count. The 215 young people that were interviewed across five diverse U.S. counties shared stories of…

This implementation research report describes the local programs, home visiting staff, and families who participated in the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE), a national evaluation of the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program launched in 2011. This national evaluation is…

Children from low-income families are more likely than those from higher income families to have poor social, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes. One approach that has helped parents and their young children is home visiting, which provides information, resources, and support to expectant parents and families with young…

In today's society, women who return back to school seeking an advancement within their career is a transition within the lives of women that occurs in various contexts, including the women's ages at the time of their transition, which can define both their expectations and opportunities along their life stages and career paths. In the past, women…

Each afternoon across the U.S., 15 million children are alone and unsupervised after school. The parents of 18 million would enroll their children in an afterschool program, if one were available. These are some of the key findings from the nation's most in-depth study of how America's children spend their afternoons. The 2009 report, conducted…

This special report of the Voices for Illinois Children argues that a refundable state earned income tax credit (EITC) would foster employment and reduce taxes for low-income Illinois families. The report maintains that many low-income working families and those beginning the transition from welfare to work confront ongoing poverty despite having…

Increasing numbers of low-income children are receiving regular nonparental care, yet knowledge is limited regarding whether child care settings meet the needs of low-income children and their parents. Using a sample of low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic children and families from low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago,…

In April, 2003, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich presented the fiscal year 2004 proposed budget in the midst of a severe state fiscal crisis. Despite the deficit, the proposal maintains or expands investments in many important programs for children and families, and includes a variety of cuts to programs and administrative costs with unclear…