Nearly 20 years after the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), it is time to take stock of U.S. policy on parental leave, particularly as it affects infant care and child development. While the FMLA has certainly expanded access to job-protected leave, large sectors of the workforce are left out and, in the absence of paid leave,…

In this article, Edward Zigler, interviewed by Barbara Beatty, talks about a turning point in the history of Head Start that reveals how policy choices, bureaucracy, and science came together when he was told to phase out the program in 1970. New to Washington, Zigler learned that President Richard M. Nixon's domestic policy advisor Daniel Patrick…

Discusses trends leading to the Society for Research in Child Development's acceptance of applied and social policy research in its journal "Child Development": (1) reconciliation of basic and applied research; (2) the call for social responsibility by prominent developmentalists; and (3) efforts by psychologists to serve the public…

Current social policy supports neither high quality infant day care nor alternatives to day care. Psychologists should take action on research evidence showing the importance of quality infant care, by proposing and supporting policies that would grant voluntary, partially paid, six-month leaves to working parents for infant care. (Author/MJL)

Documents the impact on America's social policy of developmental psychologist Edward Zigler's knowledge, presence, and advocacy. Describes Zigler's lifetime efforts and his influence on public policy for children's full development including his work for Head Start, the Office of Child Development, and on-the-job training in policymaking. (Author)

A discussion of the need to develop explicit, enforceable, and economically realistic federal day care standards. (BD)

Reviews five federal policy-based initiatives for children and families (Project Head Start; lead poisoning prevention; Medicaid; Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and Earned Income Tax Credit), discussing aspects of federal prevention program design, implementation, policy, and research. (Contains references.) (SM)

To effectively change public policy for children and families (1) the citizenry must have a sense of the immediacy of the problem, (2) a broad-based lobby must be built to support the formulation of policy, and (3) pivotal leverage points within government at which pressure can be directed must be identified. (Author/RH)

This commentary on EC 605 926 states that families of children with severe mental retardation or autism have problems that might be considered "the same, only more so" compared to issues faced by families with nonhandicapped children, and therefore solutions might involve magnifications of solutions being suggested to help all parents.…

Prospects for improving social policy affecting families are brighter now than they have been in several years. For psychologists to contribute significantly in this area, they must form a broader coalition of children's groups as well as a lobby encompassing both political parties and representing the interests of all children and families. (GC)

In the wake of the United Nations' Year of the Child, U.S. public policy affecting the welfare of children at risk is found wanting. The misguided notions underlying many official positions, along with suggested modifications based on well-researched principles of child development, are presented. (Author)

This paper discusses moral, logistical, and other issues concerning phases of "Operation Babylift," the transportation of approximately 2,000 Vietnamese children to the United States for adoption by U.S. citizens at the end of the Vietnamese War. Inadequate health screening, improper selection methods, and crowded and unsafe aircraft are…

Currently there is a lack of affordable, accessible, quality child care in America. A substandard child care system not only negatively affects families, but also impacts broader societal and political issues, such as the economy, gender equity, tax and budget policies, and welfare reform. In this report, the authors propose two recommendations to…