Internationally there has been a movement to reform investigative work in child welfare and protection systems. These reforms have aimed to introduce national frameworks that systematize the way assessments are carried out. Several reports have identified shortcomings in the way that child protection investigations are carried out in Norway.…

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2019), approximately half of U.S. children come from nontraditional families, such as those with divorced parents, multiracial families, one-parent families, and families with same-sex parents. Although family structures have diversified dramatically (Powell et al., 2010), the traditional family remains the…

Background: Parents play a crucial role in supporting children's literacy, especially in the first years of school. However, parents can find this challenging if they struggle with reading themselves. We explore whether family learning phonics courses boost parents' reading-related skills and ability to support their children's reading, in a…

Education is considered a path for escaping poverty. However, poverty and lack of success in school are closely linked. Understanding structural factors within society that cause poverty and their influence on learning and educational outcomes requires reshaping teacher education programmes. There is a need for programmes that adopt the social…

Family engagement is a central ideology in pediatric occupational therapy; however, the literature indicates that engaging families is challenging in the school- based context. The purpose of this study is to explore occupational therapists' and families' experiences of family engagement in school-based occupational therapy services and to propose…

The early years are a critical period for setting children up for school and life. For Black children who are exposed to adversities before and after birth, early childhood education (ECE) has been shown as one potentially strategy to mitigate against systemic inequities. However, evidence continues to show the negative impact of structural racism…

Deciding on an educational setting for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) is a complex process that is not well understood. In the present study, the researchers' objective was to understand the factors caregivers consider when choosing a school for their child. Six caregivers of children who were DHH participated in semistructured…

Various factors influence families' search for child care and early education (CCEE). These factors can be grouped into four dimensions of access: (1) reasonable effort to find CCEE; (2) affordability; (3) meets parents' needs; and (4) supports child development. All states provide a consumer education website to help inform families' child care…

Gender-transformative pre-primary education requires a coherent system that integrates gender considerations across all its core components for a quality service delivery. This brief presents a set of tools to support policymakers and/or practitioners to progress towards gender-transformative pre-primary education policy and programming, organized…

Camp remains a powerful experience for youth of any age, but special care must be taken to ensure camps are supportive of diverse audiences. This article describes the process by which 4-H camp organizers created a welcoming and affirming camp for teen dependents of active duty, retired, or veteran military personnel, especially those campers who…

To influence school achievement, researchers investigate student academic help-seeking. However, a growing population of students of color combined with the risk of poorer academic performance yields attention toward African American student academic help-seeking. In this review, 13 studies analyzed sampling characteristics, theoretical…

This study examined whether families' conversational reflections after a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-related experience in a museum promoted learning transfer. 63 children (M = 6.93 years; 30 girls; 57% White, 17.5% Latinx, 8% Asian, 5% African American, 9.5% mixed, 3% missing race/ethnicity) and their parents received…

Researchers Martha Abele Mac Iver, Joyce Epstein, and Steven Sheldon summarize the outcomes of their four-year partnership with an urban district aimed at improving the ways schools engage families during the critical transition to high school. They describe how schools put into practice the strategies learned in ongoing professional development,…

The Policy-Advocacy-Leadership (PAL) column is developed to initiate and facilitate important dialog about health care and educational policy, and develop and share the knowledge, tools, and resources that enable occupational therapy practitioners to be effective advocates for our clients, our practice, and our profession. In this column, we…

Patient-oriented research engages patients and caregivers as partners contributing to all phases of the research process. This was the goal of the Strongest Families Institute Neurodevelopmental research, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when they included a parent advisory committee, made up of parents and caregivers of children and adolescents with a…