Noting that successful social policies for children are critical to our nation's future, this book discusses the status of children in America and suggests that the nation's current policies may not be serving them well. Proposals for seven new social policies are discussed that deal with the following domains affecting children from birth through the passage to adulthood: child care; schooling; transition to work; health care; income security; physical security; and child abuse. The proposals grew out of a conference devoted to identifying a new set of social policies for children. Following an introduction by Irwin Garfinkel and others, the proposals are outlined in the following chapters: (1) "Economic Security for Children: From Means Testing and Bifurcation to Universality" (Irwin Garfinkel); (2) "Somebody's Children: Educational Opportunity for All American Children" (Diane Ravitch); (3) "Child Care: The Key to Ending Child Poverty" (Barbara R. Bergmann); (4) "Building Hope, Skills, and Careers: Creating a Youth Apprenticeship System" (Robert I. Lerman); (5) Health Care Goes to School: An Untidy Strategy to Improve the Well-Being of School-Age Children" (Julia Graham Lear); (6) "Saving the Children: Crime and Social Policy" (John J. DiIulio, Jr.); and (7) "Child Abuse Reporting: The Need to Shift Priorities from More Reports to Better Reports" (Douglas J. Besharov with Lisa A. Laumann). Each chapter contains references. (TJQ)