Resource Library

Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) is a federal grant program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Grants provide funding to communities for five years, pursuing dual goals of improving systems and services for young children and their families.   As of September, 2011, 24 grantees (in three separate cohorts) were funded, all of them representing areas with a high need for services...

This is the Program Guide for Head Start's 12th National Research Conference on Early Childhood – Collaboration and Coordination: Understanding Systems Supporting Young Children and Their Families...

This is the Addendum for Head Start's 12th National Research Conference on Early Childhood – Collaboration and Coordination: Understanding Systems Supporting Young Children and Their Families...

On May 6, 2014, Mathematica Policy Research held a technical work group meeting of experts to provide input on materials developed as part of the Study of Early Head Start (EHS)-Child Care Partnerships, funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families. Materials presented at the meeting included (1) preliminary findings from the literature review and (2) a theory of change model. The literature review examines studies on partnerships...

Updates on behavioral economics and the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project...

The majority of states are currently implementing, designing, or piloting a Quality Improvement and Rating System (QRIS). One key component of a QRIS is the way it assigns program ratings. However, there is a great deal of variability in the structure states use to determine a program’s rating level, with states using three primary structures. Block structures specify a set of quality standards at each level of quality. Before a program can move up to a higher level of quality...

The prevalence of child care changes is a noteworthy issue, and subsidies may assist low-income families in maintaining continuity of care. In this brief, authors review select Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) state policies, as of October 1, 2012, that have been, or may be, associated with exits from the subsidy program. The summaries provided may be used to contextualize research findings across states and to inform conversations about facilitating continuity in subsidized care among...

This research brief summarizes the state of the field on cultural competence in social services. The information is relevant for organizations serving children and families from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, but the brief highlights research and strategies in serving Hispanic populations. The brief describes cultural competence and provides service providers and administrators with concrete strategies for the ongoing self-reflection and development that is key to strengthening...

The grouping "Hispanic" often makes it challenging to observe important social experiences that relate strongly to the needs, service experiences, and outcomes of interest to ACF for various Hispanic subgroups. Existing federal surveys do not consistently collect data to sufficiently examine how Hispanic ethnicity interacts with other socio-cultural experiences or how it relates to specific outcomes. Because current measurement is inadequate to differentiate characteristics within...

This document describes a review of research on developmental screening tools designed for use with children from birth to age five. It provides detailed profiles for 16 commonly-used and/or publicly available developmental screening tools, as well as a set of summary tables providing an “at a glance” review of some common features across the tools. The compendium aims to translate technical psychometric information about the reliability and validity of the developmental...