Child Trends

09/04/2026

Recent federal funding expansions have created opportunities to strategically harness the benefits of home visiting services for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children and families. Child Trends’ brief highlights opportunities to serve more AIAN families, align performance measures, and facilitate and enhance collaboration across programs that serve AIAN families in the same geographic region. Home visiting programs connect expectant and new parents of young children (typically birth to age 5) with a trained home visitor who helps families strengthen parenting skills, build their knowledge of child development, and connect with community resources.

This brief describes the landscape of home visiting within American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities and provides a brief overview of the federal…

09/03/2026

Child care providers may operate below their licensed capacity (the number of children they are licensed to serve) for a variety of reasons, which can have implications for families’ access to child care and providers’ financial stability. State policies that determine eligibility for child care scholarships, which help families pay for care, may also affect enrollment numbers. Child Trends’ fact sheet shares findings from a survey of child care providers in South Carolina about their experience with enrollment and capacity.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/enrollment-capacity-challenges-among-south-carolina-child-care-providers

09/02/2026

Youth in the legal system deserve health care that meets their needs—whether under community supervision, in secure confinement, or experiencing reentry—especially when it comes to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Public health agencies may struggle to meet this need in systems that aren’t well aligned or prepared for streamlining detection and treatment.

To address these gaps with research-based solutions, New Insights in S*xual Health (NISH), a Child Trends project, has developed an innovative tip sheet that provides practical guidance for STI care for youth interacting with the legal system. https://www.childtrends.org/publications/STI-prevention-care-settings-serve-youth-legal-system

09/01/2026

The ability to access child care is a challenge for many families across the country, but the problem’s scale and complexity can make it difficult for policymakers to know where to begin. Our brief presents key findings from a recent national survey, designed by Child Trends’ ECE Access Center, to better understand how families’ child care needs and preferences factor into their access to care.

The survey used a measure called the Misalignment Index, which compares the degree to which families’ child care priorities—such as cost, schedule, and quality—align with their current care arrangements. The findings show that almost two thirds of families (64%) who use any form of paid or unpaid nonparental child care experience a high degree of misalignment between their current child care arrangement and their family’s needs and preferences.

Additionally, families with lower incomes who do not have access to child care subsidies face an especially constrained set of choices in finding care that meets their non-negotiable needs (e.g., care that is affordable, close enough to home or work, and fits their work schedule).

Read the brief:
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/understanding-child-care-access-challenges-family-centered-solutions

08/31/2026

Since 2023, Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program has provided all 4-year-olds and qualifying 3-year-olds with access to preschool. Child Trends—contracted by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood—is conducting an independent, multi-year evaluation to understand how the program works, whether it is operating as intended, and how it is experienced by families and providers.

So far, we’ve learned that participation is strong: Approximately 60% of eligible Colorado providers and more than 80,000 children participated during the first two years, with most children attending school district-based and community-based providers. We’ve also found that application and enrollment processes could be smoother for both providers and families.

This video describes our process evaluation and summarizes our initial findings of Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program. You can learn more about the evaluation, and find our videos with both English and Spanish captions, at

Learn about Colorado Universal Preschool Process Evaluation (2025 – present), a Child Trends research project.

08/28/2026

Nearly one in three Maryland early care and education (ECE) workers receive health insurance through Medicaid or Medicare, according to Child Trends' analysis of survey data. Overall, the data highlight the importance of both public health insurance and the health insurance marketplace for Maryland’s ECE workforce.

More than 1,400 ECE workers responded to the survey. Nearly one third of ECE workers receive health insurance through Medicaid or Medicare. This includes 28% of center-based ECE workers and 33% of family child care workers.

New data from the 2024 Maryland Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Survey highlight the importance of public health insurance and the health insurance…

08/27/2026

Researchers need strong enrollment numbers to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of their programs, but they often face challenges in recruiting youth into voluntary after-school programs. Child Trends’ blog post shares five key lessons for recruiting and enrolling adolescents in voluntary programs, drawn from our evaluation of the Many Ways of Being after-school education curriculum delivered to adolescents ages 15-19.

The following strategies are more broadly applicable to youth-serving programs and evaluations, particularly in after-school settings. We hope they can help other researchers and practitioners develop and refine effective strategies for youth recruitment.

S*x education programs aim to promote positive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) by equipping young people with the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy…

08/27/2026

Recent Child Trends analysis of national survey data collected through the AmeriSpeak® panel suggests that parents of middle and high school students view artificial intelligence (AI) as an important issue that schools need to address directly. The authors of our latest blog post found that more than 1 in 4 parents identified academic honesty as their top concern regarding the use of AI in their middle or high school student’s education.

Taken together, our findings indicate that parents expect schools to teach middle and high school students how to use AI responsibly—in a way that supports meaningful learning—yet remain cautious about how they think AI affect students’ learning experiences.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/parents-schools-teach-responsible-AI-worry-impacts-students-learning

08/21/2026

Two in three parents seeking information about their child’s education reported using communications from their school, according to Child Trends analysis of data collected through the AmeriSpeak® panel.

Schools are the bridge between research and parents. When researchers and schools work together, parents are more likely to receive information they trust and feel confident using to make decisions about their child’s education. Our analysis points to a clear takeaway: Parents are most likely to rely on and trust information about their child’s education when it comes directly from their school.

For researchers, these findings point to the importance of working alongside schools and districts as partners in sharing research with parents. When materials are co-created with school staff and designed to fit naturally within existing communication channels, parents are more likely to receive information that they recognize as trustworthy and connected to their real decisions.
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/parents-trust-school-communications-education-more-AI-social-media-news

08/20/2026

Our analysis of new nationally representative data using the AmeriSpeak® panel shows that, overall, fathers who live with their children (or “resident fathers”) are positively involved in their children’s lives. Many spend quality time providing nurturing support, engage in physical activity, and establish family routines with both younger and older children in their homes.

The vast majority of resident fathers report engaging in nurturing activities—showing love, encouraging good decisions, and offering praise—with their children multiple times a week or daily. Resident fathers also regularly join their kids in activities that promote children’s health and well-being, such as going for walks and sharing family meals.

Our analysis of new nationally representative data using the AmeriSpeak® panel shows that fathers who live with their children (or “resident fathers”) are positively involved in their children’s lives: Many spend quality time providing nurturing support, engage in physical activity, and estab...