Families with low income often do not have access to the basic necessities and resources to foster the nurturing experiences and stimulating environments that young children need to thrive. Income supports may reduce poverty in households with young children, provide critical resources to help families support children’s development, diminish families’ stress levels, and thereby advance health equity. This grant funded research on income supports for low-income families with young children, including tax credits and transfer programs, to inform policymaking and encourage more equitable access to these supports.
Increasing access to early care and education (ECE) may reduce poverty in households with young children by supporting parental employment; provide critical resources to help families support children’s development; diminish families’ stress levels; and thereby advance health equity. This grant sought to fund research that highlighted policy- and practice-related reasons for disparities in access to ECE, and which identified current policy or programmatic solutions or needed changes that would promote equity.
A key contributor to children’s healthy development is sufficient access to healthy foods, though research demonstrates that children from low-income households and racial and ethnic minority children experience nutritional disparities. This grant funded research on federal nutrition support programs that serve low-income families with young children, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
This grant funded a body of research that illuminates strategies and policies that ensure families’ equitable access to key resources for supporting their children’s healthy development. The cross-cutting grants fund research that cut across policy domains, revealing the way that ECE access, income supports, and nutrition supports interact and potentially reinforce one another to promote families’ well being.
Copeland, K. "Understanding and Reducing System Barriers to Early Childhood Education Enrollment Through Quality Improvement." Pediatric Academic Societies 2021 Conference, May 2021.
Please contact kristen.copeland@cchmc.org for additional information about this product.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center (CCHMC), Design Impact, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). "Equity Through Co-Design and Quality Improvement: Identifying and Testing System Solutions to Barriers to Early Care and Education Enrollment in Cincinnati." n.d.
Please contact kristen.copeland@cchmc.org for additional information about this product.
Gerker, H., and A. King. "Community Based Participatory Research and Collective Impact: Examining Early Childhood Education Enrollment Systems" Presentation at the 18th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, 2022.
Please contact amy.king@cchmc.org for additional information about this product.
White, C., A. King, and K. Copeland. "Session Code: E05 Executing an Early Childhood Learning System in the Community." Presentation at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Forum, virtual, 2021.
Please contact amy.king@cchmc.org for additional information about this product.
McCormick, M.P., J. Hsueh, C. Weiland, A. Weissman, S. Xia, and A. Shapiro. "The Role of Student, School, and Community Characteristics in Promoting Equitable Access to High-Quality Prekindergarten: Evidence from Boston." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, virtual, September 2021.
Please contact joann.hsueh@mdrc.org for additional information about this product.
McCormick, M.P., and S. Huang. "Analysis: 2 Strategies for States' COVID Relief Funds -- Make Early Childhood Programs Better, and Make Sure Low-Income Parents Know About Them." The 74, March 2021. https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-2-strategies-for-states-c…
Weiland, C., J. Sachs, M. McCormick, J. Hsueh, C. Snow, and A. Taylor. "Balancing Rigor and Timeliness in the Time of COVID-19." Princeton University -- Brookings Institution, January 2022.
Morrissey, T., C. Heflin, and W. Fannin. "Room to Grow: Examining Participation and Stability in Child Care Subsidies Using State Administrative Data." Early Childhood Research Quarterly vol. 62, 2023, pp. 150-162.
Morrissey, T., C. Heflin, and W. Fannin. "The U.S. Child Care Subsidy Program Is Underused but Well-Positioned to Promote Racial Equity." Syracuse University, October 2021.
Morrissey, T., C. Heflin, and W. Fannin. "The U.S. Must Invest More in the Child Care Subsidy Program." Syracuse University, October 2021.