This comprehensive child welfare resource provides state and national data on child maltreatment, foster care, kinship caregiving, permanency, and older youth in care. The data are essential to help policymakers understand how many children and youth come in contact with … Read More
Child Trends
Supporting Diverse Family Structures Through Social Safety Net Programs
Families do not exist in isolation but are instead deeply connected to the socioeconomic and policy environments in which they live. Changing economic conditions play a key role in how families live and form. For example, research has shown that economic stressors, … Read More
COVID-Era Child Welfare Financing Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented global health crisis that disrupted daily life and presented unique challenges to child welfare agencies across the United States. Child welfare agencies contended with complex decisions on how, when, and if to transition … Read More
Conversation Starters on Building More Equitable Early Childhood Systems
Child Trends and Start Early have partnered to better understand what early childhood systems builders need to build and support more equitable systems. We define an early childhood system as a comprehensive, cross-sector, and coordinated set of policies, services, and … Read More