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Policy Update: February 2019

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SRCD News Related to Child and Family Policy

Register Now! 2019 Zigler Policy Preconference on Racial Disparities in Child and Maternal Health Outcomes

The 2019 Zigler Policy Preconference will take place just prior to the SRCD Biennial Meeting on Wednesday, March 20, from 4:00-7:30 pm in the Holiday 6 Ballroom of the Hilton Baltimore. This year’s preconference, honoring the memory and legacy of Dr. Edward Zigler, will focus on racial disparities in child and maternal health outcomes. Presentations by leading health disparities researchers, practitioners, and policymakers will identify key findings and research needs and discuss the translation to local, state, and federal programs and policies which seek to decrease health disparities and improve the well-being of children and mothers.  

The 2019 Zigler Policy Preconference will feature presentations by: Arline T. Geronimus, Sc.D, Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education and Associate Director & Research Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan School of Public Health; Cathy L. Costa, MSW, MPH, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, Baltimore City Health Department; Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., Director, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health; and will be moderated by Andrea K. McDaniels, award winning health reporter for The Baltimore Sun. A reception will follow that will include appetizers, beverages, and time for informal discussion with the panelists and other attendees. 

Registration is $25 for student and early career attendees and $45 for all other attendees; register now to guarantee a spot! Register for the preconference through SRCD’s Biennial Meeting registration site. 

SRCD Fellowship Panel and Reception

Join us for the SRCD Policy Fellowship Panel and Reception at the SRCD Biennial Meeting, which will be held on Friday, March 22 from 3:00-4:30 pm. During the panel, current SRCD Policy Fellows with placements in congressional offices and federal and state executive branch agencies will discuss their experiences as fellows and answer questions from attendees. This is a great opportunity for scholars interested in working at the intersection of research and policy, former fellows, fellowship mentors and supervisors, and anyone else with an interest in state and federal policy work to learn about the experience of current SRCD Policy Fellows. A reception with appetizers and beverages will then provide an opportunity for networking and informal discussion. Click here to view the session overview.

Federal Agency Sessions at the 2019 Biennial Meeting

The 2019 SRCD Biennial Meeting will be welcoming representatives from a wide range of federal agencies and will be hosting a number of federal agency sessions specifically focused on research, funding, and career development opportunities. They are: 

  • Federal Agency Poster Session 
    • Thursday, March 21, 12:30 to 1:45 pm, Exhibit Hall A, Baltimore Convention Center. This session will feature representatives from more than ten different agencies and is a great opportunity to speak one-on-one with federal agency representatives.
  • Navigating the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Trials Definition 
    • Thursday, March 21, 2:15 to 3:45 pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 333
  • Writing NSF proposals: Similarities and Differences Among Different Funding Programs
    • Thursday, March 21, 4:00 to 5:30 pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 317
  • Federal Support for Early Learning and Development Research: Current Research Priorities and Opportunities
    • Friday, March 22, 8:00 to 9:30 am, Hilton Baltimore, Key 12
  • Research Funding Opportunities and the Peer Review Process for the Institute of Education Sciences’ Grant Competitions 
    • Friday, March 22, 1:00 to 2:30 pm, Hilton Baltimore, Key 12
  • If the Tool Fits: Federal Measurement Development Initiatives
    • Saturday, March 23, 8:00 to 9:30 am, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 317
  • Planning for Your Future: Federal Funding Opportunities for Early Career Scholars 
    • Saturday, March 23, 9:45 to 11:15 am, Hilton Baltimore, Key 12
  • Examining Child Development: Data Available for Secondary Analysis from the Departments of Education & Health and Human Services
    • Saturday, March 23, 12:45 to 2:15 pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 317
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scientific Review Process and Mock Study Section 
    • Saturday, March 23, 2:30 to 4:00 pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 317
  • Child Development Research Priorities and Opportunities for Young Investigators at the National Institutes of Health
    • Saturday, March 23, 4:15 to 5:45 pm, Hilton Baltimore, Calloway AB 

Full descriptions of all federal agency sessions are available in the online program.

Spotlight on the SRCD Policy Fellow

Anne Day Leong, Ph.D. is a second year SRCD Executive Branch Fellow whose placement is in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Office of Science Policy, Reporting, and Program Analysis (OSPRA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Click here to read more about her work in the Office of the Director at NICHD as well as contributions at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Office of Research on Women’s Health.

Legislative Branch Updates

FY19 Appropriations: Omnibus Funds Government Through End of Fiscal Year

On February 15, the president signed into law a $333 billion omnibus spending package that funds the federal government through the end of FY2019. The omnibus contains the seven appropriations bills that had not yet been passed prior to the partial government shutdown, including the Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; Financial Services and General Government; Homeland Security; Interior and Environment; State and Foreign Operations; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills.  

Of particular interest to SRCD members is likely the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which includes funding for the National Science Foundation, as well as a number of other agencies that fund social and behavioral science research. Highlights that may be of interest include: 

  • National Science Foundation (NSF): The final bill includes $8.1 billion for NSF in FY19, an increase of $307.6 million over the FY18 funding level.  
  • National Institute of Justice (NIJ): The final bill includes $37 million for NIJ, a decrease of $5 million compared to the FY18 funding level.  
  • Census Bureau: The final bill includes $3.8 billion for the Census Bureau, an increase of $1 billion over the FY18 funding level. The entire increase in census funding goes to Periodic Censuses and Programs, which will produce the 2020 Census. 

Additional analysis of the seven-bill omnibus is available from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA).  

The passage of this omnibus bill marks the end of the FY19 appropriations process, which involved several stopgap funding bills and the longest partial government shutdown in history. Congress will now turn its attention to the appropriations process for fiscal year 2020, which begins on October 1, 2019. 

House Subcommittee Hearing on Family Separation Policy

On February 7, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing entitled “Examining the Failures of the Trump Administration’s Inhumane Family Separation Policy.” Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) began the hearing with opening remarks noting, “It has been nearly a year since this cruel [family separation] policy was put in place, and we still have many unanswered questions.” She then cited research on the long-term harmful effects of childhood trauma, such as family separation, and emphasized the responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to answer questions related to its role in the “zero tolerance” policy. Ranking Member Brett Guthrie (R-KY) followed with his opening statement noting, “I support strong enforcement of our nation’s borders, but I do not support separating children from their parents.”  

The first panel of witnesses was made up of representatives from federal agencies who discussed: the recent Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report noting that thousands of additional children may have been separated from their parents beginning in April 2017 before the official “zero tolerance” policy was announced by the Trump administration in April 2018; the continued lack of an integrated data system to track children who have been separated from their families; and the limited available information about recent separations that are still occurring and the subsequent challenges this creates when accounting for the full impact of family separations on children. Witnesses included: Kathryn A. Larin, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Rebecca Gambler, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Ann Maxwell, Assistant Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections, Office of Evaluation and Inspections, Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Commander Jonathan White, United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

The second panel of witnesses was made up of legal and health experts who discussed: the damaging effects of persistent stress on the development of children in both the short- and long-term; the need for the government to have clear guidelines on when a child should be separated from his or her family; the need for any separation decisions to be made by trained child welfare professionals; the need for both children and their parents to receive medical assistance and mental health services to assist their recovery after a traumatic separation experience; and the need for the government to work with non-governmental community organizations to facilitate any future reunification processes. Witnesses included: Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director, Immigrants' Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union; Jennifer Podkul, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, Kids in Need of Defense; Julie M. Linton, MD, FAAP, Co-chair, Immigrant Health Special Interest Group, American Academy of Pediatrics; Cristina Muñiz de la Peña, PhD, Terra Firma Mental Health Director, Center for Child Health and Resiliency, on behalf of the American Psychological Association; Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, Professor of Child Health and Development and Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, School of Public Health, and Graduate School of Education, and Director, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University; and Dona Abbott, Vice President of Refugee and Immigrant Services, Bethany Christian Services. Click here to view the hearing and read witness testimonies.   

Congressional Briefing on Preventing Child Sexual Abuse

On January 29, the Committee for Children, Futures Without Violence, the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, the National Children’s Alliance, and the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence hosted a congressional briefing entitled “Child Sexual Abuse: Preventable, Not Inevitable, with Federal Investment.” The briefing emphasized that it is possible to prevent child sexual abuse, but that substantial additional resources need to be invested in prevention programs and evaluations to truly address this problem. Panelists from a range of fields addressed issues including: the need for evaluations to help state agencies determine which prevention services provide the best return on investment; the fact that children who have experienced sexual abuse are at a heightened risk for mental health problems, infectious and chronic diseases, suicide risk, and negative social outcomes later in life; the major gaps in data and research that exist on this issue, therefore making comprehensive research and evaluation difficult; the need to scale up the evidence base on prevention strategies; the fact that the U.S. takes prosecuting sex offenders very seriously, and spends a massive amount of money responding to sexual abuse with prosecution and incarceration, yet spends very little on prevention programs; and the wide variation and lack of evaluation of various prevention strategies currently used by child and youth-serving organizations.  

The overarching theme of the briefing was that this is an issue that can be prevented, but additional investment is needed to fill in the gaps in the research and data and to evaluate what prevention programs work best. The briefing ended with a call for Congress to provide $10 million in new appropriations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop and evaluate child abuse prevention programs. Speakers included: Deborah Chosewood, Deputy Director, Prevention and Community Support Section, Georgia Division of Family and Children Services; Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau, Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Professor, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Dr. James Mercy, Director, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and C.T. Wilson, Maryland General Assembly Delegate, District 28: Charles County. An archived livestream of the briefing is available here.  

Federal Reports

Reports

New Reports and Briefs from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation 
Several new publications are available from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: 

(1) Participant Perspectives on HPOG 2.0: Design Report for In-Depth Interviews with HPOG 2.0 Program Participants This report presents a research design plan for the in-depth interview study of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) program participants. 

(2) Portfolio of Research in Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency: Fiscal Year 2018 This portfolio of research describes all of the active or newly funded projects of the Division of Economic Independence in fiscal year 2018. 

(3) The Learn Phase: Creating Sustainable Change in Human Services Programs This practice brief provides an overview of the “Learn” phase of the Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2) process—a way for human services leaders to intentionally launch and systematically guide program change and to incorporate evidence and research methods into such efforts. 

(4) Evaluating Training and Professional Development for Home-Based Providers This brief aims to support Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) lead agencies and researchers by summarizing methods used in previous research and evaluation projects on home-based providers.  

(5) Targeting Higher Skills and Healthcare Jobs: How HPOG Grantees Set and Use Performance Goals This report explores how grantees of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) developed their performance goals. 

(6) Developing a State Learning Agenda: The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program This brief is intended to help state MIECHV program staff and evaluators develop a learning agenda and integrate it with programmatic and research and evaluation activities. 

New Reports from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

Several new publications are available from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: 

(1) State Policy Levers for Expanding Family-Centered Medication-Assisted Treatment This report examines a selection of state and local treatment programs targeted to pregnant and parenting women and their families to identify key challenges and opportunities in expanding access to comprehensive, family-centered services and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder for this population. 

(2) Expanding Access to Family-Centered Medication-Assisted Treatment Issue Brief This Issue Brief explains family-centered opioid use disorder treatment approaches, challenges to expanding family-centered treatment, and opportunities for policymakers to address these challenges. 

New Reports and Briefs from the Institute of Education Sciences

Several new reports are available from the National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of Education:   

(1) Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2018 This report profiles current conditions and recent trends in the education of students of differing racial and ethnic groups.  

(2) Findings From the Fifth-Grade Round of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011) This First Look provides an overview of the overall fifth-grade achievement of the students who attended kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year and were in fifth grade in the spring of 2016 using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). 

(3) Dual Enrollment: Participation and Characteristics This Data Point is based on data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) and examines students who took college credit courses during their high school tenure. 

(4) Digest of Education Statistics, 2017 This Digest provides a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of education from prekindergarten through graduate school. 

(5) Cyberbullying and Cell Phone Policy in U.S. Primary and Secondary Schools This Data Point describes principals’ reports of the frequency with which cyberbullying occurred among U.S. students in 2010 and 2016. 

Federal Funding Opportunities

This month’s FFO highlights a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity. The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to encourage research to integrate/harmonize existing data sets from preventive intervention trials implemented early in life to: 1) examine risk and protective factors relevant to later mental health outcomes in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood; and 2) determine whether preventive interventions delivered earlier in life have long-term effects, and/or cross-over effects (e.g., unanticipated beneficial effects), on important mental health outcomes, including serious mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, suicide ideation and behaviors, psychosis behaviors). Letters of intent are due by April 2, 2019. Completed applications are due by 5 pm local time of applicant organization on May 2, 2019. Click here to read about this and other federal funding opportunities.