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Policy Update: June 2018

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SRCD News Related to Child and Family Policy

New Statement of the Evidence from SRCD's Latino Caucus on the Effects of Family Separation

A just-released statement of the evidence, authored by expert members of SRCD’s Latino Caucus, describes scientific evidence on the effects off child separation and the implications for public policy. This synthesis of the evidence addresses reunification and provides clear guidance for future administrative policies and practices. The full statement of evidence, The Science is Clear: Separating Families has Long-term Damaging Psychological and Health Consequences for Children, Families, and Communities, a full list of references, and a downloadable PDF of the brief are all available here.

New Social Policy Report and Brief

SRCD has recently released a new Social Policy Report and Social Policy Report Brief by Dr. Harriett Romo and colleagues entitled “Changing Demographics of Dual Language Learners and English Learners: Implications for School Success.” The report focuses on the importance of the demographic diversity of the large and growing population of dual language learners and English learners in the U.S. and the implications of the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Visit the SRCD website or follow the links above to read the full Social Policy Report and the two-page Social Policy Report Brief.

Spotlight on the SRCD Policy Fellow

Erin Cannon, Ph.D., is an Executive Branch Fellow whose placement is in the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families. Click here to learn more about her work, including her role with the National Survey of Early Care and Education.

Legislative Branch Updates

FY19 Appropriations: CJS, Labor-HHS-ED Bills Advance

With the end of fiscal year 2018 rapidly approaching, House and Senate Appropriations Committees are working to advance as many of the 12 appropriations bills as possible prior to the August recess. The key appropriations bills that fund research agencies of interest to SRCD members are the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) bill and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-ED) bill. Please see below for recent updates on these bills of interest, or last month’s Policy Update for a summary of the House CJS bill.  

Senate Committee Advances CJS Bill 
On June 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up and approved S. 3072, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2019. This bill provides funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the U.S. Census Bureau, and several other federal statistical agencies. The Senate CJS bill provides a total of $63 billion in funding for FY19, an increase of $3.4 billion above the FY18 funding level. It is also a slight increase over the House CJS bill, which passed out of committee on May 17 and provided $62.5 billion in funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced the measure on a 31-1 vote. Highlights of the Senate CJS bill that may be of interest to SRCD members include:  

  • National Science Foundation (NSF): The bill includes $8.069 billion for NSF, an increase of $301 million compared to the FY18 funding level, but slightly lower than the amount proposed in the House CJS bill.  
  • National Institute of Justice (NIJ): The bill includes $42 million for NIJ, the same amount of funding it received in FY18 and $2 million below the amount proposed in the House CJS bill. 
  • Census Bureau: The bill includes $3.821 billion for the Census Bureau, an increase of $1.007 billion compared to the FY18 funding level. 

Additional details are available in the committee report. The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.  

House Subcommittee Advances Labor-HHS-ED Bill 
On June 15, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee advanced a $177.1 billion spending bill for FY19. The bill provides $89.2 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, an increase of $1.1 billion compared to FY18; $71 billion for the Department of Education, an increase of $43 million compared to FY18; and $12.1 billion for the Department of Labor, a decrease of $89 million compared to FY18. The bill now goes to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration. Congressional Quarterly reports that the markup will “likely be contentious” as the “total allocation the House is providing for the three departments did not change from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2019, meaning that increases to programs favored by the Republican majority would come at the expense of other programs, to the chagrin of Democrats.” 

There is likely to be movement on these and other appropriations bills in the next week. The July edition of Policy Update will include updates from the full committee markups.

Updates on House and Senate Opioid Legislation

Multiple pieces of legislation related to the opioid crisis have been moving in both the House and the Senate over the last month. Please see below for brief summaries of some of the opioid related legislation currently in play.  

On June 12, the House of Representatives passed by voice vote 25 bills related to the opioid epidemic sent to the House floor by the Energy and Commerce Committee. These include: 

  • H.R. 449, which would require a report from the Surgeon General on the increased use of synthetic drugs by youth ages 12 to 18, 
  • H.R. 4684, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and publish best practices for operating recovery housing programs, and 
  • H.R. 5002, which would make it easier for the National Institutes of Health to support research on opioid use disorder.  

A full list of bills passed by the House on June 12 is available on the House Energy and Commerce website.  

The House passed several additional pieces of opioid legislation between June 13 and June 15 and expects to continue at a rapid pace through this week. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stated at a June 13 press conference that the House is “spending this week and next week passing more than 70 bills dealing with this addiction.” The bills passed last week include:  

  • H.R. 5891, which would establish an interagency task force to improve the federal response to families impacted by substance abuse disorders, 
  • H.R. 5890, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide guidance to states for assuring the safe care of infants affected by prenatal substance use, and 
  • H.R. 5735, which would allocate 10,000 housing vouchers to be set aside for people recovering from a substance use disorder. 

On June 13, leaders from the House Ways and Means and the House Energy and Commerce committees also announced a large bipartisan bill package that would combine a number of House-passed bills and would serve as a vehicle to move multiple opioid-related measures over to the Senate. 

On the Senate side, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved a bipartisan package to address the opioid crisis on June 12. This package contains 22 bills, including provisions to expand telehealth access for addiction treatment, remove Medicaid lifetime limits for medication-assisted treatment, and support treatment through family-focused residential programs. The committee estimates that this legislative package will cost $162 million over 10 years. This legislation has not yet been considered by the full Senate. 

House Subcommittee Hearing on Homeless Children and Youth Act

On June 6, the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “Legislative Review of H.R. 1511, the Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2017.” Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI), Chairman of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, opened the hearing by noting that the definition of homelessness used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) does not match the definition used by other federal agencies, and that the subcommittee will use this briefing to “uncover how HUD’s definition is creating barriers and impacting our federal government’s ability to keep our families out of poverty.” Subcommittee Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) used his opening statement to discuss the lengthy waiting lists for current housing programs and noted that while he supports the effort to expand HUD’s definition of homelessness, “this expansion could add millions of people to already strained waiting lists without providing additional funding…this proposal could make it even more difficult for children already on waiting lists to receive help.” Steve Stivers (R-OH), who introduced H.R. 1511, also provided brief opening remarks, stating “most Americans would consider Housing and Urban Development to be the flagship agency in the effort to prevent homelessness. Consequently, they might be surprised to learn that it uses the most restrictive definition of homelessness,” and noting that child homelessness has increased in the U.S. in recent years. 

Witnesses then provided testimony on a range of issues including: that H.R. 1511 would allow homeless children and youth whose homelessness has been verified by one of eight federal agencies to be assessed for services, rather than basing their eligibility on HUD’s very narrow definition; that communities have seen improvement in recent years in rehousing chronically homeless individuals relatively quickly, but at the same time the affordable housing crisis has been getting worse; discussion of how “point-in-time” (PIT) counts are often not accurate, since these only count individuals living on the street or in shelters during a single night; discussion of the unique challenges that rural communities face in addressing homelessness, such as geographically spread out shelter facilities and difficulty conducting PIT counts in very rural areas; and the importance of increasing local flexibility so that communities can better meet the unique needs of the homeless populations in their particular jurisdictions. Witnesses included: Steve Berg, Vice President, Programs and Policy, National Alliance to End Homelessness; Barbara Duffield, Executive Director, SchoolHouse Connection; Kat Lilley, Deputy Executive Director, Family Promise of Colorado Springs; and Millie Rounsville, Chief Executive Officer, Northwest Wisconsin Community Services Agency. Click here to watch the full hearing and read witness testimony.  

Congressional Briefing on Unlocking College Opportunity for Today's Students

On June 12, Higher Learning Advocates hosted a congressional briefing entitled “Unlocking College Opportunity for Today’s Students.” The briefing highlighted the increasingly diverse range of students enrolling in higher education, who must balance an array of situations and responsibilities, such as working while attending classes, parenting, and returning to school after joining the workforce. The President of the Campaign for College Opportunity, Michele Siqueiros, opened the briefing by noting that it is important to implement policy changes “to make colleges student-ready,” stressing the difficulty for many students to graduate because institutions have not changed to meet their needs.  

Panelists then discussed a wide range of issues, including: barriers to graduation due to budget allocations that provide institutions of higher education primarily with enrollment-based funding rather than student success-based funding; the need to change institutional incentives to encourage racial equity; the lack of a streamlined transfer process from community college to the state university system; suggestions for improving both federal and state policy, such as by changing eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant or allocating more state funds towards financial aid so that there are more financial supports for both recent high school graduates as well as adults to attend community and technical colleges; and the need to reform the remedial course system in community colleges so that students are taking the appropriate courses towards attaining a degree rather than being held back unnecessarily. All panelists noted that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) poses a barrier to many prospective students because it is very complicated to complete, and discussed the need to simplify the application process. Speakers included: Mike Krause, Executive Director, Tennessee Higher Education Commission; Raquel Gonzalez, Administrative Assistant, Campaign for College Opportunity; and Michele Siqueiros, President, Campaign for College Opportunity. 

Congressional Briefing on Community-Based Approaches to the Opioid Crisis

On June 18, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) hosted a congressional briefing entitled “Using Data to Drive Community-Based Approaches to the Opioid Crisis.” Cheryl Vince, Senior Vice President and Institute Fellow at AIR provided a brief welcome and overview of the topic before turning it over to Dr. Avenel Joseph, Director of Policy and Oversight for Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA). Dr. Joseph discussed the scope of the opioid crisis, noting that it has become particularly deadly in the last few years with the increasing availability of fentanyl. She also noted that the FY18 omnibus funding bill included funding for addiction treatment and recovery services, and discussed the recently introduced bipartisan bill, S. 2931, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop national milestones to measure progress in reducing the opioid epidemic over a five-year period based on certain metrics such as overdoses, ER visits, and treatment admissions. 

Panelists then discussed a range of issues related to using data in community-based approaches, including: the need for data to not only be usable but to be quickly usable when informing decisions related to substance use and recovery; the importance of creatively using data in this field, for example, by using raw data from first responders to rapidly track “surges” in overdoses and be able to quickly alert the public; the need to also collect data at the local level through the use of surveys in schools and of health providers and faith communities; and a discussion of using data to illustrate the need for more recovery programs focused on providing holistic treatment options, including trauma-informed care plans for children with a parent struggling with opioid addiction. Panelists included: Susan Heil, Principal Researcher, AIR; Marian Ryan, District Attorney, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; and Xavier Andrews, Executive Director, Prevention Alliance of Lauderdale County (TN) Anti-Drug Coalition. More information is available from the event’s live twitter feed or AIR’s Center for Multi-System Solutions to the Opioid Epidemic. 

Executive Branch Updates

National Advisory Mental Health Council Meeting

The National Advisory Mental Health Council met on May 17 to advise the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The director of NIMH, Dr. Joshua Gordon, opened the meeting with the director's report, which provided updates on funding, participation in events on Capitol Hill, and updates from various workgroups, large cohort studies, and new initiatives that NIMH participates in. Dr. Gordon discussed a number of events NIMH has recently been involved in on Capitol Hill, including: a briefing focused on the BRAIN initiative with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus; a roundtable discussion with six members of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus that focused primarily on suicide in the United States; and briefings that NIMH staff spoke at focused on translational research and suicide risk, youth suicide research, and preventing suicide in older adults. It was noted that there is a major focus on suicide prevention in Congress right now, which aligns well with NIMH's priorities. Regarding funding, Dr. Gordon noted that following the omnibus funding bill that passed earlier this year, "the budget picture looks pretty good" and that NIMH expects to award approximately 600 grants in FY18 with an estimated success rate of 23%, a slight increase from recent years. The omnibus also provided a substantial funding boost for the BRAIN initiative. 

Dr. Gordon then provided brief updates on a number of workgroups and large cohort studies in which NIMH participates, including: the Genomics Workgroup, the Research Domain Criteria Changes to the Matrix (RDoC CMAT) Workgroup, the Adolescent Cognitive Brain Development (ABCD) Study, the All of Us Initiative, the new Helping End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Initiative, and the BRAIN Initiative Workgroup and annual investigators meeting.  Additional details on these initiatives and workgroups are available in the Spring 2018 Inside NIMH Newsletter. In addition to the director’s report, presentations were given on: updates from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), the inclusion of women and minorities in NIMH research, and an update from the RDoC CMAT workgroup. The meeting agenda is available here, and a webcast of the meeting is available here.

National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council Meeting

The National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council met on June 7 to advise the director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The director of NICHD, Dr. Diana Bianchi, opened the meeting with the director’s report, which provided updates on the budget, NICHD’s strategic planning process, the new Trans-NIH Pediatric Research Consortium, progress towards inclusion, and recommendations from the Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant Women and Lactating Women (PRGLAC). Regarding the budget, Dr. Bianchi noted that both NIH as a whole and NICHD specifically received large funding increases in the FY18 omnibus spending bill, with NICHD’s appropriated budget increasing by $75 million compared to the FY17 funding level. This is in part because NICHD plays a large role in several trans-NIH initiatives that got funding boosts, including: the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, which is focused on speeding up scientific solutions to stem the opioid crisis; Act II of the Advancing Clinical Trials in Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (ACT NOW) study; and the just announced InCLUDe study, a trans-NIH initiative focused on Down Syndrome. Dr. Bianchi concluded her budget update by noting that she testified at one of the FY19 budget hearings for NIH and was asked by members of Congress about research on Down Syndrome, PRGLAC, and maternal mortality issues, indicating that members of Congress are interested in many of NICHD’s key issues.  

Regarding strategic planning, Dr. Bianchi noted that NICHD has not had a strategic plan since 2000, although they did have a visioning process in 2012, and that they will not be redoing the strategic plans that have been done more recently for specific subsets of the institute. NICHD has been working on pre-planning as well as collecting and analyzing data since the beginning of this year, will begin developing objectives this month and will continue developing them through the fall. The end goals of the strategic planning process are to determine the scientific priorities for NICHD moving forward and to align resources with these priorities. An overview was then given of the new Trans-NIH Pediatric Research Consortium, which seeks to harmonize efforts in child health research across the 27 institutes at NIH and enhance communication between NIH, advocacy groups, and Capitol Hill. Dr. Bianchi concluded her director’s report with a brief update on progress towards including more children, pregnant and lactating women, and people with intellectual and physical disabilities in research, as well as the recommendations from the PRGLAC Task Force. In addition to the director’s report, several divisions and offices provided updates, and a presentation was given on innovative models for preventing school readiness disparities in pediatric primary care. The meeting agenda, additional resources, and selected presentations from the meeting are available here, and a webcast of the event is available here.  

Federal Reports and Requests

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) Child and Family Development Research - Fiscal Year 2017 This report describes the research and evaluation activities undertaken by OPRE’s Division of Child and Family Development (DCFD) in 2017. Included are brief descriptions of projects conducted by DCFD during 2017 in early childhood research, child care, Head Start and Early Head Start, child welfare, cultural diversity, and human trafficking. 

(2) Parents and Children Together: Effects of Two Healthy Marriage Programs for Low-Income Couples This report summarizes findings from the Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation of healthy marriage programs to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the programs for low-income families.   

(3) Parents and Children Together: Effects of Four Responsible Fatherhood Programs for Low-Income Fathers This report summarizes findings from the Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation of responsible fatherhood programs to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the programs for low-income families.   

(4) Integrating Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) and Employment Services: Design Choices of Two HMRE Grantees This brief describes how grantees implementing relationship education and marriage service programs are integrating HMRE and economic stability services.

(5) Understanding the Intersection Between TANF and Refugee Cash Assistance This report summarizes how state and local systems serve refugees through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) programs.  

(6) Behavioral Buzz: May 2018 - Behavioral Science Interventions in Child Welfare: Challenges and Opportunities This resource summarizes the challenges and opportunities of applying the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self Sufficiency (BIAS) project to the child welfare system.  

New Reports and Briefs 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) Substance Use, the Opioid Epidemic, and the Child Welfare Caseloads: Methodological Details from a Mixed Methods Study This brief describes the research methods used to produce the findings in Substance Use, the Opioid Epidemic, and Child Welfare Caseloads: A Mixed Methods Study. It is part of a series of briefs that discuss the relationship between substance use disorders and the child welfare system. 

(2) Predictive Analytics in Child Welfare: Considerations in Contracting Vendors for Predictive Analytics This guidance document explains contract development for child welfare agencies interested in contracting with a vendor for predictive analysis.

(3) Welfare Indicators and Risk Factors, Seventeenth Report to Congress This annual report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2015 for most indicators and through 2016 for some indicators. 

New Reports 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) Postsecondary Institutions and Cost of Attendance in 2017-18; Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2016-17; and 12-Month Enrollment: 2016-17: First Look (Preliminary Data) This First Look report presents preliminary data findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) fall 2017 collection. 

(2) Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales: Results From the 2015 NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments This study shows where each state's standards fall on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scale and in relation to the NAEP achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. 

(3) Teacher Satisfaction With Salary and Current Job This Data Point describes the percentage of teachers who are satisfied with their salaries for teaching and compares the job satisfaction of teachers who are satisfied and dissatisfied with their teaching salaries. 

(4) A Description of U.S. Adults Who Are Not Digitally Literate This brief uses data from the 2012 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to look at the rate of digitally literacy among adults by demographics, workforce groups, and comparisons to other countries. 

Federal Funding Opportunities

This month’s FFO highlights an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) opportunity intended to provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of (1) developmental and school readiness outcomes for infants and toddlers with or at risk for a disability, (2) education outcomes for all students from early childhood education through postsecondary and adult education, and (3) employment and wage outcomes when relevant (such as for students who engaged in career and technical, postsecondary, or adult education). The National Center for Education Research (NCER) will hold a total of five competitions and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) will hold a total of four competitions. The first application deadline for several competitions is August 9, 2018, and the last deadline is March 7, 2019. Click here to read about these and other funding opportunities.