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Policy Update: September 2019

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Legislative Branch Updates

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FY20 Appropriations: House Passes Stopgap Spending Bill, Senate to Vote This Week

On September 19, the House passed a continuing resolution (CR) that would extend fiscal year (FY) 2019 funding levels for government agencies until November 21. This CR will provide a temporary solution to prevent a government shutdown on October 1, which marks the start of the new fiscal year. The CR passed in the House with strong bipartisan support with a vote of 301-123. The Senate is expected to vote on the CR today, with lawmakers expecting President Trump to sign soon after. Even with the CR in place, both chambers must quickly return to working on resolving differences across all twelve FY20 funding bills as none have been passed into law.

Joint Committee Hearing on Affordability of Raising a Family

On September 10, the Joint Economic Committee held a hearing, “Making it More Affordable to Raise a Family.” Chairman Mike Lee (R-UT) opened the hearing by stating, “For many parents across this country, raising a family is harder and more expensive than ever…The goals of today’s hearing are to examine factors affecting family affordability and to explore policy approaches that may allow more Americans to start and raise the families they desire.” He emphasized, “It should not be this hard to raise a family.” Vice-Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) followed with her opening statement, noting “Today, millions of American families are working longer and harder—not to get ahead—but just to stay in place…Nearly 40 percent of American adults report that they or their families have trouble paying for at least one basic need like food, health care, housing or utilities.”

A panel of witnesses then discussed a number of topics, including: existing tax codes discourage working class families from marriage; the need to increase society’s commitment to parents through a parenting wage or universal child allowance for all families with children; the effectiveness of paid family and medical leave to support families through an increased likelihood of continued employment, higher earnings, and improved mental health; and recommendations such as, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), raise the federal minimum wage, make college and housing affordable, and consider the government’s role in influencing prices in product markets, such as housing and child care prices. Witnesses included: Lyman Stone, Adjunct Fellow, American Enterprise Institute Research Fellow, Institute for Family Studies; Ryan Bourne, R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics, CATO; Dr. Jane Waldfogel, Compton Foundation Centennial Professor for the Prevention of Children’s and Youth Problems, Columbia University School of Social Work; and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO/Executive Director and Co-Founder, MomsRising. View the full hearing and read witness testimony.

Congressional Briefing on Afterschool Programs and Trauma-Informed Approaches

On September 11, the Senate Afterschool Caucus held a briefing, “Afterschool Programs and a Trauma-Informed Approach.” Tiffany Miller, Chief of Staff and Vice President of Policy Communities in Schools, gave opening remarks, emphasizing the key role after school programs play in preventing and responding to trauma. A panel of stakeholders then discussed various topics, including: the emphasis on positive student-teacher relationships in education should be expanded to after school programs; the need for professional development opportunities for program staff to address turnover and burnout, and to provide a viable career path; the importance of incorporating trauma-informed approaches into every step of government processes by realizing trauma exists, accounting for trauma, and avoiding re-traumatizing; the need for each after school program component to be trauma-informed (from the strategic plan to staff self-care) and in collaboration with parents, schools, and mental health clinicians; and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers federal grant program is critical for after school programs, especially with limited availability of state funding.

Panelists included: Allison Dymnicki, Principal Researcher, American Institutes for Research; Laura Norton-Cruz, Director, Alaska Resilience Initiative; Elena Gustafson, Out of School Time Coordinator, Girls Inc. at YWCA Minneapolis; and Erin Spaulding, Senior Vice President of Youth Development and Family Strengthening, Old Colony YMCA. The briefing was hosted in partnership with the Afterschool Alliance, Alaska Children’s Trust – Alaska Afterschool Network, American Institutes for Research (AIR), America Scores, Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, California AfterSchool Network, Coaching Corps, Communities In Schools, Forum for Youth Investment, Girls, Inc., National 4-H Council, National Recreation and Park Association, National Summer Learning Association, Schools Out Washington and the YMCA of the USA. Read a full summary of the briefing.

Additional Hearings of Interest

House Subcommittee Hearing on Gun Violence & Trauma-informed Practices in Education

On September 11, the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education of the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing, “The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practices in Education to Assist Students Impacted by Gun Violence and Other Adversities.” Witnesses included: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California Surgeon General, State of California; Dr. Ingrida Barker, Associate Superintendent, McDowell County Schools, Welch, WV; Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Oklahoma State Department of Education; and Dr. Janice K. Jackson, Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Public Schools. View the full hearing and read witness testimony.

House Subcommittee Hearing on Mental Health Needs of Children in HHS Custody

On September 18, the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies of the House Committee on Appropriations held a hearing, “Oversight Hearing: Mental Health Needs of Children in HHS Custody.” Witnesses included: Jonathan Hayes, Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Ann Maxwell, Assistant Inspector General, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Jonathan White, Commander, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. View the full hearing and read witness testimony.

House Subcommittee Hearing on Unaccompanied Children

On September 19, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing, “Protecting Unaccompanied Children: The Ongoing Impact of the Trump Administration’s Cruel Policies.” Witnesses included: Jonathan Hayes, Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Jonathan White, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Ann Maxwell, Assistant Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections, Office of Evaluation and Inspections, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and John R. Modlin, Acting Deputy Chief of Law Enforcement Operational Programs, Law Enforcement Operations Directorate, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. View the full hearing and read witness testimony.

House Subcommittee Hearing on STEM Engagement

On September 19, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies of the House Committee on Appropriations held a hearing, “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement.” Witnesses included: Michael Kincaid, Associate Administrator for STEM Engagement, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and Dr. Karen Marrongelle, Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation for Education and Human Resources. View the full hearing and read witness testimony.

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Executive Branch Updates

Highlights

HHS Inspector General Releases Report: Addressing Mental Health Needs of Children in HHS Custody

In September, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report on the challenges faced by care providers in addressing the mental health needs of children in Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody. The ORR, within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at HHS, manages the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Program, serving children who arrive in the U.S. unaccompanied or who are separated from parents or legal guardians by immigration authorities. The 1997 Flores Settlement outlines the national standards for the treatment of children without legal immigration status who are in U.S. custody, including children’s receipt of mental health and medical services. The HHS OIG provides oversight of the UAC Program and has produced a series of reports to date. The present report is based on fieldwork conducted in 45 of the 102 ORR-funded facilities operating in August and September of 2018, involving interviews with approximately 100 mental health clinicians in regular contact with children, medical coordinators, facility leaders (including lead mental health clinicians), as well as 28 ORR field specialists. The interviews were conducted during a period of rapidly expanding numbers of children, making it possible to focus on the challenges of and addressing the mental health needs of children who had experienced separation and caring for children who were younger during a period of influx.

The report concludes that “intense trauma was common among children who entered care provider facilities” (p. 9). According to mental health clinicians and program directors, in their countries of origin, some children had experienced physical or sexual abuse, had been kidnapped or raped, or had witnessed the rape or murder of family members. Further, some children experienced or witnessed violence in transit to the U.S. border, such as being abducted by a gang and held for ransom. In the U.S., according to those interviewed, some faced additional trauma when separated from a parent or guardian. “Given the level of intense trauma that children had experienced before coming into HHS care, mental health clinicians expressed concerns that they were not able to address the children’s mental health issues” (p. 9). Clinicians pointed to uncertainty about duration of stay in a facility as one contributing factor: clinicians were wary of initiating treatment that involved revisiting trauma that they might not be able to address through therapy over time. They also expressed concerns about being unprepared given the level of trauma in some children, despite their training.

Care providers reported that “separated children exhibited more fear, feelings of abandonment, and post-traumatic stress than did children who were not separated…For example, some separated children expressed acute grief that caused them to cry inconsolably” (p. 10). Children were confused and sometimes angry if they believed their parents had abandoned them or sometimes felt fear or guilt about their parents’ welfare. Gaining trust from separated children was reported to be extremely difficult. Guidance on how to handle reunifications was reported to have changed frequently, leading to uncertainty about how or when reunification would happen. Further, “faced with a sudden and dramatic increase in young children, staff reported feeling challenged to care for children who presented different needs from the teenagers they typically served” (p. 12). Care providers pointed to increases in length of stay resulting in some children who had not shown mental health issues initially becoming increasingly distressed over time. Further, facilities reported challenges with hiring and retaining mental health clinicians, especially those fluent in the children’s home languages and in rural areas; challenges in accessing external mental health specialists; and issues with Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) for children with significant mental health needs being at capacity. The clinicians felt that high caseloads and the presence of children who needed more intensive mental health care when there was no room at RTCs limited their effectiveness.

The OIG made six recommendations to ACF to address the challenges described in the report: (1) Identify and disseminate evidence-base approaches to addressing trauma in short-term therapy; (2) Develop and implement strategies to assist provider facilities in overcoming obstacles to hiring and retaining qualified mental health clinicians; (3) Assess whether to establish maximum caseloads for individual mental health clinicians; (4) Help care provider facilities improve their access to mental health specialists; (5) Increase therapeutic placement options for children who require more intensive mental health treatment; and (6) Take all reasonable steps to minimize the time that children must remain in ORR custody (pp.18-21). ACF has concurred with all of the report’s recommendations, describing plans to address recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 6, with some of the plans already underway. While concurring with recommendations 4 and 5, ACF did not describe specific plans to address these and noted challenges to expanding the number of therapeutic treatment options in ORR’s network. The report includes the full text of ACF’s comments and further responses from the OIG.

NICHD Appoints New Deputy Director

On September 3, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Heath and Human Development (NICHD) announced the appointment of Alison Cernich, Ph.D., as the Institute’s new Deputy Director. Dr. Cernich is a neuroscientist with expertise in cognitive neuroscience. Since 2015, Dr. Cernich has served as the Director of NICHD’s National Center for Rehabilitation Medicine, also playing a key role in the revision of NICHD’s Strategic Plan and representing NICHD in such trans-NIH initiatives as the All of Us Program. She came to NICHD from the Department of Veteran Affairs, where she served as Deputy Director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. In announcing the appointment, Dr. Diana Bianchi, Director of NICHD, noted that “Dr. Cernich is a national leader in rehabilitation medicine who has worked with multiple federal agencies to coordinate and optimize research resources in this field.” Read the press release about the appointment.

NICHD Releases Strategic Plan 2020

Dr. Diana Bianchi, Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), announced on September 18 the release of the NICHD Strategic Plan 2020, describing funding and research priorities for the Institute for Fiscal Years 2020-2024. The Plan was developed through a planning process that began in 2018 and involved consultation with stakeholders, including a working group and a Request for Information that elicited 924 comments (see SRCD's response), and a portfolio analysis. NICHD’s new Mission Statement states “NICHD leads research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all.”

The Strategic Plan includes five core themes and an additional five cross-cutting topics. The five themes include: (1) Understanding the Molecular, Cellular, and Structural Basis of Development – studying genetic regulatory networks to inform birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders; (2) Promoting Gynecologic, Andrologic, and Reproductive Health – fostering fertility management and minimizing the impact of gynecologic and andrologic disease and conditions; (3) Setting the Foundation for Healthy Pregnancies and Lifelong Wellness – optimizing outcomes of pregnancy for mothers and children; (4) Improving Child and Adolescent Health and the Transition to Adulthood – understanding typical and atypical development, sensitive periods for treatment and prevention, and healthcare needs during the transition from adolescence to adulthood; and (5) Advancing Safe and Effective Therapeutics and Devices for Pregnant and Lactating Women, Children, and People with Disabilities – accommodating the unique needs of these vulnerable populations in the use of therapies and devices. The five cross-cutting topics, intended to be integrated into each of the five themes, include: (1) Health Disparities, (2) Disease Prevention, (3) Infectious Disease, (4) Nutrition, and (5) Global Health.

The Strategic Plan also includes a set of aspirational goals, such as enhancing the survival of preterm infants through environmental interventions; accelerating efforts to diagnose, prevent, and treat endometriosis; and capitalizing on genomic advances to facilitate the use of precision medicine in children. Lastly, the Strategic Plan outlines a set of commitments to scientific stewardship, and management and accountability. These include areas such as promoting an inclusive scientific workforce, facilitating data sharing, monitoring and evaluating programs, and improving administrative efficiency.

Additional Updates of Interest

NICHD Advisory Council Meeting

The National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council held a meeting on September 18 to make recommendations to and advise the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) director. View the recording of the meeting.

Federal 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) Evaluation of Employment Coaching for TANF and Related Populations: Evaluation Design Report. This report describes the design of the Evaluation of Employment Coaching, an evaluation designed to examine the effectiveness and implementation of coaching interventions that aim to help low-income individuals succeed in the labor market.

(2) National Evaluation of the Second Generation of Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) Design Plan for Cost-Benefit Analysis. This report presents a design plan to conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis as part of the National Evaluation of the Second Generation of HPOG 2.0.

(3) Rapid Learning: Methods for Testing and Evaluating Change in Social Service Programs. This brief summarizes the OPRE 2018 Innovative Methods Meeting on topics related to rapid learning methods.

(4) Welfare Rules Databook: State TANF Policies as of July 2018. This report provides tables containing key Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policies for each state as of July 2018, as well as longitudinal tables describing various state policies for selected years between 1996 and 2018.

(5) Testing Two Subsidized Employment Models for TANF Recipients: Final Impacts and Costs of the Los Angeles County Transitional Subsidized Employment Program. This report presents a study that evaluated two approaches to subsidized employment for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in Los Angeles County.

(6) Creating a Trauma-Informed System of Care for Formerly Incarcerated Dads. This brief describes how fatherhood programs serving men in reentry can infuse their programming with the principles and elements of a trauma-informed system of care to support fathers and staff who have experienced trauma.

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

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

(1) Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) Demonstration Program: Report to Congress, 2018. This report highlights participating states’ CCBHC activities that have been associated with improving access to a comprehensive range of treatment and recovery support services.

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) Considerations for Using the School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) Classification System in High School Transcript Studies: Applications for Converting Course Codes from the Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC). This report describes the high school course coding system used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1980 when NCES began collecting high school transcripts, the coding system developed for transcripts collected for a secondary-level cohort in each subsequent decade, and a crosswalk developed to translate data across the two coding systems.

(2) Career and Technical Education Course-taking in 2013, by Locale. This report examines course-taking in career and technical education among public school graduates from city, suburban, town, and rural high schools.

(3) The Postsecondary Education and Employment Pathways of Minnesota Public High School Graduates: Investigating Opportunity Gaps. This report presents a study that examined the postsecondary education and employment pathways of Minnesota public high school graduates one year after graduation and their college certificate, degree attainment, and employment outcomes six years after graduation.

(4) Trends in Graduate Student Financing: Selected Years, 2003–04 to 2015–16. This report presents data from four administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (2003–04, 2007–08, 2011–12, and 2015–16) showing trends in how graduate students financed their education.

(5) Forum Guide to Personalized Learning Data. This guide is designed to assist education agencies as they consider whether and how to use personalized learning.

(6) Private School Universe Survey (PSS): Public-Use Data File User’s Manual for School Year 2017–18. This report is the User’s Manual for the 2017-2018 PSS public-use data file, including the code book.

(7) Trends in Ratio of Pell Grant to Total Price of Attendance and Federal Loan Receipt. This report examines trends in the total price of attendance covered by Pell Grants and the percentage of Pell Grant recipients who receive federal student loans in academic years 2003–04, 2007–08, 2011–12, and 2015–16.

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Child and Family Policy Organizations: Updates

Children’s Budget 2019: Federal Budget and the Racial Generation Gap

On September 10, First Focus on Children released their annual Children’s Budget 2019 report and held a release event, “Children’s Budget Summit 2019.” The event began with a presentation by Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus on Children, who pointed to national polls that indicate strong public support for child-related policies, yet the challenge that “…children are often an afterthought” in policy spaces. He encouraged advocates to cross sectors in order to represent children’s voices in all policy areas. Highlights from the Children’s Budget 2019, include in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019: 82 percent of federal programs for children relied on discretionary funding; the child poverty rate was 62 percent higher than adults; 80 percent of eligible children ages 3-5 did not have access to Head Start; and 60 percent of households on the housing assistance waiting list were families with children. Further, the FY2020 President’s Budget proposed cutting 44 programs that support children and families. The Children’s Budget 2019 report was supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Dr. Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity, the University of Southern California then gave a presentation, “Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: Kids, Race, and the American Future,” where he stated, “Demographic change and racial anxiety are impacting children.” He described the racial generation gap, a phenomenon resulting from the demographically divergent trends of the increasingly diversifying younger U.S. population with the increasingly aging and disproportionately White decision-makers in the U.S. He mentioned, “The bigger the racial generation gap, the lower the spending,” citing examples from California where the state faced its peak racial generation gap in 1994-1999, which paralleled with policies such as the elimination of bilingual education and enactment of the Three Strikes law. Importantly, he noted, the entire U.S. population has just reached its peak racial generation gap spanning from 2016-2018. To read further about the racial generation gap and its implications, read Dr. Pastor’s report, Bridging the Racial Generation Gap Is Key to America’s Economic Future. Following Dr. Pastor’s presentation, Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) presented on her child and family policy priorities, stating “It is not okay to have children in our country who are hungry. It is not okay for teachers to stand in line at a food pantry because they are not paid enough to feed their own children.” She mentioned that “child care and early education should not be a luxury,” and that early care and education entities should be able to “provide not only care, but education for young children.” She also noted, “I always fight for rural communities because they deserve to have what cities have,” and called for comprehensive changes across programs. The final speaker was Marcus Littles, Founder and Senior Partner of Frontline Solutions, who challenged child advocates to answer the following three questions: “(1) Is our advocacy for children extreme enough? (2) What are the tools that we have at our disposal? and (3) Are we conscious of the opposition?” Read further about the Children’s Budget Summit 2019.

Kids’ Share 2019: Federal Spending Trends on Children

On September 17, the Urban Institute hosted an event, “Do Children Have a Seat at America’s Fiscal Table?” which coincided with the release of the 13th edition of their annual report, Kids’ Share 2019: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2018 and Future Projections. Kids’ Share 2019 “…provides an updated analysis of federal expenditures on children from 1960-2018…[and] projects federal expenditures on children through 2029…absent changes to current law.” Sarah Rosen Wartell, President of Urban Institute gave opening remarks, followed by Julia Isaacs, Senior Fellow at Urban Institute who gave an overview of the 2019 report. Highlights from the report include: In 2018, federal expenditures were about $6,200 per child, which was down from 2017 largely due to reduced spending on education and nutritional programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP), and a temporary decrease in child tax credits and reductions. The 2018 federal outlays for children was only about 9 percent of the total federal budget and the report projects that by 2020, interest payments on the federal debt will surpass total spending on children.

A panel of experts then discussed the report findings and its implications, including: the importance of Kids’ Share to shift the deficit debate away from being framed as a long-term problem to an issue affected by decisions made in the present; that data-driven, cost-benefit analyses are critical in framing the need for increased spending on children, yet these analyses can only go so far because the share of federal spending on children is a value statement made by decision-makers; there is enormous inequality in state spending on children - some states will step up to cover decreases in federal investments in children while others will not; and as spending on children declines, ultimately families with more resources will step up to fill the gap, while others with less resources may not be able to do so. Panelists included: Jennifer Brooks, Independent Social Impact Advisor; Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Co-executive Director, Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality; Heather Hahn, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute; Mattie Quinn, Staff Writer, Governing; and Eugene Steuerle, Institute Fellow, Urban Institute. Kids’ Share is an annual report produced by the Urban Institute with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. View the recording of the event and access event materials.

Policy Update: September 2019

Table of Contents

Welcome to the 2019-2020 SRCD U.S. Policy Fellows

Legislative Branch Updates

Highlights

Additional Hearings of Interest

Executive Branch Updates

Highlights

Additional Updates of Interest

Federal Reports

Child and Family Policy Organizations: Updates

U.S. Federal Funding Opportunities