Annie E. Casey Foundation

If you could wave a magic wand to improve the chances of your child succeeding this school year, would you? Parental involvement – a caregiver’s active, ongo­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in their child’s edu­ca­tion – transcends factors such as fam­i­ly income and social status as the key to student success. Research shows that students whose par­ents stay involved in school have better attendance, get better grades and demonstrate better social skills.

Nearly half a million kids in California aged 16 to 24 are “disconnected” - meaning they aren’t in school, employed, or looking for a job. New data from the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book, recently released by our partner the Annie E. Casey Foundation, shows our state not doing nearly enough to support our kids. California ranks an alarming 37th among all states in "Family and Community" and 35th in overall kids' well-being. While California leads the country in some areas, we are failing our kids and threatening our collective future. We can and must do better. Download the full report here: https://bit.ly/3La5epR

Only 1 in 4 eighth graders in the U.S. are scoring at or above proficient — a noticeable decline from pre-pandemic figures. It’s critical that we continue working to ensure all kids have the opportunity to develop the high-level math, reading and digital problem-solving skills necessary to succeed in the workforce. Download the Annie E. Casey Foundation 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book for an in-depth look at the academic successes and challenges of children in your state. https://lnkd.in/grmC2ZRj KPCW: https://lnkd.in/g8GNSNU2

Friday Facts from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Family Ties series. In our 2022 survey of state kinship care policies, we learned that although 40 states have navigator programs, only 28 are available statewide. We were encouraged to see that 32 states do not limit eligibility to families involved in the child welfare system, meaning kinship caregivers can access navigators even if the child hasn’t been placed in agency custody. However, looking at services offered by child welfare agencies, we see that only 15 states reported offering kinship navigation services for families in diversion scenarios and 20 states reported offering those services to unlicensed kinship caregivers. In August and September, children across the country head back to school for a new year of learning, connecting, and growing. Children and youth who live with relatives or close family friends can face challenges enrolling in school and participating in school activities – as kin may need help locating the required forms or providing specific documentation of their caretaking arrangements that schools require. Programs like kinship navigators can help kin identify schools and extracurricular programming, complete enrollment paperwork, and access required documents. We must do more to make sure every kinship caregiver has access to the important services and supports that kinship navigator programs can provide. You can read more about kinship navigator survey findings at https://lnkd.in/epXBTkBX and more about services available to children and kin at https://lnkd.in/e2cRKHfH

“This is the first time that we've been having a national conversation about young people's mental health… At the federal level, at the state level, at the local level, there has been this real effort to make sure that young people have access to the services that they need.”

New publication: The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Research and Evaluation team developed a set of adaptable guiding questions to foster a common approach to ensure the studies they commission advance equity and incorporate principles from our Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide (https://lnkd.in/eXDrgBvR). Those questions are now available for all to use to enhance their research and evaluation work.

In July, Jim Casey Fellows from the 2023 cohort gathered in Baltimore to participate in the Advanced Youth Leadership Institute. These Fellows worked with a local partner to codesign an action plan to support young people who are in and transitioning from foster care.

I'm excited about this new publication from the Annie E. Casey Foundation -- "Guiding Questions to Advance Equity in Evaluation and Research." The report -- and an accompanying set of templates/PDFs -- provide flexible, adaptable questions to help researchers, evaluators, funders and their community partners apply equity-centered principles to the studies they commission and conduct. #Evaluation #Research #RacialEquityAndInclusion

“While CARE alone can­not solve Amer­i­ca’s child care cri­sis, it bold­ly tack­les one of the sys­tem’s most press­ing issues — the over­whelm­ing demand for qual­i­ty care that far out­strips the avail­able sup­ply, par­tic­u­lar­ly in under­served and under­priv­i­leged fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties.” – Lau­ra Kohn, vice pres­i­dent of Care and Edu­ca­tion at Mis­sion Dri­ven Finance

What is Colorado doing to improve child well-being? The 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book has been released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a report that uses national and state data across four domains — economic well-being, education, health and family and community — to learn more about how your state is working for kids.  Click here to learn more!