New & Noteworthy

Despite the important work that they do, child care workers in every state struggle to make ends meet on poverty-level wages, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) at the University of California, Berkeley. Low wages undermine early childhood educators’ well-being and create “devastating financial security well into retirement age,” the authors of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) 2024 Early Childhood Workforce Index said. “How early educators are treated affects how our children learn,” the Workforce Index authors said. “Ensuring educators’ working conditions and well-being enables them to thrive as teachers and caregivers during the most important years of a child’s life.”

Youth advocates and staff with the Juvenile Law Center (JLC) unveiled a new report Wednesday that details unjust experiences and dismal conditions inside the Pennsylvania youth justice and welfare systems. Using the testimonies of young adults who were abused and mistreated as youth in placement facilities alongside supporting research, “Broken Promises: Futures Denied” advocates for increased protections and a reprioritization of the needs of children living under congregate care and the juvenile justice system.

Decades of research have shown that children who are born into low-income households have less access to opportunities like high-quality child care and afterschool activities. Now, a 26-year longitudinal study has quantified the severity of this opportunity gap for the first time, as well as the sizable impact this has on children as they grow into young adults.

The wait is over. Four years after Oakland voters approved Measure QQ—and eight years after Berkeley voters passed a similar measure—the youth vote will be a reality this fall. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds in Oakland and Berkeley will be able to cast their votes for school board directors in November, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced Wednesday. The cities will be the first in California to lower the voting age in school board elections.

The Count All Kids Campaign has released a report — The Changing Young Child Population of the United States: First Data from the 2020 Census — that points to important trends about young children from birth to age 4. A key caveat, the report says, is that in the 2020 Census, young children were undercounted by 5.4%, which is higher than any other age group. Among the most undercounted are Black and Hispanic children who “were missed at a higher rate than non-Hispanic young white children.” Undercounts also varied by state. Florida had the largest undercount of -9.87%; and Vermont had the smallest at 0.02%. Collecting accurate data is crucial because Census numbers are used to allocate federal funding for child-friendly programs such as Head Start, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Undercounting children leads to inadequate funding for these programs.

The W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation awarded approximately $2.1 million in grants in the Spring of 2024. Please visit our Grants Awarded section for detailed descriptions.

As Chicago Public Schools prepares to eliminate resource officer positions districtwide, a new study found removing police from city schools has not led to increased disciplinary issues, nor did it make students and staff feel less safe. The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research on Wednesday published a new report examining the impacts of removing resource officers from Chicago public high schools. “We found teachers’ and students’ reports of their sense of safety did not change significantly after the removal of SROs, based on their responses on 5Essentials Surveys,” Amy Arneson, lead author of the report and a senior research analyst at the Consortium on School Research, said in a statement.

Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation Tuesday creating a new cabinet-level state agency dedicated to early childhood education and development. The new Department of Early Childhood, which will become operational in July 2026, will take over programs currently housed across three state agencies, including funding for preschool programs, child care centers and the licensing of day care centers.

A new report from the nonprofit Council for a Strong America has community leaders advocating for the importance of early childhood education in Peoria. The report, titled “Social Emotional Skills: An Early Childhood Fundamental,” makes the case that strong social-emotional development early in children’s lives lowers the chances of negative short- and long-term outcomes like mental health challenges. It also argues a positive impact on the state’s economy, safety and long-term national security.