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Policy Update: May 2017

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SRCD News Related to Child and Family Policy

New Social Policy Report and SPR Brief

SRCD has recently released a new Social Policy Report and Social Policy Report Brief by Dr. Abbie Raikes and colleagues entitled “Children, Youth and Developmental Science in the 2015-2030 Global Sustainable Development Goals.” The report focuses on the importance of developmental science in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which recognize that the healthy development of children and youth are essential to global development. Visit the SRCD website or follow the embedded links to read the full Social Policy Report and the two-page Social Policy Report Brief.

Register Now: Upcoming Webinar on Pre-K Effects
Date: Wednesday, June 7
Time: 3:30-4:30 pm Eastern
About the Webinar: A growing body of research is looking at the effects of pre-K programs when implemented at scale, rather than at the outcomes of small, tightly controlled demonstration programs. While some of the findings from this body of research are quite consistent, other findings, especially those concerning longer-term effects, are inconsistent and pose challenges to the field. How can this important body of research best be summarized and what are its implications for policy, practice, and research? In April, a group of leading pre-K researchers released six consensus statements based on a careful review of this evidence. Their review considered both immediate and longer term effects of pre-K programs for children, and how best to build on and sustain early effects.
 
During the webinar, Ron Haskins, The Cabot Family Chair, Senior Fellow-Economic Studies, and Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, will address the questions of why a review of the research was important to conduct at this particular time, and why a consensus process was viewed as critical. Deborah Phillips, Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, and Kenneth Dodge, William McDougall Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University, will then present the six consensus statements and provide an overview of the basis in research for each. Webinar participants will have the opportunity to submit questions for the speakers to address during a moderated Q&A.
 
The consensus statements, developed through funding to the Brookings Institution from the Heising- Simons Foundation and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation; and full report, developed through funding to Duke University from SAS, are available on the Brookings Institution website.
 
Click here to register for this webinar.

Spotlight on the SRCD Policy Fellow

Angelique Day, Ph.D., M.S.W, is a Congressional Fellow whose placement is in the office of Congressman Danny K. Davis (IL). Click here to learn more about her work, including contributing to writing a bill to prepare educators to work with students who have experienced trauma.  

Legislative Branch Updates

Fiscal Year 2017 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Signed, Avoiding Government Shutdown

In early May Congress brokered a bipartisan deal to fund the government through the end of fiscal year 2017 (FY17). This omnibus appropriations bill, HR 244, passed both the House and Senate with strong bipartisan support and was signed by the president on May 5. It includes 11 individual appropriations bills and a total of $1.07 trillion in funding. This bill is seen as largely positive for scientific research broadly and the social and behavioral sciences specifically, and includes a sizable increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health. The passage of this omnibus appropriations package signals the end of the FY17 appropriations process. Congress will now turn its attention to appropriations for fiscal year 2018 (See the Executive Branch Updates section below for the information about the president’s FY18 budget request). Details on FY17 funding for research agencies that may be of particular interest to SRCD members are outlined below:

  • The omnibus provides $34.084 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase of 6.2 percent over the FY16 enacted level. This includes $165 million for the National Children’s Study follow-on. NICHD received $1.38 billion, an increase of 3 percent over the FY16 enacted level.
  • The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) received $605.3 million, a decrease of 2.1 percent from the FY16 enacted level.
  • The omnibus provides $7.472 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), an increase of 0.1 percent over the FY16 enacted level. $6.03 billion is allocated to Research and Related Activities, which is where most of NSF’s competitive research programs reside. The omnibus does not include language dictating funding by NSF directorate.

Additional analysis of the FY17 omnibus appropriations bill is available from COSSA and AAAS.

House Passes Health Care Overhaul

On May 4, the House of Representatives passed HR 1628, the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA) with a vote of 217-213. This bill would dismantle major parts of the Affordable Care Act and impose limits to states’ federal Medicaid funding, as well as effectively end the expansion of Medicaid that took place under the Affordable Care Act. The House delayed sending the bill to the Senate for consideration, largely because it passed the House prior to being scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO score estimates the costs and effects of all proposed legislation. A CBO score for the AHCA was released on May 24, indicating that under the proposed legislation, approximately 23 million Americans would lose health care coverage by 2026. Additionally, the CBO estimates that the AHCA would reduce the deficit by $119 billion over ten years. The bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration. Congressional Quarterly reports that the Senate plans to write its own version of the bill, using the House bill as a foundation.

Congressional Briefing on Informing Investments in High-Quality Preschool

On May 5, The Rand Corporation hosted a briefing entitled “Informing Investments in High-Quality Preschool.” Dr. Lynn Karoly, RAND senior economist and professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School presented on available evidence of high-quality preschool programs with a focus on the costs and benefits of such programs. Dr. Karoly pointed to key policy issues in implementing and evaluating high-quality preschool programs, including ensuring access to programs; how to monitor, incentivize, and reward high-quality programs; adequately providing professional development to the preschool workforce; understanding the systems level interaction of early childhood education and elementary education; and financing high-quality programs. Dr. Karoly focused her presentation on several rigorous evaluations of preschool at the national, state, and local levels.  These evaluations provide evidence of the effectiveness of  high-quality preschool, with modest to large effects on development in such areas as early math and reading skills.

The remainder of the presentation focused on how to promote high-quality programs and address issues of fadeout, through methods such as focusing on Pre-K through third grade alignment or shared professional development opportunities for preschool and elementary teachers. Additionally, Dr. Karoly pointed to the importance of providing adequate training and support for preschool teachers. This includes requiring the same educational background and pay for preschool teachers as K-3 teachers and providing professional development focused on strengthening teacher-child interactions, age-appropriate learning standards, and implementation strategies for evidence-based curricula. Dr. Karoly emphasized that while implementation and monitoring of high-quality preschool is expensive, the long term gains outweigh the costs. Outcomes found in program evaluations include reduced usage of special education, increased high school graduation rates, and reduced crime and contact with the criminal justice system later in life. Dr. Karoly also discussed the importance of the measurement of quality, including the development of quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) based on independent assessments of multiple program elements and summarizing them in multipoint scales. There is still work to be done, however, on aligning the quality tiers in QRIS to accurately reflect levels of program quality while also addressing developmental gains. Dr. Karoly concluded the presentation by pointing to the importance of addressing limitations in quality measurement and updating existing funding to adequately address quality.

Congressional Briefing on Addressing Childhood Trauma
On May 11, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Futures Without Violence, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice hosted a Congressional briefing entitled “Addiction, Mental Health, and Violence: The Need to Address Childhood Trauma.” The briefing provided sobering statistics on the incidence of childhood exposure to traumatic experiences and on the accumulation of serious life stressors in children’s lives; provided an overview of how exposure to trauma can affect brain development as well as behaviors in children; and discussed how behavioral manifestations of trauma in children are often misunderstood and addressed by adults punitively rather than in ways that help children recover.  Speakers described the role of federal policies and initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of childhood trauma, emphasizing that evidence-based programs and practices for addressing childhood trauma are now available, and noting the importance of utilizing trauma-informed care approaches not just in settings such as schools but also in juvenile court and detention facilities. Both honorary co-hosts of the briefing, Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) attended the briefing and provided comments, underscoring their awareness of the suffering of children in their states who had experienced trauma from witnessing violence in their homes or neighborhoods, or because of substance abuse by family members, especially noting their concerns with parental opioid addiction. Senators Heitkamp and Durbin are co-sponsors of S.774, the “Trauma Informed Care for Children and Families Act,” which would convene a task force to identify best practices for identification, referral, and support of children and families that had experienced trauma; disseminate best practices for trauma-informed care and evaluate promising strategies; train law enforcement on the effects of trauma and working with youth who had experienced trauma; expand treatment capacity; support workforce development; and encourage better coordination of efforts. Representative Danny Davis (D-IL) has introduced parallel legislation, H.R. 1757, in the House of Representatives. Presenters at the briefing included Kama Encomoto, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mental Health, HHS; Dr. Zach Kaminsky, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; The Honorable Judge Dan H. Michael, Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, TN; and Dr. Joe Wright, MD, MPH, FAAP, Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Howard University College of Medicine.

Executive Branch Updates

President's Budget Request Released for Fiscal Year 2018

On May 23, the White House released the FY 2018 President’s Budget. This follows the previous release in March of the administration’s “skinny budget,” which was a preliminary and pared down version of the budget proposal. The president’s budget lays out the administration’s priorities for federal programs and suggested spending levels. The release of the president’s budget request is the first step in the federal budget process. The budget request will be used as the starting point by Congress and Federal Agencies as they move forward with the appropriations process for fiscal year 2018. Below are highlights for selected federal research agencies.

National Institutes of Health (NIH):

  • Total budget requested: $26.9 billion, 21 percent below the FY17 funding level.

National Science Foundation (NSF):

  • Total budget requested: $6.7 billion, 11.2 percent below the FY17 funding level.

Institute of Education Sciences (IES):

  • Total budget request: $616.8 million, an increase of 1.9 percent over the FY17 funding level.

The budget also proposes eliminating several entire agencies, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. It is important to note that many of these agencies have been targeted for elimination by previous administrations and that Congress has continued to appropriate funds and keep these agencies operational. Since the president’s budget proposal is only the first step in the appropriations process, attention now shifts to Congress. The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) notes that the budget request arrived barely four months before fiscal year 2018 begins on October 1, so it will be “nearly impossible for Congress to complete its work on the FY 2018 appropriations bill on time,” and it is very likely that FY18 will begin under a continuing resolution. COSSA’s full analysis of the president’s budget request is available here.

Friends of NICHD "Meet and Greet" with Dr. Diana Bianchi

On May 3, the Friends of NICHD hosted a meet and greet in Congress with the new director of NICHD, Dr. Diana Bianchi. The Friends of NICHD, for which SRCD serves on the Executive Committee, is a coalition of over 100 organizations formed to support the role of NICHD. This event provided an opportunity for congressional staff to meet and hear comments from Dr. Bianchi about the priorities and opportunities for significant contributions of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the NIH. Dr. Bianchi was named the director of NICHD on August 25, 2016, and assumed the position in the fall. She is a prenatal geneticist whose research has focused on prenatal genomics. She came to NIH after serving as the founding executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute and the vice chair for pediatric research at the Floating Hospital for Children and Tufts Medical Center, as well as the Natalie V. Zucker Professor of Pediatrics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine. 

NSF SBE Advisory Committee Holds Spring Meeting

On May 18 and 19, the Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Advisory Committee met at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Advisory Committee meets twice a year to provide oversight and recommendations to the Directorate on the impact of its programs, management, and performance, as well as NSF-wide policies. Dr. Kenneth Bollen, Chair of the SBE Advisory Committee, opened the meeting with a welcome and introduction to committee members. Dr. Fay Lomax Cook, Assistant Director at NSF for the SBE Directorate, then offered the SBE Directorate update. She outlined the key priorities and initiatives of the SBE Directorate in recent months, as well as discussed upcoming plans for the Directorate and NSF as a whole. Several issues of interest highlighted in Dr. Cook’s update included the budget, the passage of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, and recent National Academies projects. With regard to the budget, she noted that the total NSF budget passed in the omnibus (see summary above in Legislative Branch Updates) was $7.472 billion, an increase of $9 million over FY16. The SBE Directorate will be operating at approximately the same level as it was in FY16. Dr. Cook also briefly discussed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, which was signed into law in January 2017 and reauthorizes NSF. Importantly, this law does not say anything about directorate-level funding. Updates were also given on two upcoming National Academies initiatives that are of interest to those involved in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences: an upcoming workshop on the future of graduate education in the social and behavioral sciences, and an ad hoc committee on the value of social, behavioral, and economic sciences to national priorities.

The Advisory Committee then heard from several guest speakers on an array of topics, as well as from the leadership of each of the three divisions of SBE: the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, the Division of Social and Economic Sciences, and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The importance in the age of evidence-based policymaking of secure and accessible data that can be shared was a common theme throughout several presentations, including discussions of future data challenges in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences; the future of NSF-supported social science surveys; and the importance harnessing data for 21stcentury science, which is one of NSF’s Ten Big Ideas for Future Investment. The two-day meeting concluded with an update on communications and legislative affairs from both NSF staff as well as invited representatives from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) and the Federation of Associations of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) to offer the perspective of SBE-related scientific societies. Click here to learn more about the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Advisory Committee.

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, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

(1) Supporting Healthy Marriages among Fathers with Histories of Incarceration This brief is the first of three in a series on Fatherhood Reentry programs, summarizing efforts to support healthy marriage among program participants.

(2) Promoting the Economic Stability of Fathers with Histories of Incarceration This brief is the second of three in a series on Fatherhood Reentry programs, summarizing program activities used to foster economic stability for participating fathers and their families.

(3) Encouraging Responsible Parenting among Fathers with Histories of Incarceration This brief is the last of three in a series on Fatherhood Reentry programs, summarizing strategies used to provide responsible parenting activities to participating fathers and their families.

(4) Final Implementation Findings from the Responsible Fatherhood Reentry Projects This report is a program evaluation of the Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Projects (“Fatherhood Reentry”).

(5) Reengaging New York City’s Disconnected Youth Through Work: Implementation and Early Impacts of the Young Adult Internship Program This report provides early implementation and impact results from an evaluation of the Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP).

(6) Nudging Change in Human Services: Final Report of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) Project This is the final report and set of resources summarizing the BIAS project, discussing how behavioral insights can help improve human services programs.

(7) Three Innovative Approaches to Serving Low-Income Fathers: The Building Bridges and Bonds Study This brief describes three new program approaches to support low-income fathers for practitioners.

(8) Building Bridges and Bonds: Study Design Report This report describes the Building Bridges and Bonds study, an evaluation of three new program approaches to support low-income fathers.

New Publications from the Institute of Education Sciences

(1) Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2016 This joint annual  report from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics presents school crime and victimization data from 2016.

(2) Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After One Year This report from the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance presents the outcomes of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), the only federally-funded private school voucher program for low income parents in the United States.

(3) The Debt Burden of Bachelor's Degree Recipients This brief from the National Center for Education Statistics summarizes the debt burden on Bachelor’s degree recipients four years after earning their degrees in the 2007-2008 academic year.

(4) The Nation's Report Card: 2016 Arts Assessment at Grade 8 This report from the National Center for Education Statistics presents the national results of eighth-grade students who participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2016 arts assessment.

Federal Funding Opportunities

This month’s FFO highlights a National Institutes of Health funding opportunity that invites researchers to leverage data from existing basic, clinical, and intervention research on suicide risk and behaviors as well as social media and healthcare records data, by encouraging the integration of existing data sets for novel secondary analyses aimed at identifying potential biological, experiential, and other predictors and moderators of suicide risk. Projects supported by this FOA will help address gaps identified in the 2014 Prioritized Research Agenda for Suicide Prevention. Completed applications are due by November 2, 2017. Click here to read about this and other federal funding opportunities.