Policy Update: May 2019

Table of Contents

• Register Now: Upcoming Webinar on Child Welfare Involved Parents
• Spotlight on the SRCD Policy Fellow
• FY20 Appropriations: House Committee Advances Labor-HHS-Education, Commerce-Justice-Science Bills
• House Passes CAPTA Reauthorization
• House Committee Hearing on Paid Family and Medical Leave
• House Committee Hearing on Maternal Mortality
• House Subcommittee Hearing on Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education
• Congressional Briefing on Discriminatory School Discipline
• National Science Foundation Seeks Nominations for Advisory Committees and National Science Board
• NIH Meeting Marks the One-Year Anniversary of the All of Us Research Program
• Reports
• Federal Funding Opportunities

SRCD News Related to Child and Family Policy

Register Now: Upcoming Webinar on Child Welfare Involved Parents
Developing, Implementing and Evaluating an Evidence Informed Supervised Visitation Program for Child Welfare Involved Parents 

Monday, June 10, 1:00-2:00 PM Eastern 

This webinar will share information about the process of creating a new parent support and education program. The Strive Supervised Visitation Program is designed to meet the unique needs of families receiving child welfare services in the context of their supervised visits with their young children. The webinar will address the community based collaborative efforts to create this strengths-based, trauma, evidence, and practice informed program for paraprofessionals, as well as training, implementation, and evaluation strategies, and policy impact. The content of this webinar will be relevant to child welfare direct service providers, administrators, researchers, policymakers, and funders.  

This webinar will be presented by a team from University of Washington Partners for Our Children, including:  

• Susan Barkan, Associate Director of Research and Senior Research Scientist  
• Laurie Lippold, Director of Public Policy  
• Laura Orlando, Strive Project Director  
• Kimberlee Shoecraft, Training and Curriculum Manager 

Click here to register for this webinar.

Spotlight on the SRCD Policy Fellow

Marisa Morin, Ph.D., is a SRCD Congressional Fellow whose placement is in the office of Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) of the Senate Finance Committee. Click here to read about her work on the implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act, a landmark child welfare law passed last year.

Legislative Branch Updates

FY20 Appropriations: House Committee Advances Labor-HHS-Education, Commerce-Justice-Science Bills
On May 8, the House Appropriations Committee marked up and approved its FY2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. This bill had previously been approved by the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee on April 30 and contains approximately $204 billion in spending. The Appropriations Committee passed the bill on a 30-23 vote, indicating that it does not have bipartisan support.

The bill provides $99 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services; however, this does not include funding for two divisions – the Food and Drug Administration and the Indian Health Service – that are funded through other appropriations bills. The bill provides approximately $8.5 billion in new funding for HHS in FY20. There is also $75.9 billion allocated for the Department of Education, an increase of $4.4 billion compared to FY19, and $13.3 billion for the Department of Labor, an increase of $1.2 billion compared to FY19. Specific agency and institute funding included in this bill that may be of particular interest to SRCD members includes: 

• National Institutes of Health (NIH): The bill includes $41.08 billion for NIH, an increase of $2 billion compared to the FY19 funding level. It includes increases for all NIH centers and institutes. 
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The bill includes $1.580 billion for NICHD. 
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): The bill includes $1.489 billion for NIDA. 
  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The bill includes $1.962 billion for NIMH.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): The bill includes $8.2 billion for the CDC, an increase of $920.6 million compared to the FY19 funding level.  
• Institute of Education Sciences (IES): The bill includes $650 million for IES, an increase of $34.5 million compared to the FY19 funding level. 

Additional details are available here in the committee report or here in a detailed summary from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.

On May 22, the House Appropriations Committee marked up and approved its FY2020 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill. This bill had previously been approved by the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee on May 17. The Appropriations Committee passed the bill on a 30-22 vote along party lines. The bill provides a total of $73.9 billion in discretionary spending for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the U.S. Census Bureau, and a number of other federal agencies. Highlights of the House CJS bill that may be of interest to SRCD members include:

• National Science Foundation (NSF): The bill includes $8.64 billion for NSF, an increase of $561 million compared to the FY19 funding level.
• National Institute of Justice (NIJ): The bill includes $37 million for NIJ, providing the same amount of funding as in FY19.
• Census Bureau: The bill includes $8.45 billion for the Census Bureau to conduct the 2020 Census, an increase of $4.63 billion compared to the FY19 funding level.

Additional details are available here in the committee report or here in a detailed summary from the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.

House Passes CAPTA Reauthorization Bill
On May 20, the House passed  H.R. 2480, the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Stronger CAPTA). This bipartisan bill authorizes $580 million in FY20 to fund child abuse prevention and treatment programs, and would authorize “such sums as may be necessary” for FY21-FY25. CAPTA was last reauthorized in 2010. This legislation aims to improve federal child abuse prevention and treatment efforts by: improving the quality of state and federal data and allowing states to quickly and securely share data; expanding prevention services to help families stay together when it is in the child’s best interest; and providing additional support to help child protective services agencies across the country invest in professional development and retention of their staff. Eight bipartisan amendments to the bill were adopted during the House Education and Labor Committee markup on May 8, followed by the committee unanimously approving the bill by voice vote. A full list of amendments offered and adopted is available here. Additional background information and details on other provisions included in H.R. 2480 are available here. This bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

House Committee Hearing on Paid Family and Medical Leave
On May 8, the House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing entitled “Paid Family and Medical Leave: Helping Workers and Employers Succeed.” Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) opened the hearing by stating “no one should be forced to choose between caring for a loved one…and paying their bills,” yet “American families face this choice all too frequently.” He continued by noting that lack of paid leave in the U.S. is not only bad for workers and their families, but it also makes it harder for employers to recruit and retain good workers. Representative Neal concluded his opening remarks with a statement that “researchers have found that access to paid leave increases wages for women with children, increases labor force attachment and participation, reduces use of public assistance, and reduces infant mortality and nursing home admissions.” Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) then gave an opening statement in which he emphasized existing tax credits that benefit working families and noted that over half of U.S. workers currently have access to paid maternity and medical leave. He also expressed concerns about the potential lack of flexibility in a federal paid family and medical leave plan and the need to provide flexibility for local businesses to create plans that meet the needs of their employees and their business.

A panel of witnesses then discussed a wide range of issues, including: that paid family and medical leave provides critical financial stability to lower wage and middle class workers; that many working adults are members of the “sandwich generation” that are both caring for their young children as well as their aging parents; that almost all working people will experience a family or medical caregiving need at some point in their lives, so while paid parental leave is needed, it is not enough; that workers with paid leave are more likely to return to their jobs, helping businesses retain good employees; that there are some concerns about increased taxes associated with a national paid family and medical leave program; and that many employers in states with paid family and medical leave programs have reported benefits such as improved employee morale and reduced employee turnover. Witnesses included: Marisa Howard-Karp, Member, MomsRising; Anthony Sandkamp, Owner, Sandkamp Woodworking; Pronita Gupta, Director of Job Quality, Center for Law and Social Policy; Suzan LeVine, Commissioner, Washington State Employment Security Department; and Rachel Greszler, Research Fellow in Economics, Budget, and Entitlements, Institute for Economic Freedom, the Heritage Foundation. Click here to read witness testimony and here to view the full hearing. 

House Committee Hearing on Maternal Mortality
On May 16, the House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing entitled “Overcoming Racial Disparities and Social Determinants in the Maternal Mortality Crisis.” Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) opened the hearing by noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 60 percent of pregnancy related deaths in the United States are preventable and that racial disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity play out across women of all economic and educational backgrounds. Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) then spoke, stating, “it is more dangerous to give birth in America today than it was two decades ago,” as the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. increased nearly 26 percent between 2000 and 2014. He also discussed data issues, noting that the U.S. lacks an official maternal mortality rate, that more data need to be collected, and that states need to be more consistent in their data collection in order to fully understand the scope of the problem and begin to propose solutions.

Two panels of witnesses then discussed numerous issues related to disparities in maternal mortality and social determinants of health. Topics discussed included: the need to focus on equitable health care access and delivery; that preventable conditions such as hemorrhaging and preeclampsia are driving the increase in maternal mortality; that the available data on maternal mortality are inadequate; the importance of expanding state maternal mortality review committees; and the impact of the opioid crisis on both maternal and child mortality and morbidity. The panelists also discussed several strategies for reducing maternal mortality, including: prioritizing improving the health of girls and women in the U.S. across the life course; learning from every maternal death by creating a national system of state maternal mortality review committees; ensuring the quality and safety of care for all women through protocols such as the maternal safety bundles developed by the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health, which “bundle” resources and best practices by topic for improving safety in maternity care; and identifying, addressing, and eliminating racial bias at various points in the health care system.

Witnesses included: The Honorable Robin Kelly, Member of Congress, 2nd District of Illinois; The Honorable Jaime Herrera Beutler, Member of Congress, 3rd District of Washington; Allyson Felix, U.S. Track and Field Olympian; Dr. Patrice Harris, President-Elect, American Medical Association; Dr. Michael Lu, Senior Associate Dean for Academic, Student, and Faculty Affairs, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University; Dr. Melanie Rouse, Maternal Mortality Projects Coordinator, Virginia Department of Health, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner; Dr. Loren Robinson, Deputy Secretary for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Pennsylvania Department of Health; and Dr. Lisa Hollier, Immediate Past President and Interim CEO, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Click here to read witness testimony and here to view the full hearing.

House Subcommittee Hearing on Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education
On May 9, the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment of the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing entitled “The Cost of Non-Completion: Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education.” Subcommittee Chair Susan Davis (D-CA) opened the hearing by stating, “Congress has a responsibility to ensure that today’s college students have the support they need to make it to graduation day.” She discussed the need for student supports that include “not only academic support, but also wrap-around services such as counseling, child care support, and assistance with food and housing.” Subcommittee Ranking Member Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) followed with his opening statement noting, “Just 58% of [higher education] enrollees graduate in six years” and for “non-traditional students, those numbers can look even worse. These numbers are not okay.” He stated that higher education “institutions should and must have a greater stake in their students' success and reason to help spur [their students] onto the finish line.”

A panel of witnesses then discussed various topics, including: the need for increased and stable funding for public colleges and community colleges that are typically subject to funding cuts first when states are financially pressed; that students with the greatest needs are attending the schools with the fewest resources; that even if students are well-prepared academically, without financial security these students are still at a higher risk for not graduating; the effectiveness and importance of targeted interventions to support students who have historically struggled with retention and graduation rates; and the need to provide comprehensive academic, social, and cultural support services to students. The witnesses included: Susan Dynarski, PhD, MPP, Professor, University of Michigan; M. David Rudd, PhD, President and Distinguished University Professor, The University of Memphis; Pam Y. Eddinger, PhD, President, Bunker Hill Community College; and Kyle Ethelbah, MPH, Director Of Federal TRIO Programs, The University of Utah. Click here to view the full hearing and read witness testimony. 

Congressional Briefing on Discriminatory School Discipline
On May 1, the Learning Policy Institute, Advancement Project, Dignity in Schools Campaign, The Education Trust, Educators for Excellence, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Education Association, Southern Education Foundation, UnidosUS, and UNCF hosted a congressional briefing entitled “Creating Safe and Inclusive Schools: The Federal Role in Addressing Discriminatory School Discipline.” The briefing was held in collaboration with Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR). Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., gave opening remarks, noting that “race plays a critical role in how young children are targeted for discipline” and that we must “fight for the proper role of the federal government to enforce civil rights.” Jessica Cardichon, Director of Federal Policy and Director of the Learning Policy Institute Washington DC Office followed with a presentation outlining the history of the federal role in addressing educational inequities, the impact of zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, federal guidance on school discipline, and research-based best practices to create safe and inclusive learning environments. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) then gave brief remarks, emphasizing the issues of widespread bias in school disciplinary practices and how students of color are disproportionately affected by inequities in public education. She mentioned the role of the federal government by stating, “we [the federal government] cannot give less guidance to schools.” 

A panel of experts then discussed a variety of topics, including: school discipline policies such as zero-tolerance policies that make schools less safe; schools that create discriminatory policies against students and parents of color through an unwelcoming culture and climate; the need for restorative justice practices in place of punitive disciplinary practices; the importance of including instructional and structural changes in restorative justice practices; the importance of building a caring community with trusting relationships between students and teachers; the job of the federal government to protect the rights of students and to make sure racial and other forms of discrimination are not happening in public schools; and the importance of continuing to push federal, state, and local governments to address discriminatory school disciplinary practices. Panelists included: Ashley Harrington, Director, National Social Justice Program, UNCF (moderator); Lynn Jennings, Senior Director of National and State Partnerships, The Education Trust; Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, National Field Organizer, Dignity in Schools Campaign; Carolyne Quintana, Principal, Bronxdale High School; and Johanna Molina, Senior, Bronxdale High School, President, Peer Mediation Club. Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of the Advancement Project National Office, gave closing remarks discussing additional solutions such as the need for the adults in  schools to work on their implicit biases, the need to increase federal funding towards improving school climate and implementing alternative disciplinary solutions, and the need for more school counselors, social workers, and mental health workers in schools. Click here for more information and to view the full briefing. 

Executive Branch Updates

National Science Foundation Seeks Nominations for Advisory Committees and National Science Board
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is seeking recommendations for membership to its advisory committees. All advisory committees and technical boards are accepting recommendations, but two that might be of particular interest to SRCD members are The Advisory Committee for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science (SBE), which advises the Directorate on matters pertaining to support for research, education, and human resources in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, and the Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee (EHR), which provides guidance and recommendations to NSF’s science and engineering programs and focuses heavily on STEM education. Recommendations for advisory committee positions must include a CV, expression of interest, and contact information. Self-recommendations are accepted. Please see the Federal Register notice for more information on how to submit names.

NSF is also currently seeking nominations for the National Science Board, the policy-making body of NSF. Members of the National Science Board serve staggered six-year terms; the current call is for the 2020-2026 class. Specific topics for which representation is sought that are of relevance to SRCD members include: promotion of diversity and minority serving institutions, STEM education and the science of learning, and integrative social sciences. Additional information on the nomination and appointment process is available here, or see this Dear Colleague letter from the current NSB Chair for additional details. Nominations are due by May 31, 2019.

NIH Meeting Marks the One-Year Anniversary of the All of Us Research Program
On May 6, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored a meeting to mark the one-year anniversary of the All of Us Research Program. The All of Us Research Program is aiming to have 1,000,000 participants in the U.S. from all walks of life contribute health data (from surveys, access to electronic health records, physical measurements, bio-samples and data from wearable devises). With data of these kinds from a diverse sample as a resource, there is the potential to speed up progress towards precision medicine, better tailoring preventive and treatment approaches to individuals and simultaneously better addressing health disparities. The program places a very strong emphasis on: community engagement and diversity of participants; using participant input on an ongoing basis to improve procedures and to innovate; returning data (such as genetic information) to participants when requested; and providing researchers with access to data on an extremely fast timeline while assuring privacy of data. 

Deputy Director of the All of Us Research Program, Stephanie Devaney, opened the meeting by noting that in its first year, over 230,000 individuals from all 50 states have started the process of providing data. Of particular note, 80 percent of the participants to date come from communities and groups historically underrepresented in biomedical research. NIH Director Francis Collins started off the meeting’s multiple presentations by describing the All of Us Research Program as aiming to be one of the largest, most diverse biomedical research resources in history. He noted the important precedent of the Framingham Longitudinal Study as providing a resource for breakthroughs in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease and focused his comments on what research breakthroughs might be possible with the next-generation data resource that the All of Us Research Program will provide. Examples included understanding risk and resilience for Alzheimer’s disease, vision and hearing loss, kidney disease, pain management, cancer, and infection. He emphasized the very demanding timetable of the project for returning data to participants and making it available to researchers while maintaining a strong commitment to data security and privacy. A presentation by Eric Dishman, Director of the All of Us Research Program, described the continuous input and innovation process that this program is following, involving extensive community feedback. He thanked all those who are participating in the research program as well as those who have provided input and the All of Us liaisons at each of the NIH Institutes and Centers. He announced the launch of a data browser available to the public that will provide summary statistics from the program’s growing database, available at ResearchAllofUs.org.

To access the full videocast of the meeting, click here. For more information about the All of Us Research Program, click here

Federal Reports

Reports

New Reports and Briefs from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation 

(1) Employment Coaching Program Snapshots This report describes four distinct coaching programs designed to help low-income individuals work toward self-sufficiency. 

(2) Behavioral Interventions Scholars (BIS): 2018 Grantee Project Abstract  This document provides a detailed project abstract for the 2018 BIS grantee's project, including background and objectives, research questions, hypothesis, sample and measures, and implications for policy and practice. 

(3) Delivering Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Services to High-Risk Youth: The Impacts of Teen Choice in New York This report presents evidence on the impacts of the Teen Choice curriculum for youth in alternative schools in and around New York City. 

(4) Which Program Characteristics Are Linked to Program Impacts? Lessons from the HPOG 1.0 Evaluation This paper identifies which Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 1.0) program characteristics are associated with short-term impacts. 

(5) Mobile Coaching: Innovation and Small-scale Experimentation to Better Engage Program Participants in Rural Colorado This case study brief offers a qualitative exploration of the La Plata County Department of Human Services’ innovative intervention to use “Mobile Coaching” to take case management “on the road” by providing rides for TANF participants to and from service providers in their rural community, and using the time in transit to discuss the participant’s goals. 

(6) The Prevention Services Clearinghouse Handbook of Standards and Procedures This handbook provides a detailed description of the standards used to identify and review programs and services for the Prevention Services Clearinghouse.  

(7) A Portrait of Head Start Classrooms and Programs: FACES Spring 2017 Data Tables and Study Design This report serves a two-fold purpose: (1) to provide information about the FACES study, including the background, design, methodology, measures, and analytic methods; and (2) to report detailed descriptive statistics and related standard errors in a series of tables on the programs, their staff, and classrooms. 

(8) The Innovate Phase: Co-creating Evidence-informed Solutions to Improve Human Services Programs This practice brief provides an overview of the second phase of the Learn, Innovate, Improve (or LI2) process, which is a way for human services leaders to intentionally launch and systematically guide program change and to incorporate evidence and research methods into such efforts. 

(9) The Cost of Implementing a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program in High School Health Classes This brief summarizes key cost findings from the evaluation of the adapted version of a teen pregnancy prevention curriculum, Reducing the Risk, in rural Kentucky. 

(10) Tribal TANF—Child Welfare Coordination: Theory of Change and Logic Models This report provides step-by-step guidance, tailored specifically for Tribal TANF-Child Welfare Coordination (TTCW) projects, on the development of a theory of change and a logic model that emphasizes measurability of program outputs and outcomes. 

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

New Reports and Briefs from the Institute of Education Sciences

Federal Funding Opportunities

This month’s FFO highlights two Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) funding opportunities. The Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are using approaches grounded in behavioral science or behavioral economics to examine specific research questions of relevance to social services programs and policies. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral science or behavioral economics lens to issues facing poor and vulnerable families in the United States, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. Completed applications are due by July 2, 2019. The Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. Completed applications are due by July 8, 2019. Click here to learn about these and other funding opportunities.