Research points to a new understanding about when adolescents become adults, and to new ways of thinking about their treatment in the criminal justice system.

Small increases in earnings can trigger sudden and often unexpected decreases in public benefits—the so-called benefits cliff. This story covers ways to mitigate their potential to destabilize household finances and add to administrative...

The Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision addresses one aspect of a larger conversation about homelessness. State legislators have several options to address housing insecurity, including strategies that reduce, mitigate and prevent...

With federal pandemic relief funding running out this month, state legislatures are considering a wide range of options to make child care more affordable and finding creative ways to fund those options.

In recent years, the federal government has played a more active role in early childhood care and education through pandemic-era relief funding and new regulations for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start programs. This...

The chairs of NCSL’s Children, Families and Human Services Committee recently met to discuss the health workforce, prevention of child maltreatment, behavioral health, maternal and child health, Medicaid and other timely issues.