Blog Archive

Critical Investments Should Target the First Eight Years of Life, Report Finds

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s latest KIDS COUNT policy report, The First Eight Years: Giving Kids a Foundation for Lifetime Success, presents a strong case for investing in the early years of a child's life. Decades of brain and child development research show that kids who enter kindergarten with below-average language and cognitive skills can catch up — but only if they are physically healthy and have strong social and emotional skills.

Grade-Level Reading Communities Tell Their Stories

Madison County, New York participated in the Tell Our Story project, describing their challenges, accomplishments and plans as a rural community.

New Proposal Calls for Return on Investment in Federal Child Welfare Financing

At a Capitol Hill policy briefing, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative presented a new approach to reforming federal financing to encourage states to improve their child welfare practices.

Summary of Recommendations for Federal Child Welfare Financing

This handout summarizes policy recommendations for realigning federal child welfare financing to support best practices in four key areas.

How to Fund Best Practices in Child Welfare

Policy recommendations designed to transform federal funding to support best practices in child welfare were the focus of this presentation delivered by Tracey Feild and Patrick McCarthy at an October 23, 2013, briefing on Capitol Hill.

Educational Attainment Data Encouraging

Recent data show that more Americans are earning higher levels of education, due in part to the increase of federal funds to help support education. In 2012, 59% of the U.S. population ages 25 to 34 had a high school diploma or less; 9% had an associate's degree, and 33% had a bachelor's degree or higher (an increase of 2.5 million young people since 2000).

Measuring Developmental Outcomes in Evidence-Based Programs

It is important for evidence-based programs for young people to track the right developmental outcomes. The Casey Foundation has compiled a set of measures to help determine if youth are meeting key milestones in behavior, emotional well-being, education and physical health.

Bringing Leah Back Home: Reunification and the Lifelong Families Model

This video tells the story of Leah and how she reunified with her birth mom through services provided by the Foundation's former direct service agency.

Giving Kids a Healthy Start

Educare Atlanta launched the Healthy Beginnings System of Care in early 2011, integrating quality educational experiences with health services to ensure that children in the Atlanta Civic Site are healthy, developing on track, thriving socially and emotionally and achieving academic success by the end of third grade.