Children in Low-Income Families

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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In January 2006, the Urban Institute and Child Trends co-sponsored a roundtable entitled "Trends and Policies that Affect Low-Income Children: What Are the Next Steps?" The purpose of the roundtable, attended by policymakers, program directors, researchers, policy experts, and advocates, was to inform and stimulate a debate regarding the development and well-being of the more than 26 million American children living in low-income families.

The roundtable discussion was grounded in, but not limited to, a decade of research conducted as part of the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism (ANF) project. This project, carried out in partnership with Child Trends, has analyzed the experiences of low-income families and children during major changes in the nation's social welfare policies. A key element of the ANF project was the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), whose three rounds (1997, 1999, and 2002) provided a rich source of data on low-income families and children nationally and in 13 states. The specific goal of the roundtable was to present new papers that distill findings from the NSAF and other sources and to stimulate discussion drawing on those findings, with a particular focus on state and local policy.

The day-long discussion was structured around four sessions: (1) an overview of major risk factors encountered by low-income children, (2) parental work and the quality of child care, (3) children in immigrant families, and (4) children living in especially vulnerable families. The topics were selected to cover the most significant issues facing low-income children while also focusing on areas where the NSAF provides particularly significant and useful information. For example, the NSAF is one of the few sources of state-level data on the family circumstances, well-being, and program participation of children of immigrants and vulnerable children living in kinship and foster care.

A group of participants with wide-ranging backgrounds and experiences were brought together to discuss the many different policy options and approaches. Substantively, the expertise of the group covered many fields, including child development, income and employment policy, family structure, child care and early childhood education, immigration, child welfare, and others.

To frame the roundtable discussion, participants began by identifying their key concerns about the circumstances of low-income children in the United States today. Responses included the following:

• concerns about outcomes for specific subgroups of children: Latinos, African Americans, immigrants, infants, toddlers, and children in rural areas;
• quality of child care and early education;
• challenges facing the growing number of low-income children of immigrants;
• making programs work with shrinking resources;
• limitations of government programs and policies; and
• parents' work conditions and the effects on children.

This conference report presents some of the most salient points raised during the roundtable. Structured around each session, key facts are provided from the conference papers and followed by highlights from the participant discussion. The background papers presented at the roundtable will be published separately and made available on the Urban Institute web site (http://www.urban.org).

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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