Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JeffreyCapizzano

In previous work (Chaplin and Capizzano 2006), we evaluated a summer learning intervention that receives both federal and private funding, the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) Accelerated Learning Summer Program. That study found the program to be effective using the gold standard of research methods, random assignment. This observation and interview-based process study details BELL's activities during the summers of 2004 and 2005. It examines whether program components were implemented with fidelity (i.e., as they said they would be in program documents) and describes implementation issues that may affect whether the BELL program can be replicated in other sites.

A growing body of evidence indicates that the test scores of low-income children drop significantly relative to their higher-income counterparts during the summer months. This study used random assignment to evaluate the effectiveness of the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) program--a summer program designed to improve academic skills, parental involvement, academic self-perceptions, and social behaviors among low-income children and families--and finds that a well-implemented summer learning program can improve reading test scores and increase the extent to which parents encourage their children to read during the subsequent school year. These findings provide some support for investments in out-of-school time programming for low-income children during the summer, such as those currently coming from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program and the Supplemental Services provisions of Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act.

This report provides a synthesis of three reports from a multi-phased examination of the connections between the child care and welfare systems for TANF families. It contains 12 overarching findings that emerged from the overall study about the complex interaction between the two systems and discusses the implications of these findings for agencies, TANF clients, and policymakers. It highlights different cross-system approaches, identifies strategies that can minimize administrative duplication and client burden, and sets a framework to help policymakers, administrators, and others interested in designing more effective service delivery systems to help families with child care needs move from welfare to work.

This report examines the intersection of the welfare-to-work and child care systems in 11 local sites/11 states in 2001. It documents how these systems were set up and connected, the factors that aided or impeded coordination between the systems, and the process TANF clients needed to complete as they moved through the welfare-to-work and child care subsidy systems while on welfare. It highlights the range of approaches taken by states, and discusses the implications for parents as well as for both child care and welfare-to-work agencies.

This paper examines the child care arrangements of white, black, and Hispanic children by different child and family characteristics. The findings suggest that white children drive national child care patterns, masking different patterns among black and Hispanic children. The findings also indicate that while white, black, and Hispanic children come from families with different characteristics, only a few of the characteristics examined in the paper help to explain the variation in child care use among the groups. Other important characteristics (e.g.,income) were less helpful in understanding why white, black, and Hispanic children are placed in different forms of care.

The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP/DHHS) has been encouraging its abstinence-oriented grantees to incorporate youth development strategies. It wanted to learn (1) more about the relationship between these strategies and prevention of sexual risk taking, (2) how its funded programs have combined youth development and abstinence education components, and (3) whether one could determine the independent effects of each component on youth outcomes. This report describes findings related to these issues from a comprehensive literature review, examination of grantee documents, and site visits. Recommendations focus on strengthening the usefulness of grantee year-end reports, strengthening individual grantee evaluations, and strengthening OAPP's ability to assess effectiveness across grantees.

In 2002, a large percentage of preschool children with employed mothers were in full-time care each week. Forty-two percent of children under age 5 with employed mothers spent at least 35 hours a week in child care. The proportion is even greater (50.6 percent) among children whose mothers worked full-time. These findings reinforce the important role that child care plays in the lives of America's youngest children and the need for policymakers to pay close attention to the quality of that care.

Some 73 percent of children under age 5 with working mothers are regularly in child care, data from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families shows. Children in low-income families are more likely than higher-income children to be placed in relative care (30 percent compared with 24 percent). Data also reveal that 46 percent of higher-income 3- and 4-year-olds are in center-based care compared with 36 percent of low-income children.

According to data from the 1999 round of the National Survey of America's Families, 3.3 million 6- to 12-year-old children regularly take care of themselves without adult supervision. Seven percent of children ages 6 to 9 and 12 percent of low-income children are in self-care. Self-care is more likely among 10- to 12-year-olds and children from higher-income families. Parents' full-time employment and parental symptoms of poor mental health are related to an increase in self-care for both younger and older children. The presence of teenagers in the family is related to an increased likelihood of self-care only among younger children. A limiting physical, mental, or health condition is related to a decreased likelihood of self-care only among younger children. Full-time employment and an increase in a child's age are related to an increase in self-care for both low- and higher-income children. In both income groups, Hispanic children are less likely to be in self-care than other groups.

Jeff Capizzano of the Urban Institute discusses summer child care with Kojo Nnamdi of WAMU's "Public Interest." Joining Jeff and Kojo in a discourse on what summer child care does for children during the summer are Richard Chase of the Wilder Research Center and the president of Citizens Schools in Boston, Massachusetts, Eric Schwarz

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