- Apr 16, 2013 | Vickie Choitz and Patrick Reimherr Mind the Gap: High Unmet Financial Need Threatens Persistence and Completion for Low-Income Community College Students Over the last three decades, college tuition and fees have increased nearly four times faster than median income and four-and-a-half times faster than inflation. The rapid increase in college costs and flat or reduced funding in student aid has resulted in sizable unmet need and has forced students -- particularly low-income students -- to borrow more, work more hours, take fewer courses, or in some cases, drop out altogether. Unmet need and student loan debt for students at high-cost institutions have attracted widespread public attention. Less attention has been paid to unmet need at community colleges, where 41 percent of all undergraduates living in poverty are enrolled, according to the most recent data available (2007-2008). Download PDF
- Apr 09, 2013 | Jodie Levin Epstein and Dr. Eileen Appelbaum Interview Protocol for MA Business Interviews on Earned Paid Sick Time Surveys of employers about their sick days' practices and about their views regarding a new law can be helpful in a city or state campaign. We were asked by Massachusetts' advocates to come up with this survey tool. We hope advocates will adapt it to suit their particular needs. Download PDF
- Mar 20, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Business Voices: Implementation of Sick Days Laws is Straightforward Around the nation, city councils and state legislatures are increasingly considering legislation to establish a sick days' law. Employers, particularly those who are not familiar with sick days' policy, are leery of administering it. For some, this worry leads them to oppose passage of legislation. However, in locations where laws are already implemented, many businesses have stepped forward to acknowledge that administering sick days' policy is actually pretty simple. Download PDF
- Mar 20, 2013 | Child Care and Early Education U.S. Head Start by the Numbers 2011 This fact sheet presents Head Start PIR data for all Head Start programs in the country -- including preschool programs, Early Head Start, and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start. Download PDF
- Mar 01, 2013 | CLASP and ASBC Better Businesses and Better Workplaces: The Role of Comprehensive Business Certification Increasingly, businesses are seeking out certifications as tools to assess their impact and verify that their practices are consistent with their values. For job quality advocates, who are increasingly recognizing the crucial role of business support in successful campaigns, both certifying organizations and certified businesses can be valuable partners. This issue brief provides job quality advocates with a primer on the nuts and bolts of the certification movement and suggests ways advocates can foster fruitful relationships between the movements. Download PDF
- Feb 07, 2013 | Liz Ben-Ishai Business Support for the Family and Medical Leave Act The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which enables workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave to care for their own serious illness, a sick family member, or to bond with a new baby, has been used by millions of workers since its passage in 1993. As this important piece of legislation celebrates its 20th anniversary, new data shows that the vast majority of businesses find administering the law easy, and 80 percent of small businesses favor the legislation. But the data also point to a pressing need for paid leave programs, like those in California and New Jersey. In those states, family leave insurance programs have made it possible for employees to take paid family leave, easing the financial burden of caring for oneself and one's family. Research shows that businesses in California have found the state's Paid Family Leave (PFL) program to be good for or have little effect on business. This brief from CLASP demonstrates business support for both the FMLA and paid family leave, while highlighting the pressing need for paid leave. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Illinois Child Care Initiative The Illinois Child Care Collaboration Program promotes collaboration between child care and other early care and education providers, including Early Head Start (EHS), by creating policies to ease blending of funds to extend the day or year of existing services. While no funding is provided through the initiative, participating programs may take advantage of several child care rule exceptions that make it easier to access child care subsidy dollars to extend the day/year of EHS services. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Illinois Prevention Initiative The Illinois Prevention Initiative provides grants to home-based and center-based programs to expand access to the Early Head Start (EHS) model as well as other birth to 3 models. The goal is to serve additional children birth to age 3 and help grantees increase program quality. The initiative to expand access to EHS and other models was established by the Illinois State Board of Education in 2007, as recommended by the Illinois Early Learning Council. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Kansas Initiative Kansas Early Head Start (KEHS) provides comprehensive services following federal Head Start Program Performance Standards for pregnant women and eligible families with children from birth to age 4. KEHS was implemented in 1998 using Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) quality set-aside dollars augmented by a transfer of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds. The initiative was designed to improve the availability and quality of child care for infants and toddlers in Kansas. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Maine Initiative Maine has two initiatives that build on Early Head Start (EHS). The first initiative, Fund for a Healthy Maine, provides tobacco settlement money to existing Head Start and EHS programs to expand the number of children who receive full-day, full-year services. The second initiative, Supplemental, provides state general revenue funds to all Head Start programs to add additional slots, some of which may be used for EHS. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Maryland Initiative Since 2000, Maryland has provided state supplemental funds to Head Start and Early Head Start (EHS) programs to improve access. Local EHS programs may use funds, through child care partnerships, to extend the EHS day or year. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Minnesota Initiative Minnesota provides supplemental state funding to existing federal Head Start and Early Head Start (EHS) grantees to increase their capacity to serve additional infants, toddlers, and pregnant women. The initiative was started in 1997 when the state legislature earmarked $1 million of the general state Head Start supplemental funds for children birth to age 3. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Missouri Initiative Missouri's Early Head Start/Child Care Partnership Project expands access to Early Head Start (EHS) services for children birth to age 3 by developing partnerships between federal Head Start, EHS contractors, and child care providers. Head Start and EHS contractors that participate in the initiative provide services through community child care providers to both increase the number of children receiving EHS services and improve the overall quality of care. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Nebraska Initiative Since 1999, Nebraska's Early Head Start Infant/Toddler Quality Initiative has supported Early Head Start (EHS) and community child care partnerships to improve the quality and professionalism of infant and toddler care. EHS programs apply to receive funding to establish partnerships with center-based or home-based child care. Download PDF
- Dec 19, 2012 | CLASP and ZERO TO THREE Expanding Access to EHS: Oklahoma Initiative The Oklahoma Early Childhood Program uses public and private funds to enhance and expand high quality early care and education opportunities for children birth through age 3. The George Kaiser Family Foundation initiated the pilot in 2006 by matching state general revenue with private donations. Since that time, other private funders and providers have begun to contribute matching funds. Download PDF
- Nov 14, 2012 | Stephanie Schmit Early Head Start Participants, Programs, Families and Staff in 2011 This fact sheet reviews the 2011 Program Information Report (PIR) data for the Early Head Start program, which serves children under age 3 and pregnant women. In 2011, Early Head Start continued to provide vital services to a diverse group of low-income children and families. However, only about 4 percent of eligible children receive Early Head Start services. Download PDF
- Nov 14, 2012 | Stephanie Schmit Head Start Participants, Programs, Families and Staff in 2011 This fact sheet reviews the 2011 Program Information Report (PIR) data for the Head Start preschool program, which serves children ages 3 and 4. In 2011, Head Start continued to provide vital services to a diverse group of low-income children and families. However, only 42 percent of eligible children receive Head Start preschool services. Download PDF
- Oct 01, 2012 | Child Care and Early Education Tennessee: Monitoring and Technical Assistance System In Tennessee, safety concerns along with increasing need among low-income, working families for quality child care, prompted the state to revamp its monitoring system and enact other licensing reforms. The state has worked to strengthen its child care licensing rules, as well as implement a policy that increased the frequency of inspections to better monitor providers and required annual evaluations of providers to improve the quality of care. Read Online
- Sep 18, 2012 | Marcie W.M. Foster and Jackie Taylor Adult Education Promotes Economic Opportunity, Creates Stable Families and Makes America More Competitive Nearly 30 million adults in the U.S. have below a high school education and over 24 million have English language training needs. Even for those adults with a high school diploma, basic skills deficiencies have a detrimental and long-lasting impact on our nation's families and economic growth. Adult education (Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II of the Workforce Investment Act) plays a critical role in the economic opportunity of over two million adult learners each year who use these services to earn a high school equivalency, increase basic and employability skills, or improve their English language proficiency. Fully investing in adult education and reforming the program to meet the needs of today's workers will help workers and their families build a better economic future for themselves and the nation. Download PDF
- Sep 18, 2012 | Child Care and Early Education Minnesota: R.E.E.T.A.I.N. Bonus Program Minnesota’s Retaining Early Educators Through Attaining Incentives Now (R.E.E.T.A.I.N.) bonus program encourages and rewards well-trained child care professionals who stay in the field by awarding them with a monetary bonus. The R.E.E.T.A.I.N. program recognizes the importance of offering incentives to child care providers as encouragement to stay and advance in the profession. Read Online
- Mar 19, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Workplace Safety and Earned Sick Days: Intersections and Opportunities for Advocacy This national audio conference discusses the intersections between worker safety issues and earned sick days policies. Read Online | Download Audio | Additional PDF
- Mar 18, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Insights from the Ideas for Action Awards: Financial Asset Building Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity hosted a national audio conference, in partnership with the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, the Northwest Area Foundation and the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, to explore programs that help families build financial assets. Read Online
- Feb 26, 2013 | CLASP Boosting Your Bottom Line - Business Outreach Presentation for Earned Sick Days Earned sick days advocates across the country are increasingly aware of the importance of cultivating business support for sick days legislation. This presentation is a tool for advocates in the early stages of business outreach for earned sick days campaigns. It presents the business case for earned sick days laws and can be adapted to fit the needs of particular campaigns. Download File
- Feb 19, 2013 | Christine Johnson-Staub and Stephanie Schmit Putting it Together: Financing Comprehensive Services in Child Care and Early Education This presentation, given at the 2013 AMCHP conference, drew upon CLASP's recently published Putting it Together guide to financing comprehensive services, to discuss ways that states have used a variety of federal funding streams, including the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems funds and Medicaid funds, to finance services including child care health consultants, developmental screening, and preventive health outreach in child care settings. Download File
- Feb 07, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Employer and Employee Experiences of FMLA: Implications of the New Federal Surveys The Department of Labor (DOL) recently released the results of two new surveys on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). These are the first surveys conducted by the DOL on the FMLA in over a decade. Released just in time for the 20th anniversary of the passage of the FMLA, the results give us significant insight into both employer and employee experiences with this pivotal legislation. Read Online
- Jan 28, 2013 | CLASP, Families USA and the University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education Health Reform: Implications for Part-Time Work By 2014 millions of Americans will be able to access affordable health care for the first time. ObamaCare is historic legislation that will help workers who could not get affordable care through their employers or were unable to bear the costs of self-insurance. While there is a lot to celebrate, advocates, low wage workers and others are concerned that the law's focus on coverage for full-time employees might lead some employers to cut workers' hours. Press reports have fueled this worry. Read Online Additional PDF
- Jan 23, 2013 After the Fiscal Cliff, What's Next for Early Childhood? CLASP's Hannah Matthews, NWLC's Helen Blank, and NAEYC's Adele Robinson discuss the many uncertainties that early childhood programs face as we move toward the next round of fiscal negotiations. Read Online | Download PDF
- Nov 16, 2012 | Hannah Matthews, Christine Johnson-Staub, and Leanne Barrett Reaching Children Through Comprehensive Services: Exploring Local Partnerships and Federal Funding This presentation, given at the 2012 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, looks at opportunities and strategies for using federal funding streams to support the availability of comprehensive services for young children in child care and early education settings. Download PDF
- Nov 15, 2012 | Spotlight on Poverty and the National League of Cities Building Opportunity This audio conference explores how STEP UP is promoting opportunity and ways businesses can make a real difference in local anti-poverty efforts. The Employers in Savannah are increasingly at the forefront of new steps to provide opportunity and remove barriers to success. It's the third of a three-part "Cities Promote Opportunity" audio conference series. Read Online
- Oct 18, 2012 | Spotlight on Poverty and The National League of Cities New City Strategies to Alleviate Poverty This audio conference highlighted how Providence, R.I. is carrying forward the work of its Poverty, Work and Opportunity Task Force and its recommendations for how the city could build opportunity for its residents. The event was sponsored by Spotlight on Poverty, which CLASP manages, and National League of Cities, Institute for Youth, Education & Families. It's the second in the three-part "Cities Promote Opportunity" audio conference series. Read Online
- Sep 25, 2012 Audio Conference: Federal Budget Roadmap - Where We're Going and What We Need to Do CLASP's Hannah Matthews alongside representatives from National Women's Law Center (NWLC) and National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) discuss the latest on federal developments that will impact child care and early education programs and funding. Read Online | Download PDF | Additional PDF
- Sep 20, 2012 | Spotlight on Poverty and the National League of Cities "Cities Promote Opportunity" Audio Conference Series: New City Task Forces Battered by the recession like so many other cities, both Hartford, Conn. and Richmond, Va. recently established task forces to develop recommendations aimed at providing greater opportunity to area residents. This audio conference explored questions like: What are the priority recommendations in each city? What is the expectation around implementation? How will progress be assessed? And what are the key components of making job creation ideas work and stick over long the haul? Read Online
- Sep 14, 2012 | Stephanie Schmit and Jamie Colvard Webinar: State Initiatives to Expand Early Head Start This webinar discusses the content of the new CLASP and ZERO TO THREE report, "Expanding Access to Early Head Start: State Initiatives for Infants and Toddlers at Risk." The webinar highlights how states are using innovative funding, policies, and partnerships, to expand the EHS program and better meet the needs of more low-income children and pregnant women living in their state. Read Online | Download PDF
- Sep 13, 2012 | Christine Johnson-Staub and Sessy Nyman Casting a Wide Net to Support Caregivers: A Strategy to Reach the Highest Need Infants and Toddlers This presentation was given at the NARA Licensing Seminar in San Franciso, CA on September 10, 2012. "Casting a Wide Net to Support Caregivers: A Strategy to Reach the Highest Need Infants and Toddlers" discusses the relationship betwee family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care and existing child care quality initiatives, as well as how home visiting can be used as an FFN quality strategy. Download PDF
- Sep 06, 2012 | Christine Johnson-Staub and Hannah Matthews Webinar: Putting it Together: Financing Comprehensive Services in Child Care and Early Education This webinar focuses on CLASP's new publication, which details how states can look beyond the major sources of child care and early education funding and consider alternative federal financing sources to bring comprehensive services into early childhood settings. Learn about the different federal funding streams, hear examples of what other states and communities have done to finance comprehensive services, and begin exploring how to use the funding streams in your own state. Read Online | Download PDF
- Jul 25, 2012 How State and Local Advocates Stopped Cutbacks and Achieved Successes CLASP's Hannah Matthews and NWLC's Helen Blank talk with state advocates from California, Illinois, Iowa, New Jersey, and New York about how they stopped child care cuts in their states and achieved successes in this challenging fiscal climate. Read Online | Download Audio
- May 31, 2012 Financing College Success: Innovations to Promote Readiness, Access, and Completion Evelyn Ganzglass, director of Workforce Development at CLASP, presented on the panel Financing College Success: Innovations to Promote Readiness, Access, and Completion on May 31 at the New America Foundation. Ms. Ganzglass discussed specific issues related to community college affordability and focus on a range of interventions that aim to improve community college success, including building assets, accessing public benefits, emergency loans, financial literacy education, and work opportunities more conducive to full-time attendance at school. Read Online
- May 24, 2012 | Rhonda Bryant Webinar on Connecting to Jobs: Local Strategies and Policy Approaches to Employ Black Men Although the national unemployment rate is dropping, unemployment in the black community remains significantly higher than the rate for whites or the general population. In particular, black male youth and young adults are up against a major struggle to launch themselves into self sufficiency, as unemployment in these age brackets is at an all-time high. Federal investment in employment initiatives has been insufficient, and few communities are engaged in targeted approaches to address the employment plight of black men. Read Online
- May 11, 2012 | Christine Johnson-Staub Being an Effective Policy Advocate for Children and Families The presentation given to the Southeastern Massachusetts Inter-CHNA (Community Health Network Area) Conference in Plymouth, MA (May 2012) offers keys to effective public advocacy for low-income and at-risk families: identifying clear policy goals, targeting and timing advocacy efforts, and using data and personal stories to make your case. It includes strategies for identifying advocacy priorities, and how to use available data and stories to craft an effective message that will move policy priorities to the top of the list for legislators and other policy makers. Finally, the presentation provides tips for communication, relationship building, and strategy to help participants' advocacy goals succeed. Download PDF
- May 02, 2012 | Hannah Matthews and Stephanie Schmit Finding and Using Data to Advocate Effectively for Children and Families This presentation, given at the 2012 National Smart Start Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, provides a range of data to use to make the case for investing in young children and their families. Download PDF
- Oct 16, 2012 | Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt Bryant Commentary on Children, Families and Poverty: Definitions, Trends, Emerging Science and Implications for Policy The topic of poverty for children is quite timely. The country's recent financial troubles have increased the number of children and families in poverty, and that number could get bigger with the looming possibility of precipitous drops in funding for the social programs needed to aid these families. This issue needs to be raised and put at the forefront of our nation's budgetary planning. We need solutions that meet the needs of these families both immediately and in the longer term. Read Online
- Mar 23, 2012 | Kisha Bird Against All Odds: Community & Policy Solutions to Address the American Youth Crisis This article was written for the Journal of Law & Social Change for the 31st Annual annual Edward V. Sparer Symposium "Coming of Age Against the Odds: Advocating for At-Risk Youth". The paper lays out the magnitude of employment and education challenges facing youth outside the mainstream; discusses the influence of youth perception on program and policy implementation; highlights effective community practice; and includes recommendations for moving a national workforce agenda with local implications. Download PDF
- Nov 30, 2010 | Linda Harris Building Pathways to Postsecondary Success for Low Income Young Men of Color: A Community Intervention Strategy Building postsecondary pathways to good jobs for low-income young men of color will require stretching the paradigms of our secondary, postsecondary, workforce, and adult education systems, as well as greater collaboration among these systems. Aligning systems and programming across funding streams, building partnerships, and creating new pathways are complex endeavors. But there are many innovative approaches that have shown promise and can be implemented and taken to scale. Download PDF
- Nov 30, 2010 | Linda Harris & Amy Ellen Duke-Benfiled Building Pathways to Postsecondary Success for Low-Income Young Men of Color Linda Harris, director of youth policy, and Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, senior policy analyst, co-authored a chapter in the recently published book Changing Places: How Communities Will Improve the Health of Boys of Color. The book "draws attention to the urgent need--both economic and moral--to better understand the policy and community-based factors that serve as opportunities or barriers for young men and boys of color as they make critical life decisions." Ms. Harris and Ms. Duke-Benfield's chapter examines why it is essential to invest access to postsecondary education opportunities for young men of color. Download PDF
- Nov 15, 2010 | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Paid Sick Leave in the United States This issue of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Program Perspectives takes a closer look at paid sick leave benefits, including both the percentage of employees with access to paid sick leave benefits and employer costs for sick leave. Download PDF
- Oct 25, 2010 | Melissa Boteach and Jodie Levin-Epstein Battling Poverty in the Golden State: Recommendations for the California Statewide Poverty Commission This brief offers best practices and strategies learned from other state poverty commissions in advance of California's statewide symposium on poverty. Despite times of economic distress and deep budget, California is the latest state to undertake a comprehensive plan to reduce poverty. It's exactly during these times that states must convene stakeholders to stop the bleeding and provide a vision to move forward. Download PDF
- Aug 17, 2010 | Linda Harris Recommendations for WIA Reauthorization: Title I Youth Provisions Download PDF
- Jan 08, 2010 | Dorothy Smith Poverty and Opportunity - State Poverty Task Force Recommendations Around the nation, a growing number of state governments have established task forces or commissions to develop new strategies and recommendations for tackling poverty and providing opportunity. Download PDF
- Nov 18, 2009 | Julie Strawn Ideas From the Other Washington Read Online
- Sep 08, 2009 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Increasing Low-Income Access to Opportunity This article, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, focuses on the New England region's efforts to give visibility to poverty and opportunity through task force initiatives, summits, and state poverty targets. Download PDF
- Sep 03, 2009 | Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt & Linda Harris Community-wide Systems That Promote High School Completion Youth develop across multiple domains that are relevant to academic success. While schools focus primarily on cognitive development, many of the supports young people receive in other developmental areas come from community-based out-of-school programming. Stimulation of development in these additional key areas builds skills that support connections to school and achievement. This article explores the need for a community-wide approach to support dropout prevention for struggling youth and re-engagement of disconnected youth. Read Online
- Apr 24, 2009 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch and Mark Greenberg Single Mothers in the Era of Welfare Reform The 1990s welfare reform and expansion of work supports caused an historic increase in the share of single mothers who were working. This chapter examines the policy changes of the 1990s and since along with the subsequent employment and earnings outcomes for single mothers. It considers how the policy changes affected both employment levels and job quality and discusses implications for next steps for federal and state policies. This chapter is from the 2009 LERA Research Volume, The Gloves-off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America's Labor Market, A. Bernhardt, H. Boushey, L. Dresser, and C. Tilly, eds., Champaign IL: Labor and Employment Relations Association, pp. 163--190. Copyright 2008 by the Labor and Employment Relations Association; Champaign, IL. Reprinted with permission. The volume is available through Cornell University Press. Download PDF
- Jul 20, 2007 | Linda Harris The Tragic Loss of the Summer Jobs Program: Why it is Time to Reinstate! For more than three decades, the federal summer jobs program provided early work exposure for youth, including more than half a million low-income youth each year in the late 1990s--until the program came to an end with the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. In light of the peril and the disparities in education and labor market outcomes facing youth in high-poverty communities, there are compelling reasons for re-instituting the federal investment in summer jobs. This article originally appeared in Focus magazine, a publication of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Download PDF
- Apr 03, 2006 | Mark Greenberg and Jared Bernstein (EPI) A Plan to End Child Poverty: Britain's Initiative Has Helped 700,000 Kids. Why Don't We Have a Goal, Too? In an April 3, 2006 editorial printed in the Washington Post, CLASP's Mark Greenberg and Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute examine the "heartening bad news" out of Britain: that the number of children in poverty dropped by "only" about 17 percent (some 700,000 children) in the past five years. Read Online
- Dec 28, 2004 | Ron Haskins, Mark Greenberg, and Shawn Fremstad Federal Policy for Immigrant Children: Room for Common Ground? This policy brief, part of the Future of Children Policy Brief Series by the Brookings Institution, offers differing views from its authors on how to improve the well-being of children in immigrant families in the United States. Haskins emphasizes the need to tie public benefits for immigrant families to work through such policies as education and training and the earned income tax credit for families with children. While Greenberg and Fremstad argue that noncitizen families should have the same eligibility for public assistance as citizen families and support greater financial aid for early childhood education and other forms of schooling. Read Online
- Oct 07, 2004 | Mark Greenberg and Hedieh Rahmanou Looking to the Future: A Commentary on Children of Immigrant Families This article, printed in Fall 2004 issue of The Future of Children, a publication of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, responds to the question: "How should policymakers, advocates, stakeholders, and practitioners respond strategically and proactively to demographic change and increasing diversity in order to promote the healthy development, productivity, and well-being of our nation's children into the future?" The entire journal issue is devoted to children of immigrant families and is available at www.futureofchildren.org. Download PDF
- Sep 14, 2004 | Steve Savner and Jared Bernstein Can Better Skills Meet Better Jobs? This article, from the September 2004 issue of American Prospect, exhorts supply-side and demand-side advocates to form a complementary agenda to meet both sides' needs. The authors suggest not only providing more access to quality job training but then also creating the jobs when they don't already exist. Read Online
- Sep 14, 2004 | Mark Greenberg Welfare Reform, Phase Two This article, from the September 2004 issue of American Prospect, discusses the welfare reform law from 1996, how it has played out as a policy, and what still needs to be done in reauthorization of the law. The author suggests that the reathorization support and reward work--and end poverty as we still know it. Read Online
- Apr 16, 2013 | Vickie Choitz and Patrick Reimherr Mind the Gap: High Unmet Financial Need Threatens Persistence and Completion for Low-Income Community College Students Over the last three decades, college tuition and fees have increased nearly four times faster than median income and four-and-a-half times faster than inflation. The rapid increase in college costs and flat or reduced funding in student aid has resulted in sizable unmet need and has forced students -- particularly low-income students -- to borrow more, work more hours, take fewer courses, or in some cases, drop out altogether. Unmet need and student loan debt for students at high-cost institutions have attracted widespread public attention. Less attention has been paid to unmet need at community colleges, where 41 percent of all undergraduates living in poverty are enrolled, according to the most recent data available (2007-2008). Download PDF
- Apr 08, 2013 | Child Care and Early Education Early Childhood Education Update - April 2013 CLASP's Early Childhood Education Update is a monthly roundup of news, legislative developments, research, and other developments of interest to the early care and education community. Read Online
- Apr 03, 2013 | Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt Bryant Taking Aim at Gun Violence: Rebuilding Community Education and Employment Pathways In a single generation, our nation is faced with the prospect of losing over 132,000 black men and boys to gun violence. Moreover, for every black male who dies from gun violence, there are another 24 others who suffer non-fatal injuries - making the impacts of such violence even greater. In black communities, gun violence is about far more than reforming gun control laws and empowering law enforcement. Gun violence for young black males predominates in communities where residents live in concentrated disadvantage with high rates of unemployment, school dropout, and poverty. The absence of opportunities in these communities gives rise to criminal activity and the loss of too many young lives. Solving the crisis of gun violence in communities requires that America address the issue of concentrated poverty and geography. The rebuilding and strengthening of these communities through creating infrastructure to provide improved education and employment opportunities for black youth will significantly reduce issues of gun violence. Read Online | Download PDF | Additional PDF
- Apr 02, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Getting Down to Business Newsletter - April 2013 Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. Read Online
- Mar 29, 2013 | Lavanya Mohan CLASP Work Supports Newsletter - March 2013 The Work Supports Newsletter is a monthly update that summarizes CLASP's work on safety net programs that include cash assistance (TANF), nutrition supports (SNAP), refundable tax credits, health insurance, child support enforcement and child care subsidies. Read Online
- Mar 26, 2013 | Andrea Lindemann Gilliam and Liz Ben-Ishai Implementing Earned Sick Day Laws: First Out of the Gate: San Francisco's Sick Days Law Implementing a new law is always a complex process. But what happens when you are the first jurisdiction in the country to pass such a law? This was the unique challenge facing San Francisco when it passed the nation's first earned sick days law in 2006. The City and County government took on the challenge admirably, employing a variety of creative strategies to conduct outreach to the public, write meaningful rules, and ensure the law would be properly enforced. Download PDF
- Mar 25, 2013 | Allegra Baider, Vickie Choitz, Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, Marcie W.M. Foster, Linda Harris, Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Neil Ridley, Julie Strawn Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges: A Federal Policy Toolkit for States This toolkit is designed to help interagency state teams identify and facilitate "braiding" of federal resources to design and develop career pathways and bridges into them for adults and out-of-school youth. The toolkit also will help state teams identify state policy barriers to using federal resources for career pathways and bridges and, ideally, address them. Read Online | Download PDF
- Mar 19, 2013 | Chris Warland and Melissa Young, National Transitional Jobs Network and Elizabeth Lower-Basch, CLASP Innovative City and State Funding Approaches to Supporting Subsidized Employment and Transitional Jobs A new paper from the National Transitional Jobs Network and CLASP provides strategies and makes recommendations on leveraging and blending multiple sources of funding to support subsidized employment programs. In addition to highlighting the opportunities to use block grant funding, from both TANF and Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), the paper identifies efforts to fund these jobs by averting future expenses associated with prisons and other corrections measures and by leveraging public contracting and bidding opportunities. The webinar is also available. Read Online | Download PDF | Additional PDF
- Mar 15, 2013 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch and Neil Ridley Navigating Federal Programs to Build Sustainable Career Pathways in the Health Professions: A Guide for HPOG Programs Healthcare is one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy, and there are many jobs in this sector that require fewer than 4 years of college education, have high demand, and offer good pay. However, low-income workers often face barriers to accessing the education and training they need to enter these jobs, including lack of information, poor basic skills, confusing and poorly aligned training programs, cost of training, and need for supportive services, such as child care and transportation. The Heath Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG), authorized by section 5507 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA; Public Law 111-148), address this issue by supporting models for providing education, training, and support services to enable recipients of cash assistance under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other low-income individuals to obtain well-paying jobs in high-demand healthcare occupations. The HPOG program is one of several provisions of ACA aimed at supporting training for the healthcare workforce of the future. Download PDF
- Mar 13, 2013 | Patrick Reimherr, Tim Harmon, Julie Strawn, Vickie Choitz Executive Summary: Reforming Student Aid: How to Simplify Tax Aid and Use Performance Metrics to Improve College Choices and Completion Funded as part of the Gates Foundation's Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project, our paper focuses on two areas that have received scant attention from federal policymakers: tax-based student aid and the use of performance metrics in aid policy. IOur paper offers a range of policy options for consolidating the various tax-based aid provisions and better targeting this aid toward low- and modest-income families. We also propose piloting “real-time payment” of the American Opportunity Tax Credit to deliver this aid to students when they enroll, not just at tax time. Our ideas are backed by ten-year revenue estimates and distributional estimates from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Download PDF
- Mar 12, 2013 | Child Care and Early Education Early Childhood Education Update - March 2013 CLASP's Early Childhood Education Update is a monthly roundup of news, legislative developments, research, and other developments of interest to the early care and education community. Read Online
- Mar 08, 2013 | Patrick Reimherr, Tim Harmon, Julie Strawn, Vickie Choitz Reforming Student Aid: How to Simplify Tax Aid and Use Performance Metrics to Improve College Choices and Completion Our paper offers a range of policy options for consolidating the various tax-based aid provisions and better targeting this aid toward low- and modest-income families. We also propose piloting "real-time payment" of the American Opportunity Tax Credit to deliver this aid to students when they enroll, not just at tax time. Our ideas are backed by ten-year revenue estimates and distributional estimates from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. We've crafted our recommendations to be revenue neutral or modestly positive to respond to current budget realities, and we believe these proposals are timely, given the potential for tax reform in this Congress. Download PDF
- Mar 04, 2013 | Lavanya Mohan CLASP Work Supports Newsletter - February 2013 CLASP is inaugurating this Work Supports e-newsletter to highlight the efforts of CLASP and our colleague organizations to help ensure low-income families get the support they need to stay employed and provide for their families. Read Online
- Mar 04, 2013 | Liz Ben-Ishai Getting Down to Business Newsletter - March 2013 Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. Read Online
- Mar 01, 2013 | CLASP and ASBC Better Businesses and Better Workplaces: The Role of Comprehensive Business Certification Increasingly, businesses are seeking out certifications as tools to assess their impact and verify that their practices are consistent with their values. For job quality advocates, who are increasingly recognizing the crucial role of business support in successful campaigns, both certifying organizations and certified businesses can be valuable partners. This issue brief provides job quality advocates with a primer on the nuts and bolts of the certification movement and suggests ways advocates can foster fruitful relationships between the movements. Download PDF
- Feb 27, 2013 | Liz Ben-Ishai Implementing Earned Sick Days Laws: Learning from Seattle's Experience This issue brief draws upon Seattle's experience implementing its Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance to delineate best practices for implementing such laws. Seattle passed its earned sick days law in September 2011. The task of implementation in Seattle fell to the city's Office for Civil Rights (SOCR). CLASP spoke with SOCR staff to learn about their innovative approaches to outreach, implementation, and enforcement. Download PDF
- Feb 22, 2013 | CLASP's Youth Policy Team "Keeping Connected" eUpdate This periodic update for the field is a part of CLASP's ongoing work to advance policy and practice that will dramatically improve the education, employment, and life outcomes for youth in communities of high youth distress. It highlights policy happenings in education, training and youth development that impact black male achievement. Read Online
- Feb 19, 2013 | Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt Bryant, Linda Harris, Kisha Bird Investing in Boys and Young Men of Color: The Promise and Opportunity Boys and young men of color in the United States face challenges in the areas of education, employment, and health. In the last several years, there has been greater focus on understanding these challenges and identifying potential solutions. While we know more about effective programmatic solutions, we still have much to learn about the systemic barriers that impede the success of males of color. Effecting policy changes in these areas will produce sustainable gains for boys and young men of color. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation commissioned CLASP to conduct a scan of these policy opportunities to inform the development of their Forward Promise Initiative. Read Online | Download PDF
- Feb 14, 2013 A Framework for Measuring Career Pathways Innovation This working paper examines three elements of career pathway metrics development and provides an overview of what state and local/regional career pathway systems have done in relation to those elements. Our scan provides an impression of current practices but not a systematic description. Download PDF
- Feb 14, 2013 The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways Approach: Developing Criteria and Metrics for Quality Career Pathways The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways is a two-year, state driven, CLASP-led effort to identify criteria that define high quality career pathway systems and a set of shared performance metrics for measuring and managing their success. CLASP will work with 10 states that are leading the nation in experience with developing and taking to scale career pathways, using a consensus process, to create this framework of criteria and metrics. These leading states participating in the Alliance are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Download PDF
- Apr 22, 2013 | Marcie Foster Testimony to the Committee on Education on the FY14 Budget for the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education In 2013, it is a complete misnomer to label adult education as simply a "literacy" program. It is so much more. Adult education is an oft-overlooked and integral part of the District's workforce development system. Gone are the days when one could attain self-sufficiency with only a high school diploma. Today's workers need higher level skills and often postsecondary-level credentials to compete for jobs in the changing economy. In fact, by 2018, 71 percent of all jobs in D.C. will require some postsecondary training beyond high school. Yet far too many workers in the city are falling far short of these credential requirements and will be left behind. Download PDF
- Apr 17, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein Testimony on Working Families Flexibility Act As the Committee on Education and the Workforce considers The Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406) sponsored by Representative Martha Roby (R-AL), CLASP urges the Committee not to move measure forward. A mission of the Committee is to protect the workforce; the bill would add a new wage rule that raises the specter of greater vulnerability for the non-exempt workforce. Since enforcement of basic wage rules is woefully under resourced, we need to fix that first. Download PDF
- Apr 15, 2013 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Julie Strawn, and Patrick Reimherr Comments on Education and Family Tax Benefits CLASP submits comments on family and education tax credits to the Education and Family Benefits Working Group, House Committee on Ways and Means as part of the committee's work to review possible changes to the federal income tax system. Download PDF
- Feb 28, 2013 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch Testimony on TANF Work Requirements This is the testimony that Elizabeth Lower-Basch delivered before the Ways and Means Human Resource Subcommittee regarding TANF Work Requirements and Waivers. Download PDF
- Feb 24, 2013 | Stephanie Schmit Comments on Developing Assessments for Kindergarten Entry CLASP comments on the appropriate development of Kindergarten Entry Assesments (KEA), which are the focus of recent Enhanced Assessment Grants. Download PDF
- Jan 15, 2013 Comments on Inclusion of Work Data in Electronic Health Records These comments were submitted to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Policy Committee at HHS by CLASP and several partner organizations. The comments advocate for the inclusion of industry and occupation data in electronic health records in order to provide useful data for improving job quality. Download PDF
- Nov 01, 2012 | Hannah Matthews Comments on the Child Care and Development Fund Plan for States/Territories for FFY 2014-2015 CLASP comments on the revisions made to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Preprint in FFY 2012-2013 as well as makes suggestions on how to improve the FFY 2014-2015 Preprint. Download PDF
- Oct 18, 2012 | Helly Lee Comments on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Access to Health Care CLASP comments on rule changes regarding health access provisions for young immigrants granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and reiterates the goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to ensure access to affordable health care. Download PDF
- Sep 07, 2012 | Helly Lee Comments on Data Collection to Support Eligibility Determinations for Insurance Affordability Programs CLASP submitted comments to CMS on proposed data collection for the single, streamlined application mandated in the Affordable Care Act. Download PDF
- Aug 01, 2012 | Hannah Matthews Testimony for the Record on CCDBG Reauthorization: Helping to Meet the Child Care Needs of American Families CLASP submitted testimony for the record after the July 26th hearing on CCDBG reauthorization held by the subcommittee on Children and Families of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Download PDF
- Jul 31, 2012 | Linda Harris and Kisha Bird CLASP Comments to U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth Our comments here draw upon CLASP's decade of policy work at the national, state, and local levels related to disconnected youth. We believe our comments in response to the U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth will serve to inform the development of the Performance Partnership Pilots as well as federal cross-agency policy development and funding decisions that can address our current challenges, develop the human capital needed to fuel our economy, and unleash the untapped potential and talent of the millions of young people who have fallen through the cracks. Read Online | Download PDF
- Jul 31, 2012 | Campaign for Youth Comments to U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth On behalf of the Campaign for Youth, a coalition of national youth policy and advocacy organizations focusing on low-income youth who are out of school and/or out of work, we applaud the Obama Administration and the U.S. Department of Education for its leadership in bringing attention to the unique challenges facing youth and for its thoughtfulness in gathering input from a broad range of stakeholders to inform its work around disconnected youth. Download PDF
- Jul 11, 2012 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch Testimony for the Record: Plateaus, Cliffs and Work Incentives CLASP submitted Testimony for the Record for the House Ways and Means Committee's hearing on work incentives in low-income support programs. Download PDF
- Jun 11, 2012 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch Comments to HHS on TANF Assistance and Electronic Benefit Transactions A new law requires states to restrict access to TANF assistance from ATMs and POS devices in certain locations. This document responds to HHS' request for comments on how to implement this provision. Download PDF
- May 17, 2012 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch Testimony for the Record on State Spending and Work Participation CLASP submitted Testimony for the Record for the House Ways and Means Committee's hearing on State TANF Spending and its Impact on Work Requirements. Download PDF
- Jan 27, 2012 | CLASP Comments on the Department of Education's Strategic Plan FY2011 - 2014 In January 2012, CLASP provided comments on the Department of Education's Strategic Plan for FY 2011 - 2014. CLASP applauded the Department for putting forth a strategic plan that raises expectations for our nation's education system at all levels and moves the country toward meeting the goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Download PDF
- Jan 03, 2012 | Christine Johnson-Staub CLASP Encourages Reversal of Medicare Ruling on Developmental Screening These comments were submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services in response to a final rule that removes developmental screenings from the Medicare fee schedule. CLASP urges the ruling be reversed and that developmental screenings not be removed from the Medicare fee schedule. Many states align Medicare, Medicaid and private pay fee policies, and removal of developmental screening from the fee schedule may result in the same critical service not being covered under state Medicaid policies. Download PDF
- Oct 03, 2011 | Vickie Choitz and Julie Strawn CLASP Testimony for the Record on Nontraditional Students On Sept. 30, 2011, the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance held a hearing on higher education regulations and nontraditional students. CLASP submitted comments focusing on the primary barriers to access and persistence for nontraditional students and promising strategies and policies and the role of the federal government in helping nontraditional students in overcoming the barriers. Download PDF
- Sep 22, 2011 | Elizabeth Lower-Basch Improving Work and Other Welfare Reform Goals On September 8, the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on TANF, in preparation for the pending reauthorization of the block grant. CLASP submitted this testimony for the record. Download PDF
- Aug 26, 2011 | Marcie Foster and Vickie Choitz Comments on Model Financial Aid Offer Form The Department of Education requested comments on recommendations for improving the model financial aid offer form as required by the Higher Education Act. CLASP recommends that these letters should provide direct and transparent information that will help the student make informed enrollment and financial decisions. They should also serve as an educational tool that helps students better understand the true costs of college and develop a plan for funding their education. Download PDF