A new Mother of Asian decent lays out on the sofa, in the comfort of her own home as she bonds with her new baby. She is dressed comfortably and has her daughter propped up on her knees so she can interact with her.
By Alisha Saxena and Isha Weerasinghe While May is Mental Health Awareness Month, May 5-11 was also Maternal Mental Health Appreciation Week. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country. Using data from Maternal Mortality Review Committees from 2017-2019, the…
Unemployment has spiked to over 14 percent for March 2020, with most observers predicting a historic high of 20 percent. Without targeted job creation in communities hardest hit, today's crisis will have a lasting negative impact on workers of color and others.
It’s no surprise that families need money to afford basic necessities, especially during COVID-19. One way states can provide immediate help to children in families with low incomes is to create emergency assistance grants using unspent TANF funds.
During COVID-19, everyday people are suddenly confronting zero-hour work weeks, unemployment, food shortages, housing fears, and lack of access to health care. This is what people in poverty have been experiencing for years. My fear is that the people whose lives were already hard, will…
The recently created Pandemic EBT helps families put food on the table for students. But for many immigrant families who’ve been excluded from unemployment assistance and stimulus checks, states must intentionally target their P-EBT outreach to immigrant families to have successful outcomes.
During COVID-19, many state agencies that oversee basic needs programs have been forced to close their assistance offices. As a result, states have had to rethink many of their processes to handle the increase in applications while adhering to social distancing guidelines. When local benefit offices…
Due to systemic inequities in our health and economic systems, marginalized communities have experienced the most severe consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic. The climate crisis poses a similar threat to these communities with even greater implications.
This blog post details Secretary of Education Devos' attempt to exclude undocumented students from emergency aid in the CARES Act and the need to support undocumented students during the pandemic.
This blog post presents 10 policy changes Congress should make in the next coronavirus pandemic stimulus bill to improve the fiscal stability of states and institutions of higher education, continue to provide much-needed emergency aid to students, and maintain college affordability.
Relatives play an important child care role for families of all backgrounds and incomes, even in the best of times. But in this public health and economic crisis, it is particularly important to recognize their value and critical role in an already-fragile child care system…