The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows high-poverty schools to offer free meals to all students regardless of household income. Conceptualizing universal meal provision as a strategy to alleviate stigma associated with school meals, we hypothesize that CEP implementation reduces the incidence of suspensions, particularly for students…

Compared to unpaid leave, paid family leave may better help working parents balance the competing needs of job and family early in a child's life, among other advantages. Yet the United States remains one of only two countries in the world without a statutory national paid maternity leave policy, and one of the only high-income countries that…

The start of kindergarten signifies the beginning of elementary school and everything that may come with it: a new building, new teachers, new expectations, and a different routine and culture. These new students transition into kindergarten from different settings, bringing with them a variety of assets and experiences. From a holistic…

The human brain develops rapidly in the first five years of life. High-quality early learning experiences can have a profound and lasting positive effect on young children during these years, setting the stage for success in kindergarten and beyond. This is especially true for young children with high needs who are from low-income families; who…

School based health centers (SBHC) are effective providers of health services and education because they are easy for students to access, they take an integrated and developmentally appropriate approach to meeting health needs, and they are prevention-oriented. This report describes the 1996-1997 services provided in 15 of 19 state-supported…

This report summarizes and analyzes information on nine 1993 community integrated service system (CISS) projects to promote physical, psychological, and social well-being for all pregnant women and children, adolescents, and their families; provide individualized attention to their special health care needs; and link health care and services with…

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared his intention to open health centers in 500 elementary schools across the state, which would bring the total number of such school-based clinics to 646. This initiative builds on California's 30-year history of using the school setting to increase access to care for children, improve clinical outcomes,…

Purpose and Methods: This report is the second benchmark study to assess the system of supports for school readiness. The data for this study was collected in the fall of 2006 on 537 entering kindergarten children and their families in eight representative schools across the County. The ecological model and methods from the first study, which was…