Annie E. Casey Foundation

The Cincinnati Public School district is working to better support students experiencing homelessness by opening a parking lot where families living in their cars can safely spend the night and access food and bathrooms.

U.S. Child Poverty Triples to 13%, Casey Foundation Reports U.S. child poverty nearly tripled to 13% in 2024, a new Annie E. Casey Foundation report finds, showing public policies can cut the rate by half.

“By invest­ing in children’s well-being — through both pub­lic pol­i­cy and employ­ment prac­tices that pro­vide fam­i­ly-sus­tain­ing wages — we can enable more chil­dren to thrive and con­tribute as they become adults.”

LGBTQ+ youth's mental health struggles are getting worse, according to a new survey A new survey from the Trevor Project found that between 2023 and 2025, LGBTQ+ youth reported an increase in anxiety, depression and suicide ideation.

An ongoing study by the Trevor Project found LGBTQ+ youth have experienced a significant increase in rates of anxiety and suicidal thoughts over the past year.

Kids’ Social Media Use Linked to Lower Reading and Memory Scores, Study Suggests While the differences in scores are subtle, researchers say it could add up in the long term.

“There are still many unanswered questions about how social media use affects developing brains. Parents and educators often ask: How old should a child be before getting a social media account? What does social media use mean for learning, reading and memory?”

154,000 New York City Students Were Homeless Last Year, a Record Number

Nearly 1 in 7 New York City public school students experienced homelessness during the 2024–25 school year. That’s 154,000 homeless children, most of whom were either living in shelters or staying with friends or family in overcrowded apartments.

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Helps Kids and Caregivers Early childhood mental health consultation can strengthen the child care workforce and improve children’s outcomes, but greater program expansion and awarene…

Approximately 16% of children between the ages of 3 and 5 have a mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral health condition. Many children with these conditions grow up healthy and successful, but when left unaddressed, they can have serious lifelong consequences.

Foster Youth Fare Better In College, But Gaps Persist For years, agencies believed only 3% of foster youth graduated from college. New research finds the rate is much higher, but gaps remain.

“We have to break out of this mold of the four-year timeline… [Youth in foster care] are just trying to survive and live on their own, and trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their head and do well in school. And so it takes a little bit longer than four years to graduate.”

Cellphone bans can help kids learn — but Black students suspended at higher rates Analysis of Florida school district after 2023 classroom cellphone restrictions shows reading and math test score gains

The Florida school cellphone bans notably reduced students’ usage during the school day — but there was also a significant spike in student suspensions during the first year of implementation.

Strengthening Support for Kinship Caregivers Learn best practices on strengthening services for kinship families.

When children are in kinship care, they’re able to stay better connected to their family and community than in traditional foster care arrangements with strangers. Kinship care also helps provide kids with increased stability, which also helps improve their overall health and academic performance.

Many Young Adults Barely Literate, Yet Earned a High School Diploma Functionally illiterate high school graduates may have been passed through the school system without gaining needed skills.

One in four young adults in the U.S. is functionally illiterate. Essentially, these young people can understand the basic meaning of short texts, but cannot analyze longer reading materials.

Nicole Clifton on How Employers Can Help Young People Thrive UPS leader Nicole Clifton joins Lisa Lawson to discuss how employers can mentor, train and empower young people to build a brighter future.

“When youth are seen and heard and giv­en mean­ing­ful respon­si­bil­i­ty, they don’t just get jobs — they build careers and con­fi­dence.” – Nicole Clifton, pres­i­dent of social impact at UPS and pres­i­dent of The UPS Foun­da­tion. To hear more, check out the latest episode of CaseyCast.

Helping Young Adults Thrive | Econofact Chats Lisa Lawson discusses her new book 'Thrive: How the Science of the Adolescent Brain Helps Us Imagine a Better Future for All Children.'

Lisa Lawson (@annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social)
talks about her new book 'Thrive,' which highlights how cognitive, emotional, and social development continues past puberty, and how failure to build on investments during this longer period of adolescence can result in missed mental and emotional growth.

For Teachers, Work-Life Boundaries Are Harder to Keep Than Ever New surveys find teachers have less flexibility, more intrusive jobs than peers in other jobs.

Teachers are significantly more likely than working adults in other professions to say their job makes them too tired for personal activities afterwards, and they’re also more likely to report stress and burnout.

A Model Approach for School Mental Health Treatment Nationwide, some common ingredients are key to success, including collaboration between schools and communities.

“[School-based mental health providers] try to be seen as members of the school community, and really for those relationships, because it allows people to know how to find us and how to access services. It reduces stigma if we’re seen as another member of the school community.”

The good news? College tuition has been going down. The bad news? It’s about to rise again College students nationwide are facing increases in tuition this fall of as much as 10 percent, along with new fees and rising costs for dorms and dining plans, after a stretch when tuition had been f...

College students across the country are facing tuition increases this fall reaching as high as 10% — a particularly disadvantageous shift when fewer than half of Americans already don't think the returns on a four-year education are worth the cost.

Measuring Access to Opportunity in the United States: A 10-Year Update The Supplemental Poverty Measure shows how policy choices cut child poverty and why reliable data matter for kids, families and states.

There's a new report out from @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social about child and family poverty:
www.aecf.org/resources/me...

Here's a thread on the key takeaways:

📌Poverty is dangerous for children, undermining their development and long-term well-being.

New report shows significant increase in keiki poverty in Hawaii The increase amounts to about 8,000 more children now living in poverty.

“A new national report is raising the alarm about a sharp rise in Hawai‘i children living in poverty. The report by the @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social shows child poverty has risen by one-third since the pandemic.”

#poverty #childtaxcredit #costofliving

www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/10/22/n...

'It's Rough Out Here': Why Most Teachers Work a Second Job (and What It Means) Those with education-related second jobs are more likely to stay than those with non-related gigs.

Nearly 60% of K–12 teachers in the U.S. have at least one extra job outside of their primary work as an educator — a rate that has remained relatively consistent since the mid-1990s.

According to the @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social National 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book, Michigan ranked 22nd in health. A contributing factor? 97% of kids have some form of health insurance. #kidscountmi

Read @michleague’s policy recommendations for accessible health care: sholink.to/2025databook

More young people in California struggling with anxiety, stress and social media, study finds California youth cited the high cost of living, including housing affordability and the price of groceries, along with gun violence, climate change and racism as top concerns.

“Youth are deeply affected by the world around them, from climate anxiety and safety to social media pressures. It’s more important than ever that clinicians, educators, policymakers and caring adults listen to [our youth] and treat this seriously for what it is — a youth mental health crisis.”

A Guide to Creating Career Pathways for Young People A new playbook offers a roadmap for schools to prepare high school students for academic and career success. Read more.

We’re proud to have funded the On Track to Career Suc­cess play­book, a new resource from John Hopkins University that shares insights from a group of schools that developed and implemented a framework to better support their students in learning, graduating high school and finding career success.

1 In 4 Hawaii Students Are Chronically Absent From School Five years after the pandemic upended attendance, many schools are still struggling to get kids to show up regularly.

“The kids who see parents not really understanding what’s happening in school, not really feeling connected, that makes them feel disconnected. If the parents are more connected, then it’s easier for the kids to feel comfortable in the school, open to it and move forward positively.”

Public investments work. The 2025 Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) Data Snapshot shows that key policies — like the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit and SNAP — keep millions of kids out of poverty. www.aecf.org/resources/me... @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social

Child Uninsurance Rate Hits Highest Level in Almost a Decade. Check What Is Happening in Your State The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) bring troubling news for children’s health coverage. After years of progress, the child uninsured rate rose again in 20…

Last year, a higher percentage of children went without health insurance than in any year since 2014. States that expanded Medicaid and invested in outreach and enrollment assistance had fewer children losing insurance than others who didn’t.

The Importance of Healthy Workplaces for Young People With Systems Experience A new brief explores the importance of healthy, supportive work environments for young people with systems experience. Read more.

“We often think of work con­di­tions in nar­row terms, equat­ing job qual­i­ty with hourly wages. [But] how young work­ers are treat­ed by their super­vi­sors, their cowork­ers and their cus­tomers makes an enor­mous dif­fer­ence… espe­cial­ly [when] over­com­ing adverse ear­ly life experiences.”

Study examines ties between mental health and criminal charges among youth Click for more on research appearing in Children and Youth Services Review

“What we’re finding is that it doesn’t overall really matter what the charge is. We consistently see high rates of mental health concerns — depression and anxiety — among youth who are detained.”

North Carolina Child Care Academies Provide Fast Track for Educators A $1.476 million pilot to expand child care academies with state funding was included in the budget passed by the North Carolina House this year.

Across North Carolina, an increasing number of early childhood education agencies and community colleges are hosting child care academies — programs with the goal of providing training that can get new teachers into child care classrooms faster than through traditional routes.

KIDS COUNT Data Center from the Annie E. Casey Foundation Explore data on child and family well-being indicators in the US. Filter by state, city, county, education, health, family structure, race, sex, age, and more.

@annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social's Kids Count Data Center is a comprehensive source of data on children and young adults in the United States. It’s an excellent starting point for data projects focused on youth and opportunity youth: datacenter.aecf.org/data?locatio....

Adriana Galván on the Adolescent Brain, Stress and Systems that Support Young People UCLA’s Adriana Galván joins Lisa Lawson to unpack adolescent brain science and how schools, justice and social systems can help young people thrive.

Understanding adolescent brain science can help policymakers and educators develop more effective and responsive youth-serving systems. To learn more, check out the conversation between our President and CEO Lisa Lawson and UCLA psychology professor Adri­ana Galván on a recent CaseyCast episode.

These Detroit students say free bikes helped address some systemic issues that cause chronic absenteeism The Detroit school district is considering giving bikes to chronically absent students in other schools.

A Detroit high school has found an unconventional approach to reducing chronic absenteeism — giving every student at the school a bicycle. The bikes made student's commutes shorter and more predictable than they were on city buses, which helped to improve attendance.