Publications

Over the past 10 years, many states that previously prosecuted 16- and 17-year-old offenders in the adult judicial system have raised the age to 18. This trend has occurred in response to a growing body of research demonstrating the harmful effects of incarcerating children in the adult corrections system, and a corresponding nationwide campaign to “Raise the Age” of adult court jurisdiction.

Violence in the Northern Triangle region of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) has prompted thousands of individuals, families and unaccompanied minors to seek protection and asylum in the United States – many arriving by way of the U.S./Mexican border. As of July 22, 2019, approximately 10,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) were in care of the Health and Human Services, and at least 2,648 immigrant children have been separated from their parents or caregivers, largely due to the Administration’s “zero tolerance policy” that was initiated in April 2018.

Missouri is home to many hard working families who are struggling to make ends meet. They take pride in working and in raising their children. Unfortunately, low wages and limited access to quality child care puts an incredible strain on families across the state. The Clark-Fox Policy Institute’s first report, Make Work Work: Strengthening Missouri through Quality Child Care for Working Families, examines the state of affordable, quality child care in Missouri and the impact on economic mobility for working families.

The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has become one of the United States’ most effective programs for combatting poverty experienced by low-income working families. This brief highlights how the EITC helps counteract institutionalized inequalities by lifting people out of poverty, improving educational and health outcomes, and driving economic growth in local communities.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) plays a critical role in lifting children and families out of poverty, ameliorating the harmful effects of food insecurity. Among children in the United States already living in low-income households, budget cuts to SNAP place nearly half at risk of malnutrition and food insecurity. This brief highlights how food insecurity undermines learning outcomes and academic success.

Excessive residential mobility or housing “churn” experienced by families in precarious socioeconomic circumstances is called hypermobility, and it has far-reaching effects on children, their parents, schools, and communities. This brief highlights the problems that result from hypermobility including those related to health and educational outcomes for individual children, the schools they attend, and communities at large.

In Uganda, children make up about half (56%) of the total population, and they often present with multiple physical, mental health, and educational challenges. Each of the three policy briefs in this series highlights an innovate policy solution to improve the mental health of children and adolescents in Uganda.

The Affordable Care Act is credited with expanding healthcare coverage to more than 20 million previously-uninsured Americans – a significant achievement for the United States as access to healthcare is a major driver of health outcomes. Still, access alone will not eliminate racial health disparities, ranging from increased infant mortality rates to decreased life expectancy.

In 2017, legislation passed in Missouri that weakened the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA), making it more difficult to prove discrimination. The modification to the MHRA by Senate Bill 43 formed the basis of the NAACP’s first ever statewide travel advisory against Missouri, and was cited as a key reason why the state is on Fodor’s Travel Guide’s 2018 “No List” of places not to visit.

In October 2017, the Center for Health Economics & Policy at the Institute for Public Health and the Clark-Fox Policy Institute at the Brown School at Washington University hosted Transforming Healthcare in Missouri: Ideas for Innovation and Investment to generate ideas for improving healthcare in Missouri.