Presumptive Eligibility
As of 2002, 11 states had adopted some form of "presumptive eligibility," offering families temporary, immediate health coverage while they await final application approval. (Spring 2003)

Express Lane Eligibility
Some states are experimenting with simplifying health insurance enrollment for eligible but uninsured children who are enrolled in other public programs by sharing information across programs (referred to as "express lane eligibility"). (Spring 2003)

Multidimensional Media Campaigns
In a 48-state survey, all states said they initially marketed their health insurance programs through the media, including television, radio, and/or print ads, and 37 states said they used all three media. (Spring 2003)

Automatic Renewal of Coverage
At least one state, Florida, allows "passive renewal," assuming that children remain eligible for SCHIP until a family declares a change in eligibility. (Spring 2003)

Strategies to Simplify Renewal
Nearly all states have eliminated face-to-face interviews when renewing health insurance coverage. Some have also reduced requirements that families provide proof to corroborate their income and eligibility information. (Spring 2003)

Community-Based Application Assistance
Many states are working with community-based organizations to establish health insurance enrollment sites in locations such as health clinics, schools, Head Start programs, recreation centers, and homeless shelters to improve outreach to families. (Spring 2003)

Premium Assistance
Use of Medicaid and SCHIP funds for subsidizing families' premium costs for employer-sponsored insurance (referred to as "premium assistance") can cost the government less than providing coverage directly. (Spring 2003)

Employer-Sponsored Coverage
An estimated 55% of uninsured children in families with incomes between 133% and 200% of the federal poverty level have access to employer-sponsored coverage but are not insured. (Spring 2003)

State-Funded Replacement Programs
Legal immigrant children generally are not eligible to receive federal benefits, including health insurance coverage, until they have lived in the United States for five years. States, however, have the option of using their own money to fund Medicaid or SCHIP for immigrants. As of 2002, 23 states had done so. (Spring 2003)

Eliminating Barriers for Immigrant Children
Citizen children living in immigrant families are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP, but they often are not enrolled because of parents' language barriers, confusion about eligibility and program rules, and fear of repercussions for using public benefits. (Spring 2003)

Coverage for Immigrant Children
About one-third of the nation's low-income uninsured children live in immigrant families that meet the income requirements for public health insurance. (Spring 2003)

Limits of Eligibility
Roughly 17% of all uninsured children come from families with incomes too high for them to qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP. (Spring 2003)

Problems Maintaining Coverage
About 22% of uninsured low-income children in 1999 had been enrolled at some point in the previous 12 months, suggesting they may have lost coverage inadvertently hrough the eligibility-redetermination process. (Spring 2003)

Why Eligible Children Are Not Enrolled
Among parents of all uninsured eligible children in 1999, about 27% reported that they had not heard of SCHIP, thought that their children were not eligible, or did not have enough program information to apply, and about 10% said they didn't apply because of administrative hassles. (Spring 2003)

Enrolling Eligible Children
About three-quarters of the nation's uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP but are not enrolled. (Spring 2003)

Discrepancies in the Federal Matching Rate
The federal government currently pays about 74% of SCHIP costs versus 57% of Medicaid costs, giving states a much greater incentive to enroll children in SCHIP than in Medicaid, even though the Medicaid-eligible children are more disadvantaged. (Spring 2003)

Problems with SCHIP Funding
If federal dollars for SCHIP are not used after three years, the funds expire. Nearly $3 billion in unspent SCHIP funds could be returned to the U.S. Treasury by September 30, 2003. (Spring 2003)

Problems with SCHIP Funding
For fiscal years 2002–2004, new federal funding for SCHIP is reduced by 26%—more than $1 billion each year—a trend referred to as the "SCHIP dip." (Spring 2003)

Counter-Cyclical Financing
An increase in the unemployment rate of 1% will increase Medicaid enrollment by more than 1.5 million persons, including 1 million children, at an estimated total cost of almost $3 billion. (Spring 2003)

Counter-Cyclical Financing
Governors are projecting budget deficits of $30 billion in 2003, and as much as $80 billion in 2004, limiting their ability to fund their Medicaid and SCHIP programs at a time when demand for these programs is likely to increase. (Spring 2003)

Fulfilling the Promise
Extending coverage to all children in families with incomes below 300% of poverty could reach 5% of the currently uninsured. (Spring 2003)

Coordinating with Employer-Sponsored Coverage
The business community supports health coverage for children: 9 out of 10 employers nationwide reported concerns about uninsured children and the belief that every child should have some basic level of health care. (Spring 2003)

Reducing Parents' Worries
More than 36% of parents interviewed said that a lack of insurance created financial difficulties for the family, likely due to out-of-pocket expenses for medical care. (Spring 2003)

Reducing Parents' Worries
In a study of children newly enrolled in health insurance, 74% of parents reported being worried, scared, and stressed when their children were uninsured. (Spring 2003)

Providing Access to Care
The probability of well-child visits increased by 17% among previously uninsured, low-income children who were enrolled in Medicaid for one year. (Spring 2003)

Improving Access to Health Care
Children who have health insurance have greater access to health care, particularly preventive and primary care. (Spring 2003)



What Parents Don't Know
In a survey of 109 children and parents, nearly 14% of children reported that they knew where their parents' gun was kept, even though the parents of these children reported independently that the children did not know. 21% of the children who said their parents owned a gun reported having touched or played with that gun without permission. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Trusting Children with Guns
In a survey, 23% of a sample of gun-owning parents reported that they trust their 4- to 12-year-old children with a loaded firearm. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Costs of Gun Violence
The national costs of gun violence are roughly $100 billion per year, with $15 billion or more attributable to gun violence against youth. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Exposure to Gun Violence
Children and youth exposed to gun violence commonly experience difficulty concentrating in the classroom, declines in academic performance, lower educational and career aspirations, and other negative outcomes. (Summer/Fall 2002)

School Shootings
School shootings account for a very small percentage of all youth firearm deaths. In each year from 1993 to 1998, fewer than 1% of all firearm deaths among young people ages 5 to 19 occurred in schools. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Geographic Distribution of Gun Deaths
Teens living in the West and South are more likely to die from a firearm wound than are teens in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Louisiana had by far the highest teen firearm death rate—nearly 20% higher than any other state. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Firearm Death Rates for Black Males
Black males ages 15 to 19 are much more likely to die from firearm wounds than are any other group of youth. The firearm death rate for these black males in 1998 was five times the rates for non-Hispanic white and Asian/Pacific Islander males, and twice the rates for Hispanic and American Indian males. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Firearm Death Rates
From 1993 to 1998, the death rate from firearms declined by nearly 50%. By 1998, the firearm death rate for children and teenagers under age 20 was the same as it was in 1978, but still about one-third higher than in 1968. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Child and Youth Homicide
The majority of firearm deaths among children and youth are homicides—particularly among children under age 12 and older teens ages 17 to 19. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Firearm Injuries and Deaths
More than 20,000 children and teenagers under age 20 were killed or injured by a firearm in 1998. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Unlicensed Gun Vendors
Guns sold by licensed dealers account for only about 60% of the guns sold in the United States. Guns sold by private parties, collectors, and unlicensed vendors at gun shows account for 40% of all gun sales. These sales are not regulated by the federal government, nor by most states. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Juveniles, Young Adults, and Crime Guns
In 1999, approximately 9% of guns traced by ATF after being recovered by police following a crime were taken from juveniles, and an additional 34% were seized from people ages 18 to 24. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Gun Accessibilty and Depression
In one study published in 2000, gun-owning parents of depressed adolescents at risk of suicide were counseled by their doctors to remove firearms from the home. Only 27% did so. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Guns Loaded and Unlocked
A study published in 2000 estimates that in 1.4 million homes—households that include approximately 2.6 million children—guns are stored loaded and unlocked. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Gun Ownership and Suicide
Household firearm ownership is positively associated with the firearm suicide rate for 15- to 24-year-olds, even after controlling for education, unemployment, and urban residence. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Firearm Homicide in the U.S.
The firearm-related homicide rate among children under age 15 in the United States is nearly 16 times higher than in 25 other industrialized nations combined. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Gun Use Tied to Availabilty
A February 2002 study found that children ages 5 to 14 were more likely to die from gunshot wounds if they lived in states where firearm ownership was more common. This finding held true even after the researchers controlled for state-level poverty rates, education, and urbanization. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Youth with Guns
A 1999 national survey estimated that 833,000 American youth between the ages of 12 and 17 had carried a handgun at least once in the previous year. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Ease of Obtaining Firearms
In a national study of male high school sophomores and juniors conducted in 1998, 50% of respondents reported that obtaining a gun would be "little" or "no" trouble. (Summer/Fall 2002)

Firearms are Common
An estimated 34% of children in the United States live in homes with firearms. (Summer/Fall 2002)



Single-Parent Households
Trends in marriage, divorce, and nonmarital births make it likely that as many as half of today's youngsters will spend at least part of their childhoods in a single-parent household. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Welfare's "Marriage Penalty"
Because marriage results in one combined household income, a couple could lose thousands of dollars a year in benefits compared to what they would be eligible to receive if they each remained single. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Education of Welfare Parents
More than 40% of adults on welfare had less than a high school education in 1999, but only 6% were participating in job training and education activities. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Contact with Unwed Fathers
By the time a child of unwed parents reaches age 7, studies indicate only about 22% of fathers are in frequent contact. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Fatherless Children
Fatherless children are more likely to drop out of school, have poorer attendance records, score lower grades, and abuse alcohol or drugs compared with children whose fathers are in their homes. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Education and Hourly Wages
A 2000 study estimated that women with associate's degrees earned hourly wages that were 19% to 23% higher than did women with similar characteristics who lacked such degrees. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Maternal Education
Across various prereform welfare-to-work demonstrations, programs that increased maternal education resulted in improved child school performance and behavior even when no gains in income were acheived. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Subsidy Utilization Rates
Although both federal and state spending on child care has increased since welfare reform, subsidies are used by less than one-quarter of all eligible families nationwide. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Targeted Prevention Programs
Several studies have shown that teens' participation in targeted prevention programs can reduce high-risk behaviors such as pregnancy and school failure. (Winter/Spring 2002)

Quality Child Care and Development
Children in high-quality child care demonstrate greater mathematical ability, greater thinking and attention skills, and fewer behavioral problems than children in lower-quality care. (Winter/Spring 2002)

EITC
In 1998, 4.8 million people—2.3 million of them children—were lifted out of poverty by the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit). (Winter/Spring 2002)

Nontax Supports After Welfare
After leaving welfare, most families do not receive food stamps and Medicaid, even when they continue to be eligible and are living well below poverty. (Winter/Spring 2002)

School Acheivement and Earnings Supplements
Welfare programs that provided families with earnings supplements have been found to improve children's school acheivement by 10% to 15%, based upon math test scores and parents' ratings. (Winter/Spring 2002)



Safety Hazards in Child Care Settings
A 1998 Consumer Product Safety Commission study of 220 licensed child care settings (both home- and center-based) found that two thirds had at least one safety hazard, including cribs with soft bedding, no safety gates on stairs, unsafe (or no) playground surfacing, and use of recalled products. (Spring/Summer 2001)

California Children and Families First Act
Since 1999, the California Children and Families First Act, enacted by voters in a ballot initiative, has dedicated nearly $700 million per year to services to children, prenatal to age five, through increased state excise taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Military Child Care System
The U.S. military's comprehensive child care system extends safe, high-quality care each day to more than 170,000 children from birth through age 12, at 300 locations around the world. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Public Support for Paid Family Leave
A 1998 survey found that most Americans--82% of women and 75% of men--support "extending state unemployment or disability insurance programs to cover unpaid family and medical leave." (Spring/Summer 2001)

Child Care Investments in Other Countries
One recent study found that the United States spends $600 per year per preschool-aged child on early childhood care and education, whereas France spends five times that amount (nearly $3,000), and Sweden spends seven-and-one-half times that amount (more than $4,500). (Spring/Summer 2001)

Family Leave in Canada
In contrast to the United States, which offers fewer than three months of leave following childbirth and no wage replacement, Canada offers more than six months of childbirth-related leave, and all but two weeks of the leave are paid at the rate of 55% of prior earnings. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Families with Young Children on Welfare
In 1999, close to one-third of families receiving federal welfare benefits had children under age three, 12% had infants, and 21% had children between age one and two. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Young Children in Poverty
In 1999, the federal poverty threshold for a family of three was $13,861, and $16,895 for a family of four. By this definition, 18% of all children under age six are growing up in poverty. Altogether, 41% of all young children are in families with incomes under 200% of the poverty level. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Few Family-Friendly Policies for Low-Wage Workers
Parents earning less than $7.70 per hour are significantly less likely than those who earn over $19.25 per hour to receive family health insurance, paid vacation days, paid holidays, paid leave for sick children, and flex-time. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Language Skills and Young Children
A three-year-old is already putting words together into simple sentences, mastering grammatical rules, and experiencing a "vocabulary explosion" that will result, by age six, in a lexicon of more than 10,000 words. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Development of Young Children
The young child grows faster during the first three years than he or she ever will again. This phenomenal growth occurs in four key areas: the growth of the body (size and coordination), the growth of the mind (language and problem-solving abilities), the growth of the person (emotional and social mastery), and the growth of the brain (development of neurons and synapses). (Spring/Summer 2001)

Government Subsidies for Child Care
In 1998, child care subsidy funding amounted to $5.2 billion in state and federal dollars. Even with increases throughout the 1990s, however, the subsidies reached only 12% of the 15 million children estimated to be eligible for assistance. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Family and Medical Leave Act
The Family and Medical Leave Act, which guarantees the right to take 12 weeks of job-protected but unpaid leave to care for a newborn or a seriously ill family member, applies only to companies with 50 employees or more, and to individuals who have worked for that employer for 12 months and 1,250 hours. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Poor Quality of Child Care
In virtually all large-scale studies of child care in the United States, approximately 20% of the settings that participate in research have been found to fall below minimal thresholds of adequate care. (Spring/Summer 2001)

High Cost of Child Care
For a one-year-old, care in a child care center or licensed home costs almost $6,000 per year. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Young Children in Child Care Centers
The use of centers as a source of care for children under age three has nearly tripled in the last 20 years, from 8% in 1977 to 22% in 1997. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Types of Child Care
When mothers are working, 27% of infants and toddlers are regularly with their fathers, 27% are with relatives, 22% attend child care centers, 17% go to family child care homes, and 7% are with nannies. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Infants and Toddlers in Child Care
There are over 11 million children under age three in the United States, and this year nearly 5 million of them will spend about 25 hours a week in the care of someone other than a parent. (Spring/Summer 2001)

Mothers in the Labor Force
61% of mothers with children under age three were employed in 2000, compared with just 34% in 1975. (Spring/Summer 2001)



Teens and E-Commerce
A recent consumer survey forecasts that teens will account for $1.2 billion and children will account for $100 million of the total projected e-commerce dollars in 2002. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, but the legislation covers only commercial Web sites targeted at children under age 13. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Computers in Children's Bedrooms
More than one-fifth of all children between ages 8 and 18 report having a computer in their bedroom. (Fall/Winter 2000)

A Benefit of Computer Games
Children who play computer games can improve their visual intelligence skills--skills that may provide them with "training wheels" for computer literacy. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Computer Access and Computer Time
Parents reported in a 1999 survey that children with computer access spent an average of 4 hours 48 minutes per day in front of a television screen or computer monitor. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Computer Use and Television Watching
In 1998, children in households without computers watched television an average of 36 minutes longer each day than children in homes with computers. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Computer Time
In 1999, children ages 2-17 years were spending approximately 1 hour 37 minutes per day using a computer and/or playing video games, about 24 minutes more than in 1998. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Access to Home Computers
Children's access to home computers increased from nearly 52% in 1997 to over 56% in 1998. The proportion of children with home access to the Internet increased from about 26% to 34% during that same time period. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Computer Games, Home Computers, and the Internet
In 1999, an estimated 67% of households with children had a computer game system such as Sega or Nintendo, 60% had home computers, and 37% had access to the Internet-- more than twice the percentage with access in 1996. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Teachers' Expertise With Computers
Data from a 1998 survey indicate that teachers' expertise with computers ranged from 75% who said they could display a disk's directory to only 18% who said they could develop a multimedia document. (Fall/Winter 2000)

Computers and Family Income
Only about 22% of children in families with annual incomes under $20,000 had a home computer in 1998, compared with 91% of children in families with incomes of more than $75,000. (Fall/Winter 2000)



Actual Child Restraint Use
Based on actual use, child safety seats are 54% effective against child occupant fatalities and 52% effective against nonfatal injuries. (Spring/Summer 2000)

Child Restraint Use
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that child restraints saved the lives of 3,894 children between 1975 and 1997. (Spring/Summer 2000)

Proper Child Restraint Use
Child restraints are 71% effective in reducing the likelihood of death in motor vehicle crashes when installed correctly. (Spring/Summer 2000)

Sleepwear Burns
The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that approximately 200-300 burn incidents each year occur with loose-fitting daywear worn as sleepwear. (Spring/Summer 2000)

Residential Fires and Children
Residential fires are the second leading cause of injury deaths among young children. Owning a smoke detector reduces the risk of death in a residential fire by more than two-thirds. (Spring/Summer 2000)

Motor Vehicle Crashes
Injuries related to motor vehicle crashes result in the largest loss of life to children and adolescents, accounting for 41% of all injury deaths in the United States. (Spring/Summer 2000)

Smoke Detector
The presence of a functional smoke detector in the household is a major protective factor for residential fire injury and death, leading to a 50% to 70% reduction in death. (Summer/Spring 2000)