Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere
Katie Rosanbalm offers commentary in The New York Times.
Our Mission
The Center for Child and Family Policy is dedicated to improving the well-being of children and families through research, education, and engagement. We study factors that influence child outcomes, develop and test promising interventions, and advance evidence-based practices and policies that can inform change and unlock opportunities for all children and their families.
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Recent News
Student Reflection on Benforado Talk “How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All”
April 12, 2024
CCFP News
[Benforado] inspired me to continue advocating for the cause of putting children first. Minjee Kim PPS ’25 Dr. Adam Benforado, professor of law at Drexel University, discussed the importance of prioritizing child wellbeing in public policy as part of the Robert R. Wilson Distinguished Lecture series on March 7, 2024. Benforado was welcomed by the…
read more about Student Reflection on Benforado Talk “How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All”PODCAST: How two years of COVID disruptions in schools touched off a national student absenteeism crisis
April 8, 2024
KNX News
That is a huge surge in student absenteeism from before the COVID pandemic disruptions to schooling. We talked with Dr. Katie Rosanbalm at Duke University’s Center for Child and Family Policy and asked her about why the root of the student absenteeism problem traces back to COVID.
read more about PODCAST: How two years of COVID disruptions in schools touched off a national student absenteeism crisisInventHERs Institute Lets Local Underrepresented Girls See Themselves in STEM
April 4, 2024
Pratt School of Engineering
The InventHERs Institute team is bringing STEM education and community engagement to local young girls and their caregivers with a focus on diversity and inclusion.
read more about InventHERs Institute Lets Local Underrepresented Girls See Themselves in STEME233: Grocery and Meal Insight from the Baby’s First Years Project
April 3, 2024
Leading Voices in Food
This podcast episode features researchers from Baby’s First Years, a multi-year effort to test the connections between poverty reduction and brain development among very young children.
read more about E233: Grocery and Meal Insight from the Baby’s First Years Project
Featured Projects
Research Project
Survey of Health Trends (SEHAT)
Study of children’s and adolescents’ trajectories of mental health, immunization, and primary healthcare utilization in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. The research is being conducted in India, where one-sixth of the world’s population lives.
learn more about Survey of Health Trends (SEHAT)
Research Project
N.C. Resilience and Learning
The North Carolina Resilience and Learning Project is a partnership with the Public School Forum of North Carolina to promote and support trauma-informed schools across the state. The project team works closely with districts and schools to provide professional learning and ongoing coaching to meet school-specific needs and goals. Our work aims to create systems-level change by shifting the culture and mindset of an entire school so that staff begin to see a child’s behavior in the context of their life experiences, in consideration of possible trauma history or stress response system triggers.
learn more about N.C. Resilience and Learning
Research Project
Positive Parenting App Study
Project Description This study of the postive parenting app tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a mobile-based app intervention designed to enhance home visiting by providing in-the-moment parenting tips with the goal of increasing healthy parent-child interactions leading to resiliency in high-risk children. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) profoundly influence brain and behavioral development and long-term…
learn more about Positive Parenting App Study
Research Project
Baby’s First Years Study
Baby’s First Years is a pathbreaking study of the causal impact of monthly, unconditional cash gifts to low-income mothers and their children in the first three years of the child’s life. The cash gifts are funded through charitable foundations. The study will identify whether reducing poverty can affect early childhood development and the family processes that support children’s development.
learn more about Baby’s First Years StudyFor Students
The Center offers a variety of ways for Duke students at every level to learn about child and family policy and become involved in original research.