News and Opinions

Experts from Duke University are among a group of 161 researchers worldwide who made the discovery after examining data from thousands of patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Unpredictable and involuntary income fluctuations negatively impact consumption, parenting, and children’s schooling beyond the effects of income level.

As we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, lawmakers should take a closer look at Latino families to find new ideas and solutions. To lift children out of poverty, we need an updated blueprint for policy conversations…

A Census report released in September determined that the poverty rate more than doubled from 5.2% to 12.4% in 2022. The reason, in part, according to the report, was because billions of dollars in aid for families ended.

A new economic analysis has linked conduct problems among kindergarten students with significant costs to society in terms of crime and associated medical expenses and lost productivity when they are adults.

Schools’ use of telehealth services expanded during the pandemic, and emerging research suggests it could help reduce chronic absenteeism.

Jennifer Lansford helps explain the science behind why children find their parents annoying in a recent episode of BBC’s Crowd Science podcast.  

Helen Ladd was cited for her research on public education spending in WRAL’s analysis of North Carolina schools.

Anna Gassman-Pines joined a recent episode of A Health Podyssey, the Health Affairs podcast to speak about her research on the health disparities experienced by unemployed Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ladd argues, [public school funding] must be used “productively and efficiently to promote good educational outcomes.” Charters, by design, “operate outside state and local education systems,” to varying degrees depending on which state we’re talking about. Ladd observes that this creates several challenges.

The national shortage of baby formula in the U.S. that began in February of 2022 cast an urgent spotlight on the difficulties parents can face in meeting basic nutritional needs of their babies. A narrow focus on the supply of infant formula or the benefits of breastfeeding does not shed light on the full scope of economic tradeoffs families face.

A child’s ability to succeed in the classroom is powerfully influenced by their home environment. Giving parents the support they need could be key to fixing American education.

The NC Center for Resilience & Learning is teaching schools and districts how to better help students who have experienced trauma.

EdNC spoke with Lansford about her time at CCFP, her policy goals, and what keeps her up at night.

Net Worth Poverty. It’s the other half of the income story that gets overlooked when talking about poverty. Researchers found that family wealth, the value of a family’s assets, such as savings and property, minus debt, is linked to lower cognitive scores and increases in problem and behavior scores in children.

A broader look at family finances can lead to better-designed programs that address child wellbeing.

Research seems to indicate that early childhood education can be a stepping stone to success later on in life. But preschools vary greatly in their philosophies, curricula and quality of teaching staff, so not every school will make the same impact.

A childhood intervention program called Fast Track improves family life into the second generation, report researchers.

Sarah Komisarow is among nine early- to mid-career faculty from across Duke campus and the School of Medicine who have been recognized for pursuing new directions and ideas to enhance novel research and scholarship at Duke.

Babinski and team will design, develop, and test an online professional development program called Bridging English Language Learning and Academics (BELLA) for improving teacher and student outcomes for working with English Learners.

The debate over school discipline often devolves into whether stricter rules create more orderly school environments or produce dire consequences for students. A new report looking at principals’ disciplinary styles suggests that both outcomes could be true.

Jennifer Lansford, research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, will be the new director of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy as of July 1, Sanford School Dean Judith Kelley announced today.

The Office of the Provost has selected 18 projects for funding through The Duke Endowment that engage topics related to the issue of racial inequality. Among those selected include projects led by CCFP’s Anna Gassman-Pines, Beth Gifford and Sarah Komisarow during the 2022-2023 academic year. 

State and local taxpayers cover the operating costs of charter schools, as well as the negative spillovers that they impose on local school districts. This public funding requires policy makers to pay attention not only to the benefits for enrolled students, but also to the collective or public interests that justify public funding for education.

Early childhood experts and community leaders from North Carolina and across the country described the needs of young children and families and how our systems, policies, and government structures could better address those needs.

Hosted at Duke University, the gathering, “Building a Universal System for Families with Young Children in North Carolina,” was organized by the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and by The Hunt Institute.

Prior to the pandemic, Jennifer Lansford and her colleagues were conducting in-depth, multi-year research on children and families in nine countries. They are now expanding their research to consider COVID-19 and children and parents’ mental health.

Helen Ladd presents The Diane Silvers Ravitch ’60 Lecture: How Charter Schools Disrupt Good Education Policy at Wellesley.

A bipartisan report on the challenges and opportunities facing children in America stresses the need to rebalance national investments toward children.