Congress authorized the planning and implementation of the National Children’s Study with the Children’s Health Act of 2000. The following table shows the Interagency and Congressional funding levels for the Study.
Congressional History
The National Children’s Study is led by a consortium of federal partners including: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, of the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Education.
The National Children’s Study is designed to examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The goal of the Study is to improve the health and well-being of children. Researchers will analyze how these elements interact with each other and what helpful and/or harmful effects they might have on children’s health. By studying children through their different phases of growth and development, researchers will be better able to understand the role of these factors on health and disease. Findings from the Study will be made available as soon as possible as the research progresses. The Study can also allow scientists to find the differences that exist between groups of people, in terms of their health, health care access, disease occurrence, and other issues, so that these differences or disparities can be addressed.
Congress appropriated funds for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008 to continue the first phase of implementation of the National Children’s Study. With these funds, the seven Vanguard Centers will begin recruitment of families into the Study; in addition, 17 additional Study Centers were awarded at the end of Fiscal Year 2007 and 12 additional Study Centers were awarded at the end of Fiscal Year 2008. The President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2009 does not request further funding for the National Children’s Study.
Children’s Health Act of 2000
Section 1004 of the Children’s Health Act focuses on the National Children’s Study. An excerpt from the Act follows:
(a) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this section to authorize the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development* to conduct a national longitudinal study of environmental influences (including physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial) on children’s health and development.
(b) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development* shall establish a consortium of representatives from appropriate Federal agencies (including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency) to—
(1) plan, develop, and implement a prospective cohort study, from birth to adulthood, to evaluate the effects of both chronic and intermittent exposures on child health and human development; and
(2) investigate basic mechanisms of developmental disorders and environmental factors, both risk and protective, that influence health and developmental processes.
(c) REQUIREMENT.—The study under subsection (b) shall—
(1) incorporate behavioral, emotional, educational, and contextual consequences to enable a complete assessment of the physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial environmental influences on children’s well-being;
(2) gather data on environmental influences and outcomes on diverse populations of children, which may include the consideration of prenatal exposures; and
(3) consider health disparities among children, which may include the consideration of prenatal exposures.
*Congress passed Public Law 110-154 on December 21, 2007, renaming the Institute as the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.