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Publications on Children

Automated enrollment strategies have achieved remarkable results with many public and private benefit programs, dramatically increasing program participation while lowering administrative costs and reducing erroneous eligibility determinations. The recently passed Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) should make such steps much easier for states to take in covering eligible but uninsured children. Following CHIPRA's enactment, states have both new tools and new incentives to use automated strategies in fulfilling four key functions: identifying uninsured children; determining their eligibility for health coverage; enrolling eligible children into coverage; and retaining eligible children.

This report examines more than 100 programs through which the federal government spends money on children and calculates the amount spent on children under three. These first time expenditure estimates provide a place to start in gauging the priority the nation places on investing in very young children and in comparing expenditure patterns to researchers’ findings about investments that work. For example, despite extensive child development research underscoring the importance of quality early care and education programs for infants and toddlers, especially those in poverty, just 7 percent of federal funding for children between birth and age 2 went toward these efforts in 2007.

Extensive research shows investing in very young children can help build a strong future workforce, improve children's educational success and health, and potentially reduce some of the social ills that drain the nation’s resources and will. What investments does the United States currently make in infants and toddlers?

Despite extensive research documenting the benefits of investing in young children, infants and toddlers are underrepresented in the federal budget. The nation's 12.5 million children under age 3 are 4.2 percent of the population, but they received just 2.1 percent-$44.1 billion-of federal domestic spending in 2007.

For many concerned about the well-being of children and families -- whether they're program managers, service providers, advocates, policymakers, or policy watchers -- tax policy is terra incognita, a distant, tangled domain best left unexplored. But tax policy has become a powerful partner to government spending over the past two decades. The recent economic stimulus package included many tax provisions focused on children and families and President Obama's proposed fiscal 2010 budget promises more.