report offers a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the differing ways states have responded to the 1996 federal ban on access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits for those with a felony drug conviction, and includes illustrative maps and relevant sections of statutory text to facilitate analysis and comparison. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) imposed a lifetime ban on federal food assistance benefits (SNAP) and TANF for anyone with a drug felony conviction obtained after passage of the act. The act allowed states to opt out of the ban or to modify it, and over the years, all but one state has opted out of the ban or modified it for at least one of the two benefit programs. The authors illustrate the national landscape of participation in the SNAP/TANF bans through a set of maps: one map shows the national landscape of participation in the PRWORA ban for all 50 states, and two additional maps show how states have modified the ban for each of the two benefit programs. As of December 5, 2023, 25 states and the District of Columbia have opted out of both federal bans, so that people with drug felony convictions may receive both SNAP and TANF benefits for which they are otherwise eligible without conditions imposed pursuant to federal law. Another four states – Florida, Iowa, Maryland, and Utah – have opted out of the ban on SNAP but have modified the ban on TANF to impose conditions. Additionally, several state legislatures, including Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, and South Carolina, made other modifications in 2023. In Florida, the TANF ban was modified to exclude only drug trafficking convictions.

This review examines the research about the impact of pretrial detention on case outcomes to understand whether defendants who are detained pretrial are subject to more severe case outcomes than defendants who are released pretrial. The author identified 57 studies that had been conducted on samples that were drawn after 1990 and that focused specifically on the United States. Using a meta-analysis on the 143 independent results contained within these 57 studies, the author determined the average direct effect of pretrial detention on six case outcomes: conviction, guilty plea, dismissal, charge reduction, incarceration, and sentence length. The results indicated that across the included studies, detained defendants were much more likely to be incarcerated than released defendants. They also were more likely to be convicted and plead guilty, less likely to have their cases dismissed, and received longer custodial sentences. The magnitude of the average effect of pretrial detention on the six case outcomes varied. On average, compared to people released pending trial, those who were detained saw their odds increase for: conviction (120%), pleading guilty (104%), being sentenced to incarceration (236%), and having a longer sentence length (29%).

The U.S. Department of Education uses a survey to obtain data and information from private schools. The target population for the survey consists of all private schools in the U.S. that are not supported primarily by public funds, provide classroom instruction for one or more of grades K-12 or comparable ungraded levels, and have one or more teachers. Organizations or institutions that provide support for home schooling without offering classroom instruction for students are not included. Data from the 2021-22 Private School Survey show no significant changes in private school student enrollment between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years. The most recent survey data come from the 2021–22 collection. In the 2021-22 school year, there were 29,727 private schools, enrolling 4,731,303 students and employing 482,571 full-time teachers in the United States.

This brief highlights the findings from a rigorous long-term follow-up study of an early version of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model. The DCMP model diversifies developmental and college-level math course content, separating it into distinct pathways that better align with students’ career interests and streamlines the developmental math sequence so students can move into college-level courses more quickly. The study found that the model had a sustained impact on students’ successful completion of their first college-level math course of 5.6 percentage points after five years. There was a small impact on math credits earned during the first year and a small impact on completing a second college-level math course in the second year, but evidence of these impacts dissipated in the following years. Additionally, the impact was particularly strong for those students who tested two or more levels below college-ready (versus those students who tested at college level or one level below), suggesting that this early version of the DCMP model was most effective in supporting the students who most struggle to complete their math sequence. However, this impact on college-level math completion did not lead to discernible effects on credential completion. Since the launch of this early version of DCMP, the Dana Center has continued to refine and update the model over time therefore the findings in this study do not reflect the effects of the current version of the DCMP model. However, the findings do offer insights that may inform the current implementation of math pathways and other developmental math reforms.

In this brief, the authors use the implementation of a centralized enrollment system in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) as a case study for investigating students’ enrollment decisions as the district transitioned away from a more decentralized approach. In fall 2018, the first cohort of CPS ninth graders enrolled in high schools using GoCPS, an online student application and enrollment portal for all of the districts’ traditional, magnet, and charter schools. The district aimed to create an enrollment system that was more equitable and efficient than the pre-existing patchwork of application procedures. In the years following GoCPS, the authors found that enrollment patterns across different high schools remained mostly stable. Student enrollment in schools with high graduation rates was on the rise prior to GoCPS, and this trend continued after, including for students of color and for students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. GoCPS made it easier to apply to charter schools at a time when the city’s public school population was already shrinking raising concerns among some Chicagoans that enrollment in traditional neighborhood schools would decline even faster. However, the share of ninth-grade students enrolling in neighborhood high schools increased slightly, offset by small declines in charter enrollment. These changes were driven by Black students’ enrollment decisions. Finally, the district’s decision to assign students to schools using a centralized system clearly resulted in a decline in the number of offers made to students, which likely reduced uncertainty about fall enrollment for students and schools.

Poverty is an important indicator of economic well-being. Federal and state policymakers, as well as community stakeholders often use poverty rates and income-to-poverty ratios as key indicators of current economic conditions within communities and to make comparisons across demographic groups. Poverty rates, measured as the proportion of people in poverty, are often used to identify communities in need and to estimate the number of families eligible for various government programs. This brief uses the 2021 and 2022 American Community Survey 1-year estimates to analyze poverty rates for 2022 as well as the changes in poverty from 2021 for the nation, states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and metropolitan areas. In 2022, the national poverty rate was 12.6%, a decrease from 12.8% in 2021. The poverty rate decreased in 9 states (including Florida) and the District of Columbia between 2021 and 2022. No state had a poverty rate increase from 2021 to 2022. Poverty rates did not change in 41 states and Puerto Rico. 2022 poverty rates in states and the District of Columbia ranged from 7.2% (New Hampshire) to 19.1% (Mississippi). Florida’s poverty rate for 2022 is reported at 12.7%.

Individuals and state and local governments (public entities) incur losses associated with natural disasters. For individuals, there are costs associated with evacuating, possible periods of unemployment, and costs associated with physical damage caused by the event, much of which is uninsured loss. Similarly, public entities incur damage to public buildings and public utilities and tax base losses associated with reduced economic activity. Although an entire community experiences a natural disaster, low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately vulnerable to the risks of natural hazards and encounter the most difficulty in recovering from disasters. The U.S. federal government provides funds for disaster response and recovery for both individuals and public entities. However, federal assistance is limited, and financial gaps remain. The authors of this report provide a resource documenting programs and products that some communities have adopted to help improve individual and community financial resilience. Many of these products are available from the private sector, and others are programs developed by public entities or nongovernmental organizations. Improving the financial resilience of public entities and individuals after a natural disaster strengthens and speeds up a community's ability to recover. One recommended product is parametric insurance, which provides compensation based on the observed magnitude or the relative location of an event, known as a trigger. These parametric insurance policies have been purchased by states (such as Utah for earthquake coverage) and local governments (such as the City of Miami Beach for hurricane losses).

Homelessness is not uniform. There are significant variations in the types, prevalence, and service delivery ecosystems of homelessness across U.S. cities and regions—requiring policies tailored to those people and places rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. Despite perceptions of rising homelessness in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness rates in three of the four cities studied (New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago) declined over the past decade, including through the pandemic. Seattle was the stark outlier. Above any other factor, regional housing market dynamics—particularly when rents rise by amounts that low-income residents cannot afford—drive geographic variations in the prevalence of homelessness and correlate with higher homelessness rates. Evidence-based policy recommendations for reducing homelessness require root cause approaches, including reforming housing plans, scaling alternative crisis response models, stopping the jail-to-homelessness cycle, leveraging the capacity of place governance organizations, and taking a regional, data-driven approach to homelessness.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex, multisystem illness characterized by activity-limiting fatigue, worsening of symptoms after activity, and other symptoms. It affects all age, sex, and racial and ethnic groups and costs the U.S. economy about $18–$51 billion annually. This report describes the percentage of adults who had the syndrome at the time of interview by selected demographic and geographic characteristics based on data from the 2021–2022 National Health Interview Survey. Key findings from the report include that in 2021–2022, 1.3% of adults had the syndrome. The percentage of adults who had the syndrome increased with age through ages 60–69 and then declined among those age 70 and older. White non-Hispanic (1.5%) adults were more likely to have the syndrome compared with Asian non-Hispanic (0.7%) and Hispanic (0.8%) adults. Adults with a family income less than 100% of the federal poverty level (2.0%) were more likely to have the syndrome, followed by those at 100–199% (1.7%), and those at or above 200% (1.1%). The percentage of adults who had the syndrome increased with increasing rurality of their place of residence.

This brief describes how enrollment and vacancies at center-based child care and early education (CCEE) programs can be estimated using data from the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE). This brief also documents differences between centers’ operating capacity, defined as the sum of a given center’s enrollment and vacancies, and their licensed capacity (the number of children a center is legally licensed to serve) reported in state licensing lists. The brief found that in 2019, at the national-level, center-based providers have limited expansion potential. On average, centers are operating with a capacity utilization of about 90%. However, expansion potential is unevenly distributed across providers. While the majority of providers have limited expansion potential in every age category, some providers do have the ability to serve more children. Furthermore, expansion potential at the classroom-level is even more limited than that at the center-level. Overall, the authors found that in 2019 the average child care center has an operating capacity that is lower than its licensed capacity.

The share of U.S. hospital bed capacity owned by multi-unit hospital systems increased from 58% to 81% between 2000 and 2020. In this report, the authors studied changes in hospital costs and pricing at 101 independent hospitals that were acquired by hospital systems in the 20 states in which Elevance Health provides employer-sponsored and individual plans and Medicare Advantage coverage. They analyzed transaction prices paid for individual inpatient stays, Medicare fee-for-service claims, and all-payer New York state hospital discharges. They found that after an acquisition, hospital operating profit rose by about $60,000 per bed per year. Much of this increase — about $48,000 — was from reductions in personnel expenses and capital and financing costs. Inpatient revenues also rose about 6% within three years of acquisition. Patient satisfaction scores and mortality rates were not affected by hospital acquisitions. The researchers did not find any evidence that the system improved the quality of care, and identified some evidence of decline. After acquisition, the average 90-day readmission rate increased by 3 percentage points for commercially insured cardiac care patients. Medicare data show that re-admissions for patients with non-deferrable conditions increased by 0.57 percentage points.