This report provides national statistics on the federal response to crime for Fiscal Year 2023 and some statistics on changes over time. It describes case processing in the federal criminal justice system, including investigations by U.S. attorneys, prosecutions and declinations, convictions and acquittals, sentencing, probation and supervised release, and imprisonment. It also includes a new section detailing the federal criminal justice system’s response to immigration violations. Key findings include the median number of days from the receipt of an investigation to the decision by a U.S. attorney to prosecute or decline a matter was 61 days in Fiscal Year 2023, similar to Fiscal Year 2022; during Fiscal Year 2023, 94,411 suspects were arrested by federal law enforcement and booked by the U.S. Marshals Service, a 3% decrease from 96,857 in Fiscal Year 2022; of the 25,110 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrests in Fiscal Year 2023, the most common type of drug involved was methamphetamine (7,381 arrests), followed by other opioids (6,688 arrests), including fentanyl; and U.S. attorneys prosecuted 61% of suspects in matters concluded in Fiscal Year 2023. The percentage of suspects prosecuted was highest in immigration (70%), drug offenses (70%), and weapons offenses (68%).

The federal government has identified the use of illegal drugs and misuse of prescription drugs, particularly opioids, as a persistent and long-standing risk to public health in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Justice and an executive order created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973, as a single, comprehensive federal agency to lead U.S. efforts against illicit drug trafficking, domestically and internationally. DEA works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security to investigate illicit drug activity with a connection to U.S. borders and ports of entry. To facilitate their collaboration, DEA and ICE have entered into agreements. This GAO report examines how DEA and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit coordinate on counternarcotics investigations; addressing the extent to which DEA is following its process to review HSI agent requests to participate in counternarcotics investigations, and the extent to which DEA and HSI have implemented the provisions of their agreement regarding training requirements. Key findings include DEA has cross-designated an average of over 4,000 HSI agents per year with the authority to participate in counternarcotics investigations during fiscal years 2019 through 2023; DEA has not established timeliness goals for its cross-designation processes and does not track processing time; and DEA and HSI officials have not implemented the training requirements pursuant to their January 2021 agreement. The GAO recommends that DEA establish timeliness goals for its Title 21 cross-designation processes and track processing time, and in collaboration with ICE, develop and implement the training modules pursuant to the January 2021 agreement to ensure compliance.

This study explores the implementation of multidisciplinary team protocols in the rehabilitation of children in conflict with the law.. While numerous studies examine the perspectives of children in conflict with the law, this research shifts the focus to the perspectives of the multidisciplinary teams that play a role in their rehabilitation. The study aims to provide a deeper understanding of how these professionals navigate the complexities of working with children in conflict with the law and the impact of their efforts on the rehabilitation process. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, the research examines the implementation of multidisciplinary teams in addressing the children's rehabilitation needs and identifies challenges faced during implementation. Key findings include that most offenses involving children in conflict with the law are index crimes, including crimes against persons such as assault, and challenges such as children’s resistance to programs and family and community stigma hinder the full potential of rehabilitation.

Schools can be ideal settings to address youth mental health needs, yet they struggle to provide effective services. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 96% of public schools reported providing student mental health services, but only 56% agreed that they could provide these services to all students effectively. These schools cited large caseloads, workforce strains, and lack of funding as the top three barriers. School mental health services may include more than clinical services. Research shows that universal mental health education programs can improve knowledge, attitudes, and help-seeking. New York passed the first legislation requiring this education for K-12 students in 2016. According to a recent policy scan, more than half of the U.S. now has similar policies by statute, regulation, legislation, or learning standards. These policies vary significantly with differences in specificity, resources, intended audience, scope, and clarity of education content, standards development, parent removal options, and requirement conditions. Despite the number of states embracing these policies, implementation issues exist. Following New York’s landmark law, an audit in 2022 revealed opportunities for improvement, including the recommendation to develop evaluation criteria to ensure adherence to the law. These results are not surprising since mental health education had not been part of K-12 or pre-service curricula and has no national guidance. Policies could allocate essential funds and establish and fund new mental health education leadership roles. Policymakers could also expand access to funding that allows more school mental health dollars to be used for universal mental health education. With effective policies in place, schools will be better equipped to help youth thrive.

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is twofold: (a) to understand how the three key student engagement dimensions (i.e., affective, behavioral, and cognitive) have been conceptualized, operationalized, and measured by researchers in the field and (b) to examine the extent to which the construct, its dimensions, and subtypes are associated with academic achievement and subjective well-being. Effect sizes and other information (e.g., engagement measures) were retrieved from 137 studies involving 158,510 participants. The systematic review showed that the three engagement dimensions could be further distinguished into seven conceptually distinct engagement subtypes. Metaregression with robust variance estimation revealed that student engagement has a large average correlation with academic achievement (r = .33) and subjective well-being (r = .35). Upon closer inspection, academic achievement has the strongest association with behavioral engagement (r = .39), followed by cognitive (r = .31) and affective (r = .26) engagement. subjective well-being, in contrast, was most closely related to affective engagement (r = .40), followed by cognitive (r = .35) and behavioral (r = .31) engagement. Further analyses indicated that the magnitude of these effect sizes was moderated by the ways affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement were operationalized in the primary studies, as well as other factors like the informant source of engagement and type of achievement measure used. While the present study showed that student engagement was positively associated with desirable student outcomes, it also illustrated how student engagement is, at the current point in time, overgeneralized and in dire need of conceptual refinement.

The purpose of this project was to conduct a needs assessment with teachers throughout Tennessee who were currently teaching, soon would teach, or had taught personal finance classes to high school students. This was a mixed-methods study, including quantitative data collected through closed-end survey questions and qualitative data collected through open-ended survey questions, focus groups, and interviews. Separate reports for the survey and the focus groups/interviews are included among the appendices. This report combines major findings from the surveys and the focus groups/interviews to provide a comprehensive overview of results as well as recommendations to improve the quality of personal finance training programs in Tennessee. These methods and findings can be adapted and applied to personal finance programs in other states as well. Over 200 teachers (212) completed surveys, with responses from 71 out of 95 total counties in Tennessee. Among the teachers who completed the surveys, 157 were currently teaching personal finance at the time of the survey; 21 were not currently teaching personal finance but previously had taught the course; and 34 were not currently teaching personal finance but expected to teach the course during the next term or next school year. A total of 40 teachers participated: 20 in the focus groups and 20 in the online interviews. As reflected in the interviews, teachers believed in the value and importance of personal finance classes for high school students. Several described the course as being important for all students because everyone has to manage money. Teacher quotes included, “I don’t give homework. I give life work”, . “It’s one of the most enjoyable and rewarding classes that I’ve ever taught. You can see the benefits of it”, and “I tell my students—not to be an insult to any other class or teacher—this is one class that I promise you will use in your life. Soon. This is the one class.”.

This report presents recent estimates on various parental leave measures, highlighting work behaviors and detailed leave arrangements used by working parents surrounding the birth of their first child. The gap between fathers and mothers who work before the birth of their first child is getting smaller, and an increasing percentage of mothers participate in the labor force prior to giving birth. After the birth of a first child, both fathers and mothers had high rates of returning to work, ranging from 80% to 98%, depending on various demographic characteristics. Figure 2 details an increase in paid leave rates for fathers and mothers across birth cohorts over time. Additionally, the estimates indicate a declining trend in the percentage of fathers not taking leave. These findings suggest variations in parental leave benefits among working parents with a recent (2014 to 2022) first-born child. The report explains that mothers rely on both paid and unpaid forms of leave, whether before or after the birth of their first child. Overall, the findings suggest that while a portion of working parents takes a form of paid leave before or after the birth of their first child, a considerable number of working parents rely on unpaid or alternative leave arrangements or do not take leave at all.

Scammers manipulate victims into sending them money. These scams may be costing Americans billions of dollars annually. For example, based on banking data filed in 2021, the U.S. Department of Treasury estimated $200 billion in impersonation-related suspicious activity. That's when a scammer impersonates someone else—like a potential romantic partner or employer, or a customer service representative—to get money. There is no government-wide estimate of the money lost to scams, no common definition of scams, and no national strategy for combating them. Having these could help federal agencies protect consumers. The 13 federal agencies the Government Accountability Office spoke with engage in a range of efforts to counter scams. However, none were aware of a government-wide strategy to guide those efforts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FBI, and Federal Trade Commission receive, compile, and report on consumer complaints pertaining to issues including internet-related crime and scams. Data limitations, such as issues with how data are collected, do not allow agencies to calculate the exact number of scam complaints, but each agency can estimate the number it receives. For example, the FBI estimated that in 2023 it received approximately 589,400 scam-related complaints, resulting in losses of $10.55 billion. In addition, no government-wide estimate of the total number of scams and dollar losses exists. Improved data collection and estimates would better support federal efforts to understand the extent of this type of crime and develop ways to counter it.

A new study analyzed nearly four decades of deep ocean observations to reveal significant cooling and freshening of deep water in the subtropical North Atlantic. The results suggest that warmer, saltier deep waters observed across other parts of the Atlantic may reach the region within the next 10 years, potentially influencing large-scale sea level changes and altering the flow of ocean currents in the region. These new findings are critical to understanding the future behavior of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a crucial component of global ocean circulation that plays a significant role in regulating climate, weather patterns, and sea levels across the globe. The analysis revealed that persistent cooling and freshening of deep water in the subpolar North Atlantic was followed by an increase in temperature and salinity over 20 years ago. As deep water formed in the Subpolar North Atlantic is transported towards the equator it is anticipated that the ongoing cooling and freshening of the deep ocean in the subtropical North Atlantic at 26.5°N will soon be followed by an increase in both temperature and salinity. Studying the AMOC is essential for understanding and predicting future climate conditions. It affects key factors like weather patterns, sea level change, and extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, and floods. A weakened AMOC could exacerbate these impacts; continued observations to monitor its stability are critical. By tracking observed changes in the AMOC, scientists can develop more accurate ocean and weather models and prepare for potential disruptions to regional and global environments.

Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCU) investigate and prosecute Medicaid provider fraud and patient abuse or neglect. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) is the designated federal agency that oversees and annually recertifies and approves federal funding for each MFCU. The OIG analyzed the annual data on case outcomes (such as convictions, civil settlements and judgments, and recoveries) that 53 MFCUs submitted to the agency for Fiscal Year 2024, as well as other historical data. These MFCUs operated in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Key findings include that $1.4 billion were recovered in Fiscal Year 2024; the number of annual convictions reported by MFCUs increased slightly in the same fiscal year to 1,151 total convictions; the proportions of fraud convictions and patient abuse or neglect convictions have remained consistent during the 10-year period, ranging from 71% to 76%; and 1,042 individuals or entities were excluded from federally funded programs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) annually provides about $16.5 billion in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant funds to states to provide cash, supportive services, and non-cash assistance to low-income individuals and families with children. The federal Single Audit Act requires states and other entities that spend $1 million or more in federal awards each year to undergo a single audit. Single audits can help HHS identify deficiencies in states’ internal controls over financial reporting and compliance requirements for federal award programs. This report examines the nature and extent of TANF single audit findings, as of April 30, 2024, and the extent to which HHS has conducted oversight of TANF single audit findings. The Government Accountability Office (GAO)identified 37 states with, collectively, 162 TANF audit findings in their single audit reports. Fifty-six of these findings were categorized as a material weakness, the most severe category of audit findings. In addition, 37 of the 162 audit findings repeated for 2 or more years, and three remained unresolved for over a decade. Lastly, HHS’s Administration for Children and Families , which administers the TANF block grant funds, has not updated its procedures for determining its effectiveness in helping states resolve TANF single audit findings and the procedures do not ensure that it issues timely management decisions to states. The GAO recommends that HHS (1) ensure that the Administration for Children and Families updates its single audit resolution procedures, (2) ensure that ACF implements a strategy to issue management decisions timely, and (3) develop procedures to timely impose penalties, or alternatively obtain corrective compliance plans.

The objective of this research was to develop and test a new quality measure assessing timeliness of follow-up mental health care for youth presenting to the emergency department with suicidal ideation or self-harm. Based on a conceptual framework and an evidence review, the authors developed a quality measure assessing whether youth 5 to 17 years old evaluated for suicidal ideation or self-harm in the emergency department and discharged to home had a follow-up mental health care visit within 7 days. The measure was tested in 4 geographically dispersed states (California, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee) using Medicaid administrative data. The authors examined measure feasibility of implementation, variation, reliability, and validity. To test validity, adjusted regression models examined associations between quality measure scores and subsequent all-cause and same-cause hospital readmissions / emergency department return visits. Overall, there were 16,486 eligible emergency department visits between September 1, 2014 and July 31, 2016; 53.5% of eligible emergency department visits had an associated mental health care follow-up visit within 7 days. Measure scores varied by state, ranging from 26.3% to 66.5%, and by youth characteristics: visits by youth who were non-White, male, and living in an urban area were significantly less likely to be associated with a follow-up visit within 7 days. Better quality measure performance was not associated with decreased reutilization. This new emergency department quality measure may be useful for monitoring and improving the quality of care for this vulnerable population; however, future work is needed to establish the measure's predictive validity using more prevalent outcomes such as recurrence of suicidal ideation or deliberate self-harm.