Human trafficking involves the exploitation of individuals for labor, services, or commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. Additionally, inducing a person under the age of 18 to engage in commercial sex, regardless of the presence of force, fraud, or coercion is also human trafficking. The National Center for State Courts commercial driver’s license (CDL) initiative aims to tackle the issue of human trafficking by engaging commercial drivers— approximately 8.7 million in the U.S.—as critical observers on the road, alerting authorities to suspicions of human trafficking. A central component of this initiative is a self-paced e-learning course that educates CDL holders on human trafficking, including definitions, signs and indicators, reporting procedures, and CDL disqualification for a human trafficking conviction. The course will explore the potential victims of human trafficking, as well as those who may perpetrate the crime. The online course takes approximately 45 minutes to complete and is accessible from computers, tablets, or smartphones. The course also concludes with a quiz, and successful completion results in the issuance of a certificate.

Federal and state criminal justice systems use algorithmic risk assessment tools extensively. Risk assessment is a process of using risk factors to estimate the likelihood (i.e., probability) of an outcome occurring in a population. Much of the existing scholarship on risk assessments engages in normative and technical analyses of these tools or seeks to identify best practices for tool design and use. Far less work has been done on how courts and other criminal justice actors perceive and utilize these tools on the ground. Judges’ and other criminal justice actors’ attitudes towards, and implementation of, algorithmic risk assessment tools profoundly affect how these tools impact defendants, incarceration rates, and the broader criminal justice system. This paper describes how Ohio Common Pleas Courts implement algorithmic risk assessment tools and how judges view and utilize the tools and the risk scores the tools generate. This paper also compares Ohio practice in this area to the best practices identified in the literature and, on this basis, recommends how the Ohio Courts of Common Pleas—and, by implication, other state and federal court systems—can better align its use of algorithmic risk assessment tools with core criminal justice values. Ohio risk assessment tools involve a comprehensive review of file information, face-to-face interviews, and self-report questionnaires. When necessary, additional information is also gathered to corroborate the review and ensure accuracy. Once all data about the offender has been collected, the assessor consults the tool’s scoring guide to determine how each item should be scored. Most courts use the Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS) as their primary tool for bail and sentencing decisions. While the majority (93%) of judges receive risk assessments for their sentencing decisions, fewer (57%) receive risk assessments for bail decisions. Researchers found that most judges who responded to the survey reported using scores provided by risk assessment to guide sentencing and bail decisions and generally found risk assessments important to both bail and sentencing decisions, with very few considering these tools unimportant. To facilitate easier interpretation of risk information, the literature recommends presenting risk information as percentage estimates with confidence intervals and framing it in terms of the probability of not recidivating (positive framing). The ORAS tools do not follow these best practices. Instead, they present risk as a numerical score (0-9), which is then categorized into low-, moderate-, high-, and very high-risk groups. Judges are typically told the defendant’s risk category.

Although variation in dual enrollment high school–college partnership contexts likely contributes to differences in dual enrollment access, structures, and outcomes, the extent of variation across partnerships is unclear. To build an understanding of variation in key dual enrollment structures and outcomes across partnerships, this working paper examines partnerships between high schools and community colleges in Texas, where dual enrollment students account for one fifth of all community college enrollees. The authors use statewide administrative data from Texas to identify all dual enrollment course enrollments across three cohorts of high school students, constructing partnership-level measures and outcomes for each unique high school–college pairing. Through descriptive and regression analyses, the authors describe dual enrollment partnerships and estimate which dual enrollment structures and contexts predict aggregate dual enrollment course completion, college enrollment, and degree attainment. The paper illuminates considerable variation in dual enrollment course structures and student composition across partnerships. Regression results indicate that dual enrollment course structures (e.g., course subject, location, instructor type) are less practically meaningful in predicting a partnership’s aggregate outcomes compared with contextual measures such as geographic locale (i.e., rural or urban) or use of an early college high school model.

Graduate education is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. higher education. While undergraduate enrollment has increased by 30% over the past two decades, graduate enrollment increased by more than 45% over the same period. As policymakers aim their sights more squarely on graduate program quality and accountability, they may be surprised at the relatively limited evidence base on the earnings gains for graduate degrees. Of course, students may enroll in graduate education for reasons beyond earnings. Still, the vast majority of prospective graduate students cite earnings potential as an important or very important consideration in their decision, and these outcomes are particularly important for understanding the implications of rising graduate student debt. Using two decades of administrative data from Ohio’s public colleges and universities, the authors of this brief compare master’s degree completers’ earnings before and after graduate school. On average, earning a master’s degree increases earnings by 14%, though returns vary by field. Women see higher returns than men, and White graduates outpace Black peers. Graduating into a recession reduces earnings gains, but despite these differences, returns remain positive across all groups and time periods, reinforcing the value of master’s degrees from public institutions.

With a decade of experience in creating and running teacher residencies—numbering seven around the region as of 2024—California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) and its partners have developed strong residency structures that allow for the variations that different communities need.. The research team found that CSUB residencies represent high-quality preparation options. Across the seven residencies, residents gave their programs high ratings, with an average of 4.3 out of 5.0 overall on the 2021 California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) completer survey. The individual residencies studied in this report prepare candidates who are hired and retained at high rates within partner districts and who tend to be more diverse than California’s general teacher population. In this report, the research team present case studies conducted in 2023 of two CSUB residencies: the Kern Urban Teacher Residency (Kern Urban) and the Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE). Kern Urban, established in 2016, is CSUB’s longest-running residency program and partners with a single urban school district, Bakersfield City School District (BCSD). As of 2022, Kern Urban has graduated a total of 114 residents, 92% of whom have continued to work in BCSD. TRRE, in contrast, hosted its first cohort in 2020 and prepares residents to teach in a specifically rural context. For this residency, CSUB partnered with the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE), which facilitated placements in three rural districts during the 2022–23 academic year. Within similar structures, the two programs’ differences, shaped by their contrasting contexts, illustrate how the residency model can be modified to meet the needs of both large urban and small rural districts.

Younger Than the National Median Many assume Florida is one of the nation’s oldest states and Utah to be among the youngest. But while a retirement magnet, not every corner of the Sunshine (or any other) state is old or, for that matter, young. Some older states like Florida have counties with much younger populations, while some counties within the youngest states like Utah are graying fast. In both instances, these intra-state discrepancies are driven by migration patterns combined with the numbers of births and deaths. The nation as a whole is aging. But a look at the median age (the age where half the population is older and the other half is younger) of states and counties tells a more nuanced story. For example, Maine is the nation’s oldest state, yet it’s also the only state whose median age (44.8) hasn’t increased since 2020. Utah remains the youngest state with a median age of 32.4, but it also ranks among the states aging fastest: Utah’s median age increased by 1.0 from 2020 to 2024, one of only six states that added a year or more to their median age during that period. Some states with older median ages also have pockets of younger populations. In 2024, Florida was the nation’s fifth oldest state with a median age of 42.6, after Maine, Vermont (43.6), New Hampshire (43.6) and West Virginia (43.0)— states all well above the nation’s median age of 39.1. But Florida also had some counties much younger than the national median age, including Leon County. There was a 47.1-year difference in median age between the nation’s oldest and youngest counties in 2024, resulting in age structures vastly different than the nation’s. Florida was home to the nation’s oldest county: Sumter County, with a median age of 68.1, and it is one of three Florida counties that houses the nation’s largest (32 square miles) retirement community, The Villages. The nation’s youngest county, with a median age of 20.9, was Madison County in Idaho, where Brigham Young University-Idaho is located.

In 2024, over 770,000 people across the United States experienced homelessness in a single night—more than ever recorded. The number of renter households spending more than half their income on rent also reached a record high. The nation additionally faces a loneliness and isolation epidemic, and addressing social connection will be necessary to strengthen individual and collective health and well-being. Shared housing is a pragmatic approach to combating social isolation and homelessness. In a shared housing arrangement, two or more unrelated people live together and share common space in temporary or permanent housing. This is a normal practice in private housing markets but not across the housing assistance world. MDRC, in partnership with the Shared Housing Institute (SHI), is conducting an outcomes and implementation study to better understand the potential and promise of shared housing to address homelessness, housing affordability, and social connectedness and well-being in high-cost areas across the country. This brief discusses how MDRC and SHI collaborated with national shared housing leaders in 2024 to codevelop a learning agenda for the shared housing evaluation. It then lays out the framework for the research questions the study will address, which include how to navigate local continuum of care processes and how to support client needs and preferences.

This report presents impact findings from an evaluation of Project Connect—a home-based intervention for families involved in the child welfare system affected by substance use in Rhode Island. The research team used a randomized controlled trial design to test whether Project Connect had a significant impact on reunifications and permanency among children in out-of-home-care in Rhode Island. Child welfare cases involving parental substance use are among the most complex, often resulting in the poorest outcomes. In 2022, about 1 in 4 reported cases of child maltreatment nationally had a caregiver with drug use as a risk factor. Families affected by drug use are less likely to achieve successful reunification, and children who enter foster care because of parental drug use are less likely to achieve permanency after they are reunified. The study focused on reunification at 6 months post randomization and permanency at 12 months post randomization among children who were in out-of-home care at the time of randomization. This roughly corresponds to end of treatment (6 months) and a short-term outcome posttreatment (12 months). At 6 months and 12 months post randomization the research team found families randomized to Project Connect were statistically significantly less likely to be reunified compared with families randomized to services as usual. The results also showed no statistically significant differences in the share of children discharged to permanency (reunification, adoption, or guardianship) among families randomized to Project Connect compared with families randomized to services as usual. At 6 months post randomization, 2% of children whose families were randomized to Project Connect were reunified compared with 8% of children whose families were randomized to services as usual. This difference in the shares reunified grew by 12 months post randomization, as 15% of children whose families were randomized to Project Connect were reunified compared with 28% of children whose families were randomized to services as usual. On average, a lower share of children whose parents engaged in Project Connect achieved permanency at one year post randomization compared with children in the control group.

Fast-food consumption is associated with high caloric intake and poor diet quality. Patterns of fast-food consumption vary by demographic and socioeconomic factors. This report presents estimates of the percentage of calories consumed from fast food on a given day among U.S. adults by selected characteristics during August 2021–August 2023. Key findings from the report include that during August 2021–August 2023, about one-third of adults age 20 and older (32.0%) consumed fast food on a given day. Overall, adults consumed 11.7% of calories from fast food on a given day, and the percentage decreased with age: 15.2% for ages 20–39, 11.9% for 40–59, and 7.6% for 60 and older. Adults with some college education generally consumed more calories from fast food than those with a high school diploma or less or a bachelor’s degree or more. The percentage of daily calories from fast food increased with increasing weight status. The percentage of calories consumed from fast food among adults decreased from 14.1% during 2013–2014 to 11.7% during August 2021–August 2023.

This report presents estimates of health insurance coverage for the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population based on data from the 2024 National Health Interview Survey. In 2024, 27.2 million people of all ages (8.2%) were uninsured at the time of interview. This was higher than but not significantly different from 2023, when 25.0 million people of all ages (7.6%) were uninsured. In 2024, among adults ages 18–64, 11.6% were uninsured at the time of interview, 21.2% had public coverage, and 69.1% had private health insurance coverage. The percentage of adults ages 18–64 who had public coverage in 2024 (21.2%) was lower than the percentage who had public coverage in 2023 (23.0%). In 2024, among children ages 0–17 years, 5.1% were uninsured, 41.6% had public coverage, and 55.4% had private health insurance coverage. The percentage of people younger than age 65 with exchange-based coverage increased from 3.8% in 2020 to 5.7% in 2024.

Massachusetts implemented a Flexible Services program (FSP) under a Medicaid Section 1115 waiver to address food and housing insecurity for accountable care organization beneficiaries. This 3-year pilot program connects Medicaid enrollees to community resources. Little is known about the social, behavioral, and clinical outcomes associated with Medicaid social needs interventions. In a cohort study of 153 FSP participant episodes and 1,495 non–FSP participant episodes among adult Medicaid beneficiaries, there were no differences in food or housing insecurity, dietary quality, stress, or health care use between these two groups at one year. In interviews, participants reported experiencing a range of positive, neutral, and negative changes following FSP. This study of adult Medicaid beneficiaries found that FSP was not associated with short-term favorable changes in food or housing insecurity, diet, stress, or acute health care use. In interviews, FSP participants highlighted both the benefits and challenges of addressing social needs through such health system interventions.