Offering evidence-based treatment, judicial supervision, and accountability, problem-solving courts provide individualized interventions for participants and may improve public safety, reduce recidivism, and promote confidence in the justice system. The first problem-solving court in the United States—an adult drug court—was created in 1989 in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in response to the crack cocaine epidemic. Since that time, drug courts have expanded, with 50 adult drug courts currently operating in Florida. Drug courts have also expanded in scope through the development of juvenile drug courts and dependency drug courts to address more specific populations. As drug court implementation continued, other types of problem-solving courts evolved, such as mental health courts, DUI courts, veterans courts, and early childhood courts. Currently, more than 180 problem-solving courts operate in 19 of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits. The Florida Supreme Court has approved adult drug court, dependency drug court, and early childhood court best practice standards, as well as juvenile drug court, mental health court, and veterans court best practice guidelines; DUI court best practices are pending final approval. As of July 1, 2024, problem-solving courts receiving state funding are required to collect and report participant-level data. The required data collection and reporting will facilitate ongoing program monitoring and evaluation of program outcomes and compliance with best practices.

Across the nation, courts often see families repeatedly facing the same struggles. By the time a family reaches a courtroom, they have often been struggling for months, if not years, without the resources or support they need. This delay not only worsens the crisis but also deepens the trauma for children and caregivers. To address this issue, in 2021 the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts and Rutherford County Juvenile Services launched the Family Preservation Initiative (FPI) in partnership with the National Center for State Courts and the State Justice Initiative. FPI focuses on intervening early to provide support before families reach the court system. By quickly connecting families to local resources and services, FPI may reduce the need for court involvement and help families avoid further trauma. FPI referrals come from a variety of sources, including schools, law enforcement, community mental health providers, juvenile court staff, and other local agencies; families may also self-refer. Within 24 to 48 hours of receiving a referral, FPI staff contact the family to coordinate care; each response is tailored to the family's needs. As of March 2025, FPI had served 594 families and 1,119 children. There has been 0% recidivism among FPI-served children and siblings; fewer school suspensions, citations, and behavioral incidents; and stronger relationships between families, schools, and service providers. Without FPI, the families served may have entered the juvenile court system. Instead, the program's early intervention has helped reduce trauma, strengthen families, and alleviate the strain on the court system.

Anyone experiencing—or at risk of experiencing—a crisis related to behavioral health, homelessness, poverty, or other social needs requires an immediate and appropriate response. That is why community responder programs, which employ health professionals and staff trained in crisis response as first responders, have emerged as an effective mechanism for reducing client distress, providing timely support, and reducing the burden on police and hospitals across the United States. Currently, state leaders are looking to better understand how they can support what is working locally through legislation and financial investment. The Expanding First Response Commission—which includes advocates, first responders, policymakers, researchers, state and municipal officials, and people with other personal and professional experiences—met between January and March 2025 to develop actionable guidance for state leaders interested in supporting local community responder efforts. The commission recommended establishing funding streams through state legislation and budgetary processes, incentivizing partnerships with local institutions, and setting up statewide mechanisms for tracking and promoting community responder outcomes.

Access to postsecondary programs in prison has substantial benefits for both reentering individuals and their communities, but most incarcerated people do not have access to such programs. State policymakers can play an important role in ensuring that incarcerated learners have access to the programs and support they need to succeed. To elevate state policy responses to barriers faced by these learners, the Education Commission of the States convened a community of practice with a diverse set of stakeholders to investigate state policy questions and learn about students’ experiences. Preliminary data from this effort show that more than 1.25 million people were incarcerated in federal and state correctional facilities in 2023, and about 95% of these individuals will eventually be released, often without access to postsecondary education or training programs that would help them transition successfully into their communities. Efforts to expand postsecondary education in prison increasingly depend on how states approach governance, financial aid, and student supports. Governance shapes how decisions are made and who is responsible for aligning efforts across departments of corrections, higher education, and other state agencies. The structure and clarity of these relationships, as well as the inclusion of people with lived experience in decision making, affect how well education programs are coordinated and how consistently they are delivered across facilities.

The results from the fall 2024 release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress confirmed that post-COVID-19 pandemic reading and math scores still fell short of their pre-pandemic levels for every tested grade level. In addition, students at the lower end of the achievement distribution lost more ground than students at the top of the distribution. This report summarizes research findings to understand high-dosage tutoring scaled in the post-pandemic environment and how it impacted student achievement. Researchers found that tutoring—both high-dosage and sustainable high-dosage—is effective overall. Pooled analyses show that the effect of participating in tutoring is statistically significant. Researchers also found that tutoring impacts seem robust across a variety of models. Lower-cost models ($1,200 per student) are just as effective as higher-cost models ($2,000 per student). Virtual tutoring seems just as effective as in-person tutoring in the Personalized Learning Initiative sites. In addition, more tutoring minutes correlate with greater learning gains. However, the minutes of tutoring provided are much lower than past tutoring studies, corresponding to smaller gains in student learning.

Career and technical education (CTE) and apprenticeship share many common goals, combining workplace skills with academic knowledge. Yet CTE and registered apprenticeship (RA) programs have historically been separate systems in the United States. This began to shift a decade ago with public and philanthropic investment in youth apprenticeship programs. This report examines the available, although limited, data from emerging high-school-based (HS-based) RA programs to see how they align with and could better serve CTE programming and goals. Researchers found that HS-based apprenticeships are limited, but the number of new programs and apprentices roughly doubled between 2021 and 2022, bringing the total number of apprentices since 2015 to 2,843. CTE programs are longer-standing and larger-scale, with 2.8 million high-school CTE concentrators in 2022. Although CTE programs are national, five states account for two-thirds of HS-based apprentices. HS-based apprenticeships are predominantly focused in two industries—71% of HS-based apprentices are in construction or advanced manufacturing—while CTE concentrators more evenly span industries including health care, agriculture, and management. The Urban Institute offered several recommendations to further align CTE programs and HS-based apprenticeships, including expanding HS-based apprenticeships into more occupations to more closely reflect occupations popular in CTE; recruiting a more varied population of apprentices; and exploring the creation of CTE-based apprenticeships.

Public transit in Florida plays a crucial role in providing transportation options, supporting economic growth, and improving community transportation. However, assessing the economic impact of public transit can pose challenges, particularly when it comes to quantifying intangible benefits such as safety, commuter satisfaction, and enhanced employee morale. This research project offers a comprehensive guide for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and transit agencies nationwide to leverage benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and economic impact analysis (EIA) methodologies for public transit. The project objectives included 1) reviewing the latest literature on BCA and EIA methodologies used in public transit services; 2) analyzing the economic impact of transit projects across different regions; 3) examining the influence of emerging transit modes; and 4) updating and recommending best practices for economic assessment methodologies. The findings revealed that BCA and EIA are widely used for transit assessments across the United States. BCA is often used to quantify tangible and intangible benefits, while EIA measures broader economic consequences using input-output models. However, both methods continue to face challenges, such as oversimplification of complex economic relationships and difficulties in accurately valuing intangible factors. Researchers recommend adopting an integrated approach that combines BCA and EIA for a more comprehensive evaluation of transit projects in Florida and that transit agencies and FDOT develop a standardized assessment model that combines key elements of both methodologies, with customizable factors.

The retail industry supports over a quarter of U.S. jobs, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, 18% of retail salespeople in 2023 were employed by firms that sold clothing, accessories, shoes, and jewelry. The 2022 Economic Census shows that from 2017 to 2022, the number of U.S. clothing and clothing accessories retail establishments decreased from 143,534 to 121,610, and the number of firms decreased from 56,731 to 52,909; an establishment refers to a single physical location and a firm consists of one or more establishments. The retail clothing industry also saw a decline in employees, from 1.8 million in 2017 to 1.5 million in 2022. Despite this drop, annual payroll rose from $32.1 billion to $35.0 billion over the same period. Most of the decline in the clothing and clothing accessories stores sector was among firms with 1 to 19 employees. During the same period, the number of U.S. electronic shopping and mail-order firms was on the rise, increasing 33% from 33,241 in 2017 to 44,322 in 2022, according to the Census Bureau’s Business Dynamic Statistics. There was also a notable rise in the number of non-store retail establishments, from 72,316 in 2021 to 77,128 in 2022. This sector includes any retail sales conducted outside a store, from kiosks and catalogs to online shopping. Jobs created by these new establishments peaked in 2020, by 117,379 new employees.

Each year, in accordance with a funding formula established in federal law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allocates State Administrative Expense (SAE) funds to states to support the administration of child nutrition programs, including school meal programs. USDA's child nutrition programs serve billion of meals annually to help ensure that children in low-income families have access to nutritious foods at schools and other settings. States primarily spend SAE funds on salaries of staff administering these programs and other expenses. GAO was directed to review issues related to the use of SAE funds for child nutrition programs and examined (1) recent trends in SAE funds states received and how the funds were used; (2) challenges selected states faced in using the funds and USDA's efforts to address the challenges; and (3) the extent to which USDA monitors states' use of the funds to achieve agency goals. GAO found that SAE funding was generally stable during its review period, before increasing in fiscal year 2024; the increase was due to schools serving more meals and receiving a higher rate for meal reimbursements in fiscal year 2022. According to GAO, states face challenges in effectively spending SAE funds due to uncertainty regarding the total amount the state will receive over the year and the short window to spend additional funds. The GAO also found that the USDA monitors states’ use of SAE funds and compliance with grant requirements, but its oversight has gaps.

Perinatal mortality can be an indicator of the quality of health care before, during, and after delivery and of the health status of the nation. The National Center for Health Statistics recently transitioned to an expanded measure of perinatal mortality that includes all fetal deaths at 20 completed weeks or more and infant deaths younger than 7 days. This report describes changes from 2022 to 2023 in the perinatal mortality rate, overall, by its components, and by mother’s age, race and Hispanic origin, and state. Key findings from the report include that the U.S. perinatal mortality rate was 8.36 perinatal deaths per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths in 2023, a nonsignificant change from the rate of 8.27 in 2022. The early fetal mortality rate, one of the components of perinatal mortality, increased by 4% from 2.79 in 2022 to 2.89 in 2023; changes in late fetal and early neonatal mortality were not significant. The perinatal mortality rate increased 7% for females younger than age 20. The perinatal mortality rate increased for Hispanic women from 2022 to 2023, but changes among other race and Hispanic-origin groups were not significant. Compared with 2022, perinatal mortality rates in 2023 were similar for 46 states and the District of Columbia. The three states with significant increases were Alabama, Colorado, and New Jersey. The one state with a significant decrease was Michigan.

The U.S. Census Bureau measures the size and composition of the poverty population using household surveys. These surveys include people living in households as well as people living in group quarters but do not include people experiencing homelessness and living on the streets. This paper explores (1) how the poverty population living in shelters differs from the poverty population living in households and (2) who is living in shelters but not in poverty. This paper answers these questions by examining the demographics and labor market characteristics of the sheltered and household populations, both in poverty and not in poverty. Researchers found that people experiencing homelessness and living in shelters are more likely to be non-Hispanic Black, non-citizen or veteran, disabled, unemployed, and receiving public assistance. Researchers found that people experiencing homelessness living in households are more likely to be female, non-Hispanic White or Hispanic, educated or employed, and not participating in government programs. While people experiencing homelessness who live in shelters but are not in poverty are more likely to be more educated and employed, these individuals are likely to live near poverty and in more expensive areas than people in households experiencing homelessness.

KIDS COUNT Data Book examines the significant declines in child well-being brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers found that six indicators of child well-being worsened between 2019 and 2022, including educational achievement and child and teen death rates. For example, between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of children scoring proficient or above in reading and math declined sharply. While this trend may have stabilized in 2022, the data indicate a significant setback in educational attainment. The child and teen death rate also remained elevated in 2022, with 17.0 deaths per 100,000 children and adolescents compared to 14.7 in 2019. However, some positive trends emerged from the data. Specifically, parents' economic security improved significantly, with 62.4% of children living in economically secure homes in 2022 compared to 58.4% in 2021. In addition, the child poverty rate decreased from 17.2% in 2021 to 15.9% in 2022, returning to pre-pandemic levels. Other positive trends include fewer children living with parents lacking a high school diploma and a decrease in the number of children living in high-poverty communities. Moreover, the teen birth rate reached a record low in 2021 and remained stable in 2022 at 14 births per 1,000 teen females.