The total number of arrests in the U.S. fell sharply in 2020 during pandemic-driven shifts in public activity and enforcement, and it has changed little since then. The 2024 arrest total was 25% lower than in 2019, and half the number in the peak year of 1997. The combination of falling arrests and rising resident population has driven down the national arrest rate, which in 2024 was 30% lower than in 2019 and 71% below its peak in 1994. Drug arrests, in particular, have fallen. In 2024, the drug offense rate for both adults and juveniles was roughly half the 2019 level.  Juvenile arrests now make up a much smaller share of national arrests. In 1980, 19% of arrests were of juveniles. Since 2018, this share has been at or below 7%. Over the past four years, however, adult and juvenile arrest rates diverged – the juvenile rate rose 14% since 2020 while the adult rate was 7% lower. With male arrests falling more steeply over time, females now account for a larger share of arrests than four decades ago. Adult women’s share rose from 14% in 1980 to about 27% since 2020, and girls’ share of juvenile arrests increased from 18% to about 31%.

Adolescents nationwide are increasingly experiencing mental health, school, and community violence challenges that can impact their well-being and, ultimately, their risk to themselves or others. Public systems and service providers are struggling to address youth and families’ needs given service gaps and workforce shortages. According to the authors, many states are failing to adopt research-based public safety policies that address the root causes of youth’s behavior. The authors recommend states implement a comprehensive plan to strengthen services for adolescents and their families including programs focused on early intervention, recidivism reduction, and mitigation of youth violence.

Of 7.6 million three- and four-year olds, approximately 3.7 million (48.8%) were enrolled in part- or full-day preschool and kindergarten programs in 2023. Around 28.6% of enrolled children were in public school programs, while 20.3% were enrolled privately. By age five, 85.4% of kids were in school. Preschool enrollment dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic: After a steady rise through the 2010s, it fell from 49.2% in 2019 to 40.2% in 2021. By 2023, the rate was again close to its 2019 peak. Regional data is available as of 2022 for three- to five-year-olds. The five states with the highest preschool enrollment were in the Northeast: Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts. Outside the Northeast, Louisiana had the highest rate. In four states — North Dakota, Arizona, West Virginia, and Montana — less than half of three- to –five-year-olds attended preschool in 2022. The percentage of children in Florida enrolled in preschool (ages 3 to 5) was 61.4% in 2022.

In theory, the public school teaching profession is an engine of upward economic mobility. It is public sector work, which is known for its fair pay, benefits, and job security; demand for qualified teachers is consistently high; and generous pensions are an attractive benefit. For some educators, teaching could be a downwardly mobile profession because teachers earn less money, on average, than working adults with comparable educational attainment in other professions. Reducing the monetary and opportunity costs of entering teaching could help address teacher shortages and ensure that the teaching workforce is representative of students from a variety of economic backgrounds. Key findings from this report include that perceived economic mobility determined by asking teachers and similar working adults to report whether they feel better off financially than their parents were when they—the respondents—were in high school. The authors refer to this as being better off financially than their parents. Forty-six percent of teachers said they are better off financially than their parents, compared with 61% of similar working adults. About half of both groups—46% of teachers and 49% of similar working adults—were the first in their families to earn a bachelor's degree.. Teachers with higher base pay were more likely than those with lower pay to feel better off financially than their parents, though the difference was modest. At equal levels of base pay, similar working adults were more likely than teachers to say they are better off financially than their parents. This pattern suggests that factors beyond salary—such as benefits—shape teachers’ views of their financial status.

This chapter from Financing Institutions of Higher Education describes the community college landscape with a focus on how state funding formulas, enrollment declines, and federal recovery investments during the COVID-19 pandemic intersect to shape prospects for revenue and spending patterns for community colleges looking forward. It explores variation in state funding models and mechanisms by focusing on six states—California, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—that together represent close to half of community college students in the nation and a variety of governance and funding structures. The authors examine community college spending of federal Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) funds, an unprecedented federal investment (over $25 billion) in community colleges over a three-year period, and offer suggestive evidence about what community colleges would prioritize if given more flexible resources. For example, in Michigan, the contact hours outcome measure is weighted toward programs that can prepare students for jobs in growing industries and potentially offset long-term job losses in manufacturing. Moreover, when asked to indicate their priorities if future federal funding were made available, colleges' top three survey responses were additional student aid (71%), mental health services (49%), and technology hardware (35%). The authors close with a discussion of the outlook for community college financing and key questions facing system leaders to support this critical higher education sector.

In Fiscal Year 2024-25, the Florida Growth Fund Program made new and additional investments in 15 companies through direct investments and 24 private equity funds; these investments totaled $64.3 million. During the same period, the program distributed $130.4 million to the FRS Pension Fund. Since inception, funds within the Florida Growth Fund Program have exceeded investment benchmarks for each fund. Investment managers reported that program investments had a net gain of 1,281 jobs and $94.3 million in capital expenditures in Florida during Fiscal Year 2024-25.

Registered apprenticeship is at the center of Virginia governor-elect Abigail Spanberger’s plans to strengthen pathways from school to high-quality careers. To inform that work and changemakers in Virginia, this brief describes the state’s experience with registered apprenticeship from 2017 to 2024 and the success of registered apprenticeship in paying living wages. Registered apprenticeships allow employers to develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals can obtain experiences such as paid work experience with a mentor, classroom instruction, and a portable, nationally-recognized credential. The number of active apprentices in Virginia increased from approximately 6,000 apprentices in 2017 to almost 18,000 in 2024, with the rate of growth slowing after 2020. The share of new apprentices registered in non-construction programs grew in the most recent two years of available data (between 2023 and 2024), after declining steadily between 2019 and 2023. In 2024, 59% of new apprentices were outside of the construction sector. In 2017, about 15% of new Virginia apprentices earned inflation-adjusted starting hourly wages higher than the estimated living wage for the state of $25.65 (2025 dollars). The share of apprentices starting their apprenticeship at that living wage or higher declined between 2017 and 2019 but then gradually increased between 2019 and 2023, before declining again in 2024. Virginia registered apprentices in non-construction programs were more likely to earn at least a living wage of $25.65 (2025 dollars) than apprentices in construction programs.

Inpatient and residential psychiatric care are a vital part of the youth mental health system, especially for those with higher needs. However, access to these services is declining in many areas, leaving families with limited options. Outpatient psychiatric services are also decreasing and further complicating the issue. This national study analyzed data from 2010 to 2022 across all states on the number of youth in inpatient and residential psychiatric treatment. Between 2010 and 2022, most states saw troubling declines in the number of youth in inpatient and residential psychiatric treatment facilities. Seventy-nine percent of states experienced a reduction in the number of youth in inpatient facilities, and 92% experienced a reduction in the number of youth in residential facilities. In addition, community outpatient psychiatric beds declined by 81%. According to states responding to the survey, key challenges to accessing inpatient and residential psychiatric services for youth include a limited number of available beds, a lack of facility capacity serve youth with chronic health conditions and/or developmental disabilities, and a shortage of licensed behavioral health professionals.

The federal Medicaid program provides medical assistance to low-income individuals and those with disabilities. Medicaid managed care provides for the delivery of Medicaid health benefits and additional services through contracted arrangements between state Medicaid agencies and managed care organizations and/or providers, known as Medicaid contractors. Capitation payments are per-member, per-month installments made to a Medicaid contractor on behalf of each enrollee. This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General report aims to determine a nationwide estimate of Medicaid capitation payments made to managed care organizations on behalf of deceased Medicaid enrollees. It estimates that Medicaid agencies made $207.5 million ($138.6 million in federal share) in unallowable capitation payments to managed care organizations for enrollees whose date of death occurred before the monthly service periods covered by the capitation payments during the audit period (July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022). The report also found that Medicaid agencies made unallowable capitation payments after enrollees’ deaths for 99 of the 100 sample payments. However, of those unallowable capitation payments, 50 overpayments were recovered by Medicaid agencies. The remaining 49 unallowable capitation payments were either not recovered or recovered after Inspector General sent the Medicaid agencies the sample capitation payments for their review. Th report recommends that the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services explore opportunities to work with Medicaid agencies to ensure that federal law provisions are properly implemented.