This report examines rates of theft and non-fatal violent victimization at and away from school for students ages 12 to 18 from 2013 through 2023. Theft includes attempted and completed purse snatching, completed pocket picking, and all attempted and completed theft, with the exception of motor vehicle theft. Non-fatal violent victimization includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. The report details victimization rates for students by location of victimization, type of crime, age, and sex, using the National Crime Victimization Survey, a self-report survey administered annually. Key findings include that the total victimization rate at school decreased from 55.0 victimizations per 1,000 students ages 12 to 18 in 2013 to 20.0 per 1,000 in 2023. In addition, from 2013 to 2023, the total victimization rate away from school decreased from 30.1 per 1,000 students to 15.2 per 1,000. The non-fatal violent victimization rate at school in 2023 was higher for students ages 12 to 14 (20.1 per 1,000) than for students ages 15 to 18 (8.5 per 1,000). Lastly, there were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in the rates of victimization at school across all types of crime in 2023.

In Missoula County, Montana, stakeholders identified gaps in pretrial support services and barriers to court appearances as key drivers of jail incarceration. Municipal court judges established the Pretrial Assistance to Support Success (PASS) program to help people navigate the court process and reduce barriers to court appearance through voluntary supportive services.. PASS staff helps clients navigate the court system, fulfill their court obligations, access resources, and maintain stability post-release. Stakeholders reported that the program had improved court appearance rates, access to resources and services, and collaboration among local criminal legal system stakeholders. The program’s focus on support and human interactions, rather than restrictive supervision practices like drug testing or electronic monitoring, was viewed as critical to its success in improving outcomes for people experiencing homelessness and people with mental and behavioral health needs in particular. Implementation challenges included maintaining contact with high-needs participants, insufficient supportive services in the broader community, and early messaging and communication barriers.

Developmental education is designed to bring underprepared college students up to speed in math or English so they can succeed in college-level courses. Developmental education reform efforts have yielded successes, including larger numbers of students completing college-level coursework and achieving other longer-term academic milestones. Yet even in reformed contexts, many students are not successfully completing college-level math and English in their first year. Drawing on a literature review and a scan of relevant teaching and support practices being implemented in broad-access institutions nationwide, the authors describe drivers of outcome disparities in reformed developmental education contexts. They then introduce the Developmental Education Reform Innovation Incubator—a community of practice made up of participants from four community colleges focused on developing, refining, and scaling practitioner-conceived reform practices—and discuss activities undertaken by the four colleges to improve outcomes for students identified as needing greater developmental education support. The authors also discuss an accompanying inquiry tool that college faculty and administrators can use to better understand developmental education concerns and develop practices to improve success for students.

In December 2025, Australia became the first country to ban youth under 16 years old from holding accounts on major social media platforms, a policy now under consideration in more than a dozen countries and in numerous states. Because social media use is inherently social, the effectiveness of a ban that is easy to circumvent may depend on whether compliance reaches a tipping point: a share of compliant peers high enough to make it optimal for individuals to comply themselves. The research team surveyed 835 Australian teenagers four months after the ban took effect and find that only about one in four 14–15-year-olds comply. The social environment around use has barely moved: most banned teens believe that their peers are still using banned platforms and cite social reasons for continuing use. Sustaining high compliance requires two ingredients: the share of compliers must be high enough and those who comply must find it preferable to continue complying. The current ban achieves neither. Teenagers report that they require roughly two-thirds of peers to stop using social media to stop themselves, far above the share currently complying. They also perceive compliers as less popular than non-compliers, so the more influential teens disproportionately stay on the platforms. Together, these patterns suggest that compliance is more likely to diminish than to rise. Sustaining higher compliance will likely require pairing the ban with instruments that act on social norms and individual incentives directly.

The number of post-traditional students, who have been more commonly known as non-traditional students, is on the rapid rise in higher education over recent years. Despite more attention paid to this student population, the literature lacks studies examining the relationships between post-traditional characteristics and key academic outcomes among students in undergraduate engineering programs at Hispanic-Serving Institutions. This study aims to address this gap by using multiple regression to analyze the institutional data collected at a large, four-year Hispanic-Serving Research Institution with a considerable number of post-traditional students in the southeastern U.S. The main findings include that being a part-time student negatively predicted three academic outcomes and being an older, commuter student negatively predicted retention, while being an older commuter student and having full-time employment positively predicted six-year graduation rates.

In Fiscal Year 2024, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) appropriated over $608 million for the purchase of high-tech medical equipment (HTME) and related services, including maintenance. This report examines the extent to which the VA’s acquisition approach for purchasing HTME supports HTME maintenance and the selected medical centers’ approaches to maintenance result in satisfactory and cost-effective maintenance, among other objectives. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that VA procurement guidance contained inconsistent information about whether the agency-wide contracts for HTME are mandatory when purchasing maintenance services. Additionally, regional contracting officials found the national contracting office's resources for purchasing maintenance services to be unclear. Selected medical centers generally reported satisfaction with maintenance services, and equipment was maintained per policy. These centers generally obtained similar prices as the agencywide contracts for selected equipment. However, the GAO also found instances where regional contracting officials were not efficiently purchasing maintenance services. For example, in a few instances, officials did not clearly document the services purchased or verify that the prices paid matched the prices offered through the agency-wide contracts.

The health care sector accounts for about 17% of the U.S. gross domestic product. However, official statistics likely understate productivity growth by failing to capture improvements in medical technology and treatment quality. The Health Care Expenditure Statistics by Condition (HCESC) developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis aims to address this gap by measuring spending by condition, enabling more meaningful output measurement. This study presents a framework combining the HCESC with population health data to adjust prices and output for quality improvements. Output is defined as marginal health gains rather than service counts, consistent with prior recommendations. This approach approximates more comprehensive methods while remaining tractable. The results suggest substantial quality-adjusted productivity growth that is largely masked in official statistics, implying a downward bias of about 1.5 percentage points annually, with a range from zero to over five points.

Third Fork Creek is an urban tributary in Durham, North Carolina, that drains to Jordan Lake, a regional drinking water supply. In 2014, researchers conducted a comprehensive chemical survey of this creek and found poor water quality. This study provides updated findings from a survey of Third Fork Creek. This study reveals chemicals that are typically missed by standard water testing, with a total of 1,346 features detected in creek water samples over 6 months. Compounds found in the water included pharmaceuticals, biocides, polymer additives, and consumer products. Presence and intensity of environmental contaminants changed temporally, with the highest summed peak areas observed in July, October, and December. Seasonal, regional water monitoring using non-targeted analysis can establish a baseline characterization of environmental contamination and guide subsequent prioritized targeted monitoring.

Rural America is facing a behavioral health crisis—marked by high rates of suicide, substance use, and limited access to care. Workforce shortages, transportation barriers, and stigma make it harder for individuals to get the help they need. This U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration advisory examines the role of peer-led recovery support services in addressing behavioral health differences in rural and agricultural communities across the United States. Peer support builds on individuals’ strengths and experiences. Trained peers in recovery connect with others who are struggling, offering support grounded in shared understanding. Developing peer-led recovery supports in rural communities often follows a progression, from identifying local recovery leaders to launching support activities and building long-term partnerships and advocacy efforts. This advisory also offers several key strategies for how rural communities can harness the power of peer support to create meaningful, sustainable recovery opportunities. These strategies include collaborating with existing organizations to integrate recovery support, hosting a recovery listening session to gather insights from community members about creating opportunities for recovery, leading a community recovery symposium to showcase community strengths and ideas that emerged during recovery listening sessions, and leveraging national awareness campaigns.

This brief examines the impact of the federal Family First Act, a bill that aims to expand the child tax credit (CTC) while paring back other tax benefits for families, including the earned income tax credit (EITC) for families with children younger than 19, the child and dependent care credit, and head of household filing status. Researchers found that of families with children, about 62% would see their after-tax income rise (they would receive greater tax benefits) because of the legislation, while 32% would see their after-tax income fall (they would receive smaller tax benefits or owe more federal income tax). Researchers estimate that for those who would see their after-tax income increase, it would increase by about $2,100 on average, while for those who would see their after-tax income fall, it would fall by about $1,700 on average. Most of the low- and moderate-income families with children who would be worse off under this bill would be single-parent families. For many of these families, the net gain from a larger CTC would not be enough to offset the increased taxes they would owe from filing their taxes as single rather than head of household.