This study assesses the expectations of housing stability pre-release and evaluates how closely these expectations align with actual housing outcomes. Additionally, this study examines how the alignment between pre-release housing expectations influences recidivism. The aim is to understand how individuals’ perceptions of their housing plans prior to release affect their reentry experiences and to offer insights that may inform policy and program design. Using data collected pre- and post- release within a prison reentry program from 115 individuals, results indicate that higher overall housing concern is associated with slightly higher odds of recidivism, and mismatches between expected and actualized housing outcomes were not common. These findings highlight the need to provide individualized housing support and to prioritize individuals who anticipate higher risks post-release. Results also suggest that policy interventions addressing housing barriers could further improve reentry outcomes and reduce recidivism.

The Denver Housing to Health (H2H) program provides supportive housing to people experiencing homelessness who have frequent interactions with the criminal justice system and emergency health care services. This brief details the housing stability payment outcomes for the first 14 project quarters. Key findings include that the cumulative housing stability payment from the City of Denver is over $2.1 million for this period. As of December 2025, 153 participants met the housing stability payment requirements during the first 14 project quarters. Of these participants, 135 were stably housed for one year or more, and 18 had a planned exit such as a move to a higher level of care. Overall arrest rates for this population dropped dramatically in the last five years, but additional context suggests the lack of impact on jail days could be due to broader system changes and may not reflect the H2H program itself. In addition, participants in supportive housing receive more needed health care services and use fewer emergency services. Specifically, two years after randomization to the H2H program, supportive housing participants were significantly more likely to be enrolled in Medicaid, had fewer emergency department days and behavioral health withdrawal admissions, and had more mental health outpatient visits.

Technology-based assessments used in pre-kindergarten classrooms to capture children’s skills in academic domains such as literacy, language, and math automatically capture “metadata” on how children engage with tasks. This report examines whether these data can be used to measure young children’s executive functioning skills—attention, ability to retain information, and ability to suppress impulses—without requiring additional assessments. The findings suggest that metadata can offer a meaningful, though still preliminary, signal of children’s executive functioning skills. Several metadata-based measures demonstrated adequate reliability for exploratory research and showed positive—if sometimes modest—associations with established direct assessments of executive functioning skills. However, not all metadata measures perform equally well. Measures that incorporate both response time and accuracy show the most consistent relationships with established assessments, while measures based on very fast responses do not appear to capture executive functioning in this context. In addition, the metadata measures appear to be better suited to identify which children are struggling with executive functioning skills rather than to differentiate among children with average and strong executive functioning skills.

Dual enrollment—through which high school students take college courses for credit—has become a major and rapidly growing part of American education. Nationally, dual enrollment students now account for one in five community college enrollments, with substantially higher shares in some states and colleges. This brief provides an overview of dual enrollment—including its associated benefits and challenges—and introduces a framework for rethinking dual enrollment as not only a way to earn early college credit but as a pathway to college and career opportunities. Key findings include that nationally, students who participate in dual enrollment complete college degrees at higher rates than college entrants without prior dual enrollment. Dual enrollment also appears to help students complete college more quickly and is associated with greater earnings in the years following high school graduation. Research also shows that dual enrollment can help high school students who may not initially appear “college ready” succeed in college-level coursework when they receive appropriate supports.

This data file is the first follow-up of a cohort of first-time beginning students originally identified during the 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study who began at institutions in seven states (California, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas). The data file covers three years of students’ experiences, from their first year of postsecondary education in the 2019–20 academic year through the 2021–22 academic year. Key findings are that 70% of the students applied for federal student aid in the 2020–21 academic year, 55% applied in the 2021–22 academic year, and 45% applied in the 2022–23 academic year. Forty-nine percent of students received student loans, 56% received Pell Grants, and 4% received veteran benefits.

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program aims to provide a tamper-resistant biometric card to maritime workers who require unescorted access to designated secure areas of facilities and vessels under federal regulations. As of August 2025, more than 2 million individuals held a TWIC credential. This report examines several issues, including the extent to which the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) communicates TWIC program information to stakeholders and the extent to which the Coast Guard has overseen TWIC program implementation by facility operators. The TSA has taken some steps to communicate TWIC program information to stakeholders, but it relies on an ad hoc communication approach rather than a documented communication plan. This has contributed to some stakeholders reporting that they experienced declining engagement with and delays in receiving key program updates. In addition, the Coast Guard does not share or analyze all of the data it collects during inspections and does not provide the data to TWIC inspectors.

Researchers have struggled to explain why veterans participate in many public assistance programs at lower rates than nonveterans. This report details an approach to answering this question that enables researchers to consistently estimate program participation differences across veteran and nonveteran populations using data from the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Researchers found that veterans receiving U.S. Veterans Affairs Disability Compensation (VADC) benefits receive means-tested benefits at lower rates. For veteran households not receiving such benefits, household characteristics largely account for participation differences. Differences for VADC veteran households persist after accounting for household characteristics and are largest for programs that limit eligibility based on income—such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, and housing and heating assistance, as well as certain health care programs. These differences are even larger among households receiving the highest amounts of VADC income. However, differences are small or nonexistent for programs without income limits, such as Social Security.

In 2019, California launched the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Aware initiative to support screening for and response to ACEs and the delivery of trauma-informed care; ACEs include abuse, neglect, and household challenges. Evidence supports continued efforts to strengthen and sustain integrated ACE care models and better understand longer-term implications of these models for pediatric patients and their families. Compared with unscreened patients, ACE screened patients were more likely to achieve several health care utilization outcomes, including an increased likelihood of referral to and receipt of supportive services. ACE screened patients were also more likely to achieve several quality-of-care outcomes, including receiving the recommended number of well-child visits for children ages 15–30 months. Health care leaders, providers, and staff revealed that implementing an integrated ACE education, screening, and response process requires training, dedicated staff, and sustained organizational support.

This case study highlights how certified community behavioral health clinics can strengthen behavioral health disaster preparedness and recovery. Drawing on the response to the 2023 Lahaina wildfires in Maui County, the publication explores crisis response, care coordination, workforce strategies, and community partnerships. In Hawai‘i, the state’s 24-hour call center plays a central role in behavioral health response by dispatching crisis teams to support individuals experiencing emergencies. The Maui County certified community behavioral health clinic is integrated into this system, partnering with the state’s crisis network to ensure that comprehensive mental health and substance use support is available during times of crisis. During and after the Maui wildfires, the preexisting partnership between the certified community behavioral health clinic and the state crisis system allowed for a coordinated response to connect people to appropriate services. The clinic worked closely with deployed crisis team members to determine where behavioral health resources were most needed. By sharing resources, coordinating crisis teams, and using both state and local networks, the clinics and state crisis systems were able to more effectively manage the surge in mental health and substance use crises that typically follow disasters.

This brief provides an overview of recent federal policy changes, describes potential risks and anticipated impacts on hospitals, and assesses variation in impacts across hospital characteristics and locations. Key findings include that changes and new initiatives in federal policy will have significant consequences for hospitals’ and health systems’ patient volume, uncompensated care, state funding, workforce, and financial stability. Specifically, Medicaid and marketplace enrollment declines, along with associated increases in underinsurance and uninsurance, are expected to reduce hospital revenue and increase uncompensated care. Rural and Medicaid‑dependent hospitals face the greatest financial risk. Many hospitals already operate with negative margins, with rural hospitals and those serving a high share of Medicaid patients disproportionately affected. These facilities are therefore at greatest risk of service reductions or closures, which could further exacerbate health disparities by increasing barriers to care in rural and low‑income communities relative to urban and higher‑income areas. However, implementation of federal policy provisions will occur over several years, offering hospitals and state policymakers time to plan, adapt, and deploy mitigation strategies.