Report Low-Income Students and School Meal Programs in California By Caroline Danielson Mar 12, 2015 School nutrition programs help improve nutrition among vulnerable children. In so doing, they help build a better future for these children and the state. Now that California is implementing the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), there is additional reason to make sure all students who are eligible for free or low-cost meals enroll in these programs. Along with English Learners and foster youth, low-income students—in other words, students who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals—are targeted for additional funds under the LCFF. This renewed focus on enrollment could also prompt further consideration of participation in school nutrition programs. This report looks at factors that might be linked to variations in student enrollment and participation in free or reduced-price meals. Not surprisingly, we find that districts with higher poverty rates identify higher levels of eligibility than wealthier districts. Low-income high school students appear to be enrolled at levels comparable to younger students, but students in elementary school districts are much more likely to participate in lunch programs than students in other types of districts. We also find that schools in districts with higher shares of foreign-born residents have modestly lower participation levels (but not identification of low-income students). Finally, we find evidence that schools with smaller enrollments are more successful than larger schools at identifying and serving low-income students. One way to further the goal of full enrollment among low-income students is to cut the large share of low-income students who must submit applications for free or reduced-price meals. Achieving this objective is arguably an important part of a larger state effort to integrate social safety net programs and services.
Report Federal Formula Grants: Education Programs for Disabled Children By Tim Ransdell Sep 1, 2003 This report first examines the structure of the three grants used to allocate the bulk of federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to states and school districts. It then reviews recent program funding history and, finally, it discusses the operation of funding formulas and applies various funding-change scenarios to illustrate alternative state allocations.
Report The Socioeconomic Well-Being of California’s Immigrant Youth By Laura Hill Jul 22, 2004 California’s immigrant youth often make transitions to adulthood in different orders, at different paces, and with different levels of success than their native-born counterparts. Given the large size of this population, these differences have far-reaching consequences for households, communities, and public policy. In The Socioeconomic Well-Being of California’s Immigrant Youth, Laura Hill profiles the educational attainment, workforce participation, household arrangements, and parenting rates of this population. Finding that immigrants who arrive before age ten have outcomes very similar to those of their native-born counterparts, she concludes that many policies addressing the needs of second- and third-generation youth are also likely to help immigrant youth who attend school. However, immigrant youth who are not in school must be reached through their employers or their children’s schools.
Report Sanctions and Time Limits in California’s Welfare Program By Deborah Reed, Caroline Danielson Apr 6, 2009 In an effort to boost the share of adults on welfare who work, the state has considered proposals to further reduce or eliminate payments to those receiving aid through CalWORKs—the state's welfare program for needy families—who don't work or seek work. This report examines possible effects of these stricter sanctions. The findings suggest that in general, the state's work participation rate could rise, the welfare caseload could shrink, and the poverty rate among children would not be greatly affected if stricter sanctions were adopted.
Occasional Paper, Report Congressional Testimony on Minimum Wage By Joanne Spetz Oct 19, 1999 Transcript of testimony presented before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Work Force, October 1999.
Occasional Paper, Report Welfare and Poverty Trends in California Apr 12, 2002 Prepared for a briefing on welfare reauthorization on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., April 12, 2002.
Report Expensive Children in Poor Families: The Intersection of Childhood Disabilities and Welfare By Marcia K. Meyers, Henry E. Brady, Eva Y. Seto Oct 1, 2000 Although disabilities affect children of all income groups, poor children are far more likely to suffer from them. In this study, Marcia K. Meyers, Henry E. Brady, and Eva Y. Seto provide important new estimates of the private costs and public effects of childhood disabilities among welfare recipients. Based on over 2,000 interviews with household heads in Los Angeles, Alameda, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties, their estimates cover direct expenditures by families and indirect costs due to employment reductions. They also examine participation rates in public assistance programs and estimate the likelihood that families with disabled children will exit these programs to independence. They conclude that public assistance may be an essential part of an income-packaging strategy for many of these families.
Report Understanding the Future of Californians’ Fertility: The Role of Immigrants By Laura Hill, Hans Johnson Apr 1, 2002 Current population projections indicate that California could add more than 10 million new residents over the next 20 years. Yet the population projections themselves are the subject of some uncertainty. This report seeks to inform the state's population projections by offering a fine-grained analysis of the state's fertility trends. It focuses on two questions: how much does fertility vary by immigrant generation in California, and what are the relationships between personal characteristics, neighborhood characteristics, and fertility rates among the state's immigrant population and their descendants? The report concludes that immigrant generation is not independently important once personal characteristics are controlled for, but that the predictive value of this factor is still useful for projecting fertility changes. It also suggests that current population projections for California may be too high because they do not consider declines in fertility as immigrants and their descendants adapt to life in this country.
Report The Basic Skills of Welfare Recipients: Implications for Welfare Reform By Sonya Tafoya, Hans Johnson Apr 1, 1999 The authors of this report use data from the National Adult Literacy Survey to assess the basic skills of adults on welfare and the likelihood that welfare recipients will be able to find and hold full-time jobs. The findings suggest that California will have a more difficult task than most states in moving people from welfare to work and that a substantial portion of welfare recipients may continue to need some form of income support, either because their very low skills make it difficult for them to find employment or because the work they do find is of such low quality and quantity that they are still living in poverty.
