Publications










February 2013

January 2013
December 2012
July 2012

Research and Resources
DatePublication
3/22/2013 Be Sure Texas Kids Get the Same Health Opportunities as Children in Other States
 The third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act's passage is March 23. This policy brief points out how important it is for Texas to implement the law, including accepting funds for Medicaid expansion, if the state wants to keep up progress in ensuring more Texas children have access to the health care they need.
2/6/2013 Solutions to Our Texas Challenge: 30 Ways to Build a Better Future for Kids and Our State.
 
How can Texas improve conditions for children and, therefore, the outlook for our state? This report includes results of a year-long research project by a team of students from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and also represents recommendations resulting from meetings with hundreds of Texans who have worked directly with Texans Care for Children over the past two years.
1/30/2013 Things Texas Can Do to Support the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Children and Youth
 A conversation is happening nationally and in Texas right now regarding children, youth, and mental health. These 16 strategies would be a step in the right direction.
1/9/2013 School-Wide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports- A Plan for Texas
  Texas schools are regularly confronted with student social and behavioral challenges that get in the way of teachers teaching and students learning. This report provides an initial plan and framework for proactively addressing discipline, conduct, and behavior problems in Texas schools through School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS).
12/15/2012The Curbing Hunger Challenge Toolkit
 The Curbing Hunger Challenge Toolkit: A step-by-step guide on how to educate policymakers about low-income communities with limited access to healthful foods. Made possible with a grant from Presbyterian Hunger Program USA.
7/25/2012 Juvenile Justice in Texas: Where We Have Been, Where We Are Headed
  Since 2007, Texas has enacted a series of juvenile justice reforms that move us closer to the promise of safer communities and greater success for youth. Texas must not reverse the progress it has made. Reverting to less accountability in the system or to a more punitive response to young offenders cannot be the way forward after so much effective change.
5/7/2012 A Check-Up on Children's Mental Health
 How are kids in Texas faring when it comes to mental health? Is our state meeting children's mental health needs? This report provides a check-up.
4/29/2012 A Lone Star State Collaboration Success: The Texas Council on Children and Families
 In 2009, Texas created a Council on Children and Families in order to reduce any fragmentation of services across numerous state programs for families with children.
4/24/2012 Children and the 2012 Elections
 This election policy guide gives child advocates, candidates and voters what they need to know to secure America's future by giving kids a good start.
4/17/2012 What Texans Make Possible with Their Taxes
 What is it that Texans pool their resources for? We look at the public structures and services that we all count on in our cities, counties, and school districts, as well as at the state and national level.
2/21/2012 Ounces of Prevention, Pounds of Cure
  What is Texas doing about the growing childhood obesity challenge our state faces?
1/31/2012 A Parent's Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy Children
 As featured on Fox 7, KVUE, KLBJ, KEYE and WOAI, our definitive guide for new parents in Texas.
1/25/2012 Ensuring Appropriate Psychotropic Medication Usage for Children in Foster Care
  A recent report by the United States Government Accountability Office found that Texas foster children are more likely than foster children in other states to be prescribed psychotropic medications, but there are ways the state can limit children's unnecessary exposure to drugs.
6/29/2011 A Session Recap on the Bottom Line: Children and the 82nd Texas Legislature
 The complete report on the 2011 legislative session and what it means for the wellbeing of Texas children
5/23/2011 Ensuring the Child Welfare System Works for All Texas Children
 An examination of why children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds face differing outcomes within the Child Protective Services system--and what Texas is doing to ensure all children receive appropriate CPS care.
1/25/2011 A Report on the Bottom Line: Conditions for Children and the Texas of Tomorrow
 Texas children are trailing their peers in other parts of the country on a host of indicators. Why that is, and what Texas can do about it.
1/15/2011 Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  School disciplinary measures are increasingly entering children into the correctional system for even minor offenses, but there are key things Texas can do to slow the "school-to-prison pipeline."
12/14/2010To Improve Wellbeing for Children, State Policy Matters Most
 Texans Care for Children examined key indicators in two national reports to determine why Texas consistently ranks poorly in child wellbeing.
12/1/2010 The Case for Taxing Sugary Drinks in Texas
 Taxing sugary drinks in Texas could help reduce rates of obesity and overweight for both children and adults in our state.
6/11/2010 Preventing Poverty through Asset Building
  Texas families experience poverty at higher rates than families in nearly every other state, but there are ways to help them build assets that will aid in achieving and maintaining financial stability.
5/19/2010 Creating a Workforce to Support Children's Mental Health
  An exploration of the challenges facing the children's mental health workforce in Texas and ways for the state to capitalize on opportunities to help children grow up well.
5/6/2010 The Officer Will See You Now
 An estimated 7 in 10 children in the juvenile justice system have at least one mental disorder, but Texas can reverse the trend toward juvenile justice as default mental health provider for kids.
5/6/2010 Treatment, Not Punishment: Untangling the Mental Health-Juvenile Justice Knot
 Texas' juvenile justice system is becoming the default mental health care provider for the state's youth due to limited resources dedicated to promoting children's mental health.
1/20/2010 Promoting Children's Social and Emotional Development
  A number of strategies to help Texas more effectively foster healthy development in the earliest years of children's lives, warding off problems later in life that taxpayers might have to pay for.
12/9/2009 Transitions to Adulthood for Texas Foster Youth
 An examination of situations faced by Texas foster youth who turn 18 without having found a permanent home, transitioning into adulthood without the emotional and financial support of a family.
8/25/2009 The Recession and Texas Children: How the Lone Star State's Kids are Weathering the Economic Storm
 A discussion of the costs of child poverty for Texas, the long-term effects of recession-induced poverty, and the unique challenges that Texas children are dealing with during this economic downturn
8/24/2009 Child Wellbeing, Immigrant Populations, and Taxes
 Texas is the only state in the nation with a very high population of immigrant children to also rank in the bottom fifth for child wellbeing, but it shares a certain approach to taxation with other states that rank poorly in child wellbeing.
7/15/2009 Beyond the Hype: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits and Advocates
 Practical strategies for novices who want concrete tips for using social media to achieve your goals.
6/23/2009 Children and the 81st Legislature: A Recap of the 2009 Texas Legislative Session
 Our complete report on how the 2009 legislative session in Texas impacted children and families.
5/7/2009 Children's Mental Health in Texas: Running a Diagnostic Test
  An examination of Texas' services and policies pertaining to children's mental health and development.
4/15/2009 Advocacy Training Manual
 Our complete resource offers everything an advocate needs to know to influence policy decisions in Texas.
1/7/2009 The Children's Campaign: An Agenda for the Decade - 2009 Report Update
 Our comprehensive report covers how Texas ranks in child wellbeing and our progress as a state this decade.
12/30/2008101 Ways to Put Kids 1st
 This mid-sized poster offers 101 ideas for how you can improve the lives of Texas children.
8/30/2008 How Are the Children? A Listening Tour Report
 Texans Care for Children's 2008 report on what eight Texas communities said they need for their children.
1/1/2007 The Children's Campaign: An Agenda for the Decade - 2007 Update
 Our 2007 report on how our state compares to others in child wellbeing and what progress we've made.
4/13/2005 Early Learning Left Out: Closing the Investment Gap for America's Youngest Children
 

See our 2nd edition, written in partnership with Voices for America's Children and the Child and Family Policy Center.

12/30/2004The Children's Campaign: An Agenda for the Decade - 2004 Edition
 Our first in the Children's Campaign series tracks how Texas progressed from 2000 to 2005 on a series of child wellbeing indicators.
9/15/2004 Checklist for the Healthy Development of Infants and Toddlers in Foster Care
 This two-page checklist is a resource for caregivers and others working with young children in foster care.



 

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