Improving Indicators of Child Well-Being
This report makes a number of recommendations on new directions for the development of child well-being indicators. For developmental transitions throughout early childhood, the authors call for standardizing birth records across states, collecting additional data at immunization visits, and creating common assessments at kindergarten entry. For the transition from youth to adulthood, the report emphasizes opportunities for linking secondary school information systems to postsecondary and employment data systems. Other recommendations include outcome-based measures for childcare, a poverty measure that fully accounts for government support, and consistent collection of child citizenship and family immigration status on federal surveys. The report follows a symposium on child well-being indicators held in December 2008, attended by leading experts from universities, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.