A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty

The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children’s ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society.

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

• Front Matter
• Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 A Demographic Portrait of Child Poverty in the United States
• 3 Consequences of Child Poverty
• 4 How the Labor Market, Family Structure, and Government Programs Affect Child Poverty
• 5 Ten Policy and Program Approaches to Reducing Child Poverty
• 6 Packages of Policies and Programs That Reduce Poverty and Deep Poverty Among Children
• 7 Other Policy and Program Approaches to Child Poverty Reduction
• 8 Contextual Factors That Influence the Effects of Anti-Poverty Policies and Programs
• 9 Recommendations for Research and Data Collection
• Appendix A: Biosketches of Committee Members and Project Staff
• Appendix B: Public Session Agendas
• Appendix C: Authors of Memos Submitted to the Committee
• Appendix D: Technical Appendixes to Select Chapters
• Appendix E: TRIM3 Summary Tables
• Appendix F: Urban Institute TRIM3 Technical Specification: Using Microsimulation to Assess the Policy Proposals of the National Academies Committee on Reducing Child Poverty