This report by Children’s HealthWatch highlights the implications of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on very young children. The report details research indicating that WIC improves children’s health as well as reduces the risk of developmental delays.

A new study finds disparities between poor, at-risk children and more advantaged children as early as 9 months of age - extending prior research that primarily focuses on disparities at kindergarten entry and beyond. It identifies low income and low maternal education as the factors most strongly associated with poorer cognitive, social-emotional, and health outcomes among very young children.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues that on a dollar-for-dollar basis, temporary increases in safety net programs like food stamps and unemployment insurance and fiscal relief to states are among the most effective job-creation investments in the proposed Obama recovery package, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the jobs generated by the package in 2009 and 2010, even though the amounts spent in these areas would likely be much smaller than two-fifths of the cost of the package.

The Kaiser Family Fund survey of state Medicaid directors finds that most states are facing the prospect of mid-fiscal year 2009 program cutbacks in this program that serves vulnerable families.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has issued policy recommendations for reforming juvenile justice, reducing poverty, rebuilding the child welfare system and improving data. On juvenile justice, the Foundation says the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act should be reauthorized with enhanced provisions to reduce racial disparities, strengthen core protections against confining status offenders and mingling juveniles with adult offenders.

In this edition of Mother Jones magazine, Stephanie Mencimer offers an up-close view of a young mother in Georgia who was repeated (and wrongly) told she was in ineligible for TANF benefits in Georgia. Mencimer claims that some states have made an aggressive push to get thousands of eligible mothers off Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, often by duplicitous means, to use the savings elsewhere in the state budget.

It’s hard to remember the anger at the welfare system that led to its transformation in 1996 from a guaranteed cash assistance safety net to a program of work assistance, incentives and requirements. Few complained while the economy was strong but in its first test in a worsening economy, the TANF welfare system seems to be failing families, according to veteran New York Times reporter Jason de Parle. The number of jobless people getting cash assistance from the government remains at its lowest level in 40 years, and 18 states actually cut their welfare rolls last year.

The USDA "Summer Food Service Program Map Machine" finds summer food program sites by zip code or other locators, detailing the characteristics of the local neighborhood and schools.

Child poverty is changing, as more low-income parents enter the workforce yet remain impoverished. The Urban Institute has a team of researchers investigating why work is no longer a ticket out of poverty, what that means for kids, and what kinds of programs might help. UI's Gregory Acs, a senior research associate in the Income and Benefits Policy Center, offers this overview.