Senate Democrats said this week that they would seek to broaden the federal hate crimes law to protect victims of attacks based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities. To lift the chances of passage, Democrats said the legislation, known as the Matthew Sheppard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, would be attached as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill.

House Democrats unveiled their health care reform bill this week. The bill seeks to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient. It includes a new government-run insurance plan to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, and a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

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.

A new report looks at the impact of income-support programs on reducing poverty. The analysis finds that federal aid programs have been more effective in fighting poverty than previously recognized, but have become less successful over the past ten years in reducing deep poverty in America.

A new report from the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics tracks 40 key indicators measuring children’s economic circumstances, health, physical environment and safety, family and social environment, behavior, and education. Some troubling statistics include: In 2007, the poverty rate for children rose from 17% to 18% from the previous year and 12.4 million children in America - or 17% of all kids - live in households that are food-insecure.

Check for data on families with kids: HUD’s new report provides a point-in-time estimate of the total number of homeless persons on a single night, as well as a one-year estimate of the total sheltered homeless population. The point-in-time survey showed that on a single night in January 2008, over 664,000 persons were homeless nationwide.

As part of a multi-state evaluation project on the impact of charter school attendance on student achievement, we put together and analyzed panel data on Milwaukee Public School (MPS) students spanning the 2000-01 through 2006-07 school years. Findings include: (1) charter school attendance is associated with higher scores on math exams than attendance at traditional public schools; (2) the positive impact of charter schools on achievement (relative to traditional public schools) declines as the number of years a student has attended decreases; (3) charter schools that have operated for a number of years and those that had been traditional public schools drive the positive charter school results; (4) student mobility has a negative effect on performance and it is a more robust predictor of student performance than the organizational factors we consider; and (5) there is no evidence that the presence of charter schools induces better student performance in traditional public schools. While charter schools overall may help the education of urban youth, this study of Milwaukee indicates that they should not be expected to be the "silver bullet" that some reformers seek.

From recruitment to ongoing training and troubleshooting, this Child Trends brief argues that good management is key to maintaining well-trained and well-prepared frontline staff in after-school programs. Good directors create a positive climate and supportive environment for participants and staff and they use relevant data to set new goals.

In this analysis Public/Private Ventures found that teens who participated more often each week in their Boys and Girls Club showed positive change on 15 of 31 measures. More important than specific programming, interview data suggest that the overall Club environment -- the safe place it provides and supportive interactions with adults and peers were crucial in helping promote teens' positive development.