Policy Papers

Texas families experience all types of poverty at higher rates than families in nearly every other state. Families who lack assets such as homes, savings accounts, and investments that act as a cushion when job loss or illness disrupts income are particularly vulnerable to falling into poverty. Living from paycheck to paycheck can take its toll: children who grow up in poverty are more likely to encounter learning difficulties, are less likely to attend college, and have a greater chance of remaining poor as adults. Fortunately, there are many ways to help families build assets--from making homeownership affordable to incentivizing savings for education or business enterprises to offering lower-cost ways to obtain credit. Texas simply must act to implement regulations like the ones that protect credit consumers in other states, while making a strategic commitment to helping more families achieve and maintain financial stability.

 

Creating a Workforce to Support Children's Mental Health
Mental health challenges are common in childhood and adolescence. About 1 in 5 children have a diagnosable mental disorder,and 1 in 10 struggle with symptoms that significantly interfere with their lives at home, in school, or in their communities. Regrettably, almost 80% of children who need mental health supports in Texas do not receive treatment, in part because the state's mental health system is characterized by a severe shortage of children's mental health professionals, as well as high rates of turnover, long delays in putting effective treatments into direct-service practice, and failures to implement proven practices. This paper explores 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.

 

Treatment, Not Punishment: Untangling the Mental Health-Juvenile Justice Knot
With limited resources dedicated to promoting children's mental health, families, schools, and communities often feel they have nowhere to turn to get troubled kids help. As a result, the juvenile justice system is becoming the default mental health provider for youth in Texas. A comprehensive Texans Care for Children summit brought leaders together to examine this issue in depth. Our complete policy report summarizes lessons from the summit, as well as the issues and opportunities for Texas in untangling the mental health-juvenile justice knot. (For our issue brief on this topic, click here.)

 

Promoting Children's Social and Emotional Development
The first years of life represent a unique window of opportunity to promote children's healthy social and emotional development. A growing body of research concludes several public programs and policies focused on the early years can be help ward off problems later in life. Texas, unfortunately, has a track record of underinvestment in children's early years, despite that taxpayers pick up exponentially higher costs for missing early opportunities to get children the right start. Our policy paper recommends a number of strategies to help Texas be more strategic and effective in fostering healthy development in the earliest years of children's lives.

 

Every year, hundreds of Texas kids who were removed from their families' care due to abuse or neglect turn 18 without ever having found a permanent home. Sometimes they leave the state's care with too little guidance and support to make it on their own. This paper examines situations these young Texans face and how our state can ensure all vulnerable youth have the chance to succeed when they become adults.

This brief fact sheet shows that 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. Many states that rank poorly in child wellbeing have very low immigrant populations. What they share with Texas is a certain approach to taxation.