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Active family engagement is essential to ensuring children benefit fully from early childhood education and care programs. Yet language barriers and cultural misunderstandings can sometimes keep educators and the families of Dual Language Learners (DLLs) from forming this important partnership. This policy brief explores strategies to better utilize federal funding to engage with DLL children and families.
A Trump administration proposed rule that would give government adjudicators wide discretion in deciding when public benefits use can be held against green-card applicants and prospective immigrants could discourage many eligible households, including those with U.S.-citizen children, from accessing health, nutrition, and education supports—with significant implications for well-being, as this short read explains.
Although one-third of U.S. young children have a parent who speaks a language other than English, early childhood educators often lack the tools to effectively monitor the development of those not in monolingual, English-speaking households. This issue brief examines why many preschool classroom assessments are a poor fit for Dual Language Learners, and ways to make them more effective for diverse populations.
Immigrants comprise 15 percent of Connecticut’s population, and nearly 30 percent of children in the state are part of immigrant families. Having driven all state population and workforce growth over the last 15 years, immigrants are an important part of Connecticut’s present and its future. This report examines state policies and systems that aim to support upward mobility for all families, highlighting ways in which they could better meet the needs of low-income immigrant families.
Dual Language Learners (DLLs)—young children with at least one parent who speaks a language other than English—make up one-third of all children ages 0–5 in the United States. This fact sheet series and related resources provide essential data on the number and characteristics of DLL children and their families nationwide and in the 30 states with the most DLLs.
Evidence suggests heightened U.S. immigration enforcement will have major and lasting effects on the physical and mental health of unauthorized immigrants and their children, as they avoid essential health care. This short read examines the research and the prospect of carrying out immigration enforcement in a way that considers family impacts.
Repealing birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to unauthorized immigrants or temporary visa holders would have a contrary result from its stated aim of reducing the unauthorized immigrant population. Projections from MPI and Penn State show that ending birthright citizenship would increase the unauthorized population by 2.7 million as of 2045 and by 5.4 million as of 2075.
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems across the United States are grappling with worker recruitment and retention challenges. At the same time, immigrants with relevant education and work experience obtained abroad often find it difficult to gain recognition for those qualifications. This policy brief highlights strategies for improving hiring and licensing processes in the ECEC field.
Speakers discuss the importance of infant and early childhood mental health services, highlighting approaches that have successfully connected immigrant and refugee families with beneficial and culturally relevant services. Speakers also offer recommendations to expand accessibility and responsiveness of these services.
Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services can offer vital support for young children’s healthy development. Yet, young children in immigrant and refugee families often do not benefit, due in part to lower levels of health-care coverage and limited cultural responsiveness in the field. This issue brief explores the benefits and barriers to supporting these children via IECMH services, and some ways to close key gaps.
Speakers discuss the importance of infant and early childhood mental health services, highlighting approaches that have successfully connected immigrant and refugee families with beneficial and culturally relevant services. Speakers also offer recommendations to expand accessibility and responsiveness of these services.
Immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits in the United States is governed by a complex patchwork of rules that make many groups of noncitizens eligible for some benefits but not others, while other noncitizens are excluded completely. This report provides an overview of immigrants’ eligibility for programs related to general assistance, health and nutrition, employment and income, education, housing, driver’s licenses, and more.
A significant increase in the number of immigrant children in U.S. schools over the last decade has challenged K-12 educators to expand their capacity to serve students with different backgrounds and educational needs. This fact sheet sketches a profile of recently arrived immigrant children, presenting data on top states of residence, national origins, household characteristics, and more.
White House and Department of Health and Human Services officials join a leading language access advocate and MPI's Margie McHugh in a conversation exploring executive-branch efforts related to language access provision, upcoming actions, and opportunities to improve the provision of information and services in languages other than English in federal programs.
The pandemic and move to remote learning affected students across the United States, and certain groups—including the nation’s 5 million English Learners (ELs)—were hit particularly hard. At the same time, the federal government made unprecedented investments in public K-12 education to counter the pandemic’s adverse impacts. This issue brief explores the ways school districts have invested these funds to support ELs.
Marking the launch of a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and MPI, this event examines unaccompanied children’s access to medical and mental health services post-release and offering recommendations for improvements.
As the number of unaccompanied children entering U.S. communities has increased, many have faced barriers to accessing critical medical and mental health services. This report explores common barriers to care, promising practices for overcoming them, and strategies for strengthening services. It draws on interviews and focus groups with clinicians, social workers, and others working with this population as well as one-time unaccompanied children themselves.
This conversation marks the launch of a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and MPI examining unaccompanied children’s access to medical and mental health services post-release and offering recommendations for improvements.
The U.S. government created the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, to combat food insecurity. Under federal law, many lawfully present noncitizens in poor households are ineligible. This issue brief examines the size and characteristics of the population of immigrants with incomes low enough to qualify for SNAP and their eligibility for and participation in the program, at U.S. and state levels.
For unaccompanied children leaving federal custody to live with parents or other sponsors, the transition into U.S. communities can be a difficult one. And although a patchwork of services exist to help these children and to address medical, mental health, and other needs, their capacity varies widely by location. This issue brief explores promising practices for improving these critical forms of support.