Strong, well-executed evaluations are critical to improving outcomes in the U.S. child welfare system, yet limited evidence and persistent barriers continue to hinder the development of rigorous, systematic studies on program effectiveness, implementation, and cost. This three-brief series examines current evidence, agency and design challenges, and opportunities to strengthen evaluation efforts, with the goal of informing systemwide improvements for children, youth, and families.

This report is an overview of Childlight’s Into the Light Index on Global Technology-Facilitated Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 2026 Data Update. The update focuses on new emerging data as well as updating existing global and regional prevalence and scale data on Technology-Facilitated Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

This foster care awareness campaign video, developed by Child in Family Focus Kenya (CFFK) in collaboration with Zaidi Ya Dreams and the State Department for Children Services, shines a light on the importance of foster care in Kenya and the urgent need for children to grow up in safe, loving fam

This article reports on a new analysis by the Brookings Institution estimating that over 100,000 children—most of them U.S. citizens—have been separated from a parent due to immigration detention and deportation policies under the current administration.

Desarrollada por el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Separación Familiar en colaboración con organizaciones nacionales e internacionales de confianza que trabajan directamente con familias afectadas, esta guía informativa orienta a padres, madres, cuidadores y las personas que les ayudan a comprender mejor sus derechos, conocer las opciones disponibles para la reunificación e identificar recursos que puedan contribuir a encontrar la mejor solución para cada niño, niña, adolescente y su familia.

Developed through the Family Separation Working Group in partnership with trusted national and international organizations on the front lines of supporting families, this practical guide helps parents, caregivers, and those assisting them understand their rights, learn about reunification options, and identify resources that may support them in finding the best solution for their child and family.

This large-scale study across eight African countries finds that the Parenting for Lifelong Health programme is associated with significant reductions in physical and emotional abuse, improved parenting practices, and better mental health outcomes for both caregivers and adolescents. It demonstrates that evidence-based parenting interventions can be effectively delivered at scale—even in humanitarian contexts—while maintaining strong positive impacts.

This study explores how children and youth in residential care in Australia understand the concept of “home,” finding it is often defined by the absence of harm but marked by gaps in security, control, relationships, and belonging. It concludes that institutional structures and staff instability limit meaningful experiences of home, highlighting the need for more consistent, relational, and youth-centered care environments.

For nearly 30 years, U.S. federal legislation shaping adoption has remained largely unchanged, even as expectations around privacy, youth voice, and family support have significantly evolved. This toolkit offers practical strategies and resources to modernize policy and practice, centering young people’s agency across consent, privacy, family recruitment, and post-adoption support.

This technical brief highlights parenting support strategies and interventions that can benefit parents and help them create better spaces for children with developmental delays and disabilities to thrive. The brief includes data on children with developmental delays and disabilities and features country examples from around the world.

With an estimated 37-42 million children on the move globally, this publication underscores the urgent need to place children’s rights at the center of migration governance. Drawing on promising practices from countries including Thailand, Jordan, Mexico and Uganda, the report highlights practical, rights-based solutions that address children’s specific vulnerabilities while promoting their protection, development and inclusion.

This introductory prevention learning package has been developed by the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and was updated in 2026. The package is designed to strengthen participants’ overall understanding of primary prevention in Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.

This document includes statistics on looked after children for Scotland for 2024-25. It covers data on children who are looked after, young people in continuing care, and young people eligible for aftercare services.

This webi­nar pre­sent­ed by the Urban Insti­tute and spon­sored by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion explored approach­es to strength­en­ing eval­u­a­tion in child wel­fare ser­vices in the United States to more rapid­ly and prac­ti­cal­ly doc­u­ment what works.

This study explores how kinship carers in Australia define success in statutory kinship care, emphasizing everyday experiences, emotional bonds, and a child-in-context perspective rather than traditional child protection metrics. It concludes that success is best understood through strong family relationships and belonging, calling for more family-centered support systems that prioritize carers’ and children’s lived experiences.

Family-oriented policies can accelerate social progress with family and child benefit policies stabilizing households when most vulnerable. This year's observance of the International Day of Families commemoration at the UN aims to demonstrate that engagement at international level is essential to elevate early family investment as a core social development priority. 

Families, inequality, and child well-being are deeply connected. This report, commissioned by UN DESA for the International Day of Families, examines how global and regional patterns of inequality shape family formation, early childhood and child outcomes in the context of the 2030 Agenda. It analyses trends in income inequality, poverty, fertility, under-five mortality, education and broader family well-being, showing how disadvantage can be transmitted across generations when families are not adequately supported.

After working on infectious disease epidemics with the WHO, Dr. Slutkin developed the idea that violence spreads like a contagious disease and can therefore be prevented using similar interruption strategies. In this book he demonstrates that this public health approach can reduce many forms of violence, from community and domestic violence to broader conflict and even potential war.

The book provides a framework for structuring the improvement process and teaches users how to craft actionable questions about system outcomes. Chapters demonstrate analytic methods for answering those questions, grounded in foundational principles of longitudinal research.

This AP article describes how Nigerian troops rescued seven children and two women who had been kidnapped during an attack on an orphanage in Kogi State in April 2026.

The article reports on a landmark case in which a Greenlandic mother, Keira Alexandra Kronvold, successfully challenged Danish authorities for unlawfully removing her newborn shortly after birth based on contested parenting assessments.

This study aims to investigate the psychological factors influencing the mental health of orphans in institutional care in Pakistan, focusing on aspects such as childhood trauma, attachment disruptions, life satisfaction, and social isolation. The findings reveal varying levels of engagement, ranging from active involvement and contentment to feelings of isolation and nostalgia for home.

Using a qualitative approach, this study captures the voices of juveniles in correctional facilities, orphanages and street environments in Zambia. Findings reveal patterns of emotional distress, societal exclusion and systemic failures that contribute to cycles of vulnerability and marginalization.

Unaccompanied children and young people experiencing homelessness are at risk of significant lifelong negative outcomes. Supported accommodation services are a critical response to homelessness; however, these services do not always meet this cohort’s needs. This research project examines the effectiveness of Australia’s supported accommodation services in meeting the needs of unaccompanied children and young people aged 12–24. It proposes principles to guide policy and practice toward a better system.

This qualitative study explores the experiences of street children in Benin City, Nigeria, finding that family breakdown, poverty, abuse, and lack of parental care are key drivers of children leaving home. It shows that once on the streets, children adopt various survival strategies, including informal labor, begging, crime, and substance use, and calls for coordinated government and community action to strengthen families and support reintegration.