According to the U.S. Department of Education (2018), among students ages 3 through 21 served in special education, less than one-fifth are Black/African American (17.7 percent), but Black/African American students with disabilities account for more than one third (36.6 percent) of individuals who experienced disciplinary removal. Ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices have been found to mitigate the effects of such discrimination on children’s development. Yet, little is known about what these practices may look like for Black children with disabilities as ERS practices have typically been studied among typically developing, able-bodied children. This mixed-methods study aims to explore: 1) What types of ERS practices, and how frequent, do Black/African American parents/caregivers engage in with their children? 2) What is the relation between parents/caregivers’ ERS practices and children’s academic engagement, school disciplinary, and mental health outcomes? 3) What are the purposes and goals of Black/African American parents/caregivers engaging in ERS practices among their children with disabilities? and 4) What are some challenges that arise for Black parents/caregivers who communicate ERS practices to their children with disabilities?

In partnership with the Erikson Institute, the University of Delaware, the Indigo Cultural Center, and the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), the Equity Research Action Coalition at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute will establish a Center for Home-based Child Care Research to support research about home-based child care (HBCC) in states, territories, tribes, and/or local community contexts through a cooperative agreement with OPRE. The purpose of the Center is to provide leadership, build research capacity in the field, and offer support in the development and facilitation of local research to improve understanding of HBCC settings and providers and access by the families who seek and utilize HBCC.

The Active Implementation Support for the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice’s (CTRJJ) grant project designates Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute’s resources in support of the CTRJJ’s Workplan and Core Team, in addition to other key participants. The aims of the project include the use of applied, proactive implementation support training, coaching and technical assistance as noted below. The primary role on the implementation support to CRTJJ is to work behind the scenes with all designated relevant partners. However, FPG implementation specialists will have the ability to deliver content, coaching, and ongoing systems supports to relevant recipients.

The Early Childhood TA Center (ECTA) is funded to support state Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education programs in developing high-quality early intervention and preschool special education service systems, increasing local implementation of evidence-based practices, and enhancing outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families.

In collaboration with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and African Family Health Organization, community-based organizations that engage and educate African American and Black immigrant communities, we will conduct an exploratory sequential mixed-methods research to identify barriers and facilitators to positive birth outcomes for Black mothers with a focus on attention to health care access through focus groups and interviews and conduct causal inference analyses using extant data (i.e., Vital Statistics) to examine the effect of 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act on the birthing outcomes of Black immigrants.

This project is grounded in a science education partnership between Kidzu Children’s Museum and FPG’s STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center (STEMIE). The project will include sharing resources and spaces to develop and implement playgroups for pre-K children with a variety of abilities and their caregivers with specific STEM related goals and activities through the sequence of playgroups.

Although the first EHDI programs in the United States were established more than 20 years ago, most states/territories are not yet able to document the receipt of essential early intervention services and provide documentation of outcomes resulting from early intervention services. Lacking such documentation, it is unclear whether states/systems are accomplishing the goals of ensuring all babies who are D/HH receive early intervention and minimizing the communication delays typically observed in late-identified children who are D/HH. Establishing an IPA with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will assist CDC EHDI in (1) engaging with Part C early intervention programs; (2) developing strategies to assist state EHDI programs in identifying best practices/models to collaborate with Part C programs to address issues of ensuring the provision and documentation of essential early intervention services; (3) supporting assessment of outcomes among babies who are D/HH; and (4) meeting the requirements of the EHDI Act of 2022.

The K-12 Coherent Instructional Systems portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program seeks to support a cohort of provider-local education agency partnerships focused on implementing coherent instructional systems (CIS) built around high-quality middle-years mathematics curricula in contexts that serve Black, Latino, and/or English Learning-designated students, and students who are experiencing poverty. As a Learning Partner for the Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC), the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at UNC-Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute seeks to support the cohort of Provider-Local Education Agency partnerships in their implementation and measurement efforts related to their scale-up of high-quality mathematics curricula.

The Mental Health, Earlier ALACRITY Research Center addresses a key element of the NIMH 2020-2025 Strategic Plan Goal 3: Strive for Prevention and Cures: advancing preventive interventions in a developmentally appropriate manner as early in life and illness course as possible, to prevent or forestall mental illnesses and associated dysfunction.

This project consists of planning and implementing an evaluation of The Educare Learning Network, a consortium of programs nationwide providing high quality learning environments for at-risk children from birth to 5 years. The evaluation will document the features of Educare and how implementation of the model contributes to program quality and links to child and family outcomes.

The primary outcome of this investment is to support a cadre of New York State districts (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers) with operationalizing their district implementation plans related to their selected math high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) with each of the plans focused on addressing the common challenges and barriers identified across districts. The project’s long-term outcome is to create capacity within each respective district to sustain high-quality math instruction and desired outcomes for K-12 students, instructional staff, and the community by working together to determine solutions to their normalized barriers.

OJJDP Juvenile Justice System Enhancements is a three-year broad systems improvement project. It is designed to advance state level juvenile justice systems toward the adoption and delivery of evidence-supported practices stemming from a full system review, recommended modifications, capacity building where needed (or desired), and enhanced performance of chosen reforms.