Innovation in child care is coming from a surprising source: Police departments

“San Diego’s law enforcement child care center, funded through both public and private money, is the first of its kind in the country, but plans for several others across the US are already underway. A bipartisan bill in Congress would expand the model further.
Supporters call law enforcement child care a win-win-win — a way to help diversify policing by making it more accessible to women, a recruiting tool at a time when police resignations and retirements are up, and applications are down. And, frankly, they hope that an innovative model for child care will give a PR boost to a profession that has taken severe blows to its reputation over the last decade.

But it also raises a basic question: Why just police? What about subsidizing other professions, including other first responders like firefighters and nurses?”

https://www.vox.com/child-care/353426/innovation-in-child-care-is-coming-from-a-surprising-source-police-departments

Are Children Less Affordable?: Video Sources

Millennials & Gen-Z are Poorer Than Ever (Here’s Why) Humphrey Yang. 2023 5 17. Have the Boomers Pinched Their Children’s Futures? – with Lord David Willetts The Royal Institution. 2020 1 23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXzvjBYW8A Some numbers at beginning for UK and Europe. The

The failed promise of egg freezing

“In one groundbreaking 2022 study conducted at NYU Langone Fertility Center and looking at 543 patients over 15 years, the chance of a live birth from frozen eggs was 39 percent. “There isn’t a guarantee of having a baby from egg freezing,” says Sarah Druckenmiller Cascante, a reproductive endocrinologist at NYU Langone Fertility Center and one of the study’s authors. The study made a splash because it provided numbers where little comprehensive national data exists, though experts at other clinics tell Vox that its results are in line with what they’ve found.”

https://www.vox.com/health/24141538/egg-freezing-cost-age-ivf-fertility-pregnancy

The Bad Science Behind Jonathan Haidt’s Call to Regulate Social Media

“Haidt cites 476 studies in his book that seem to represent an overwhelming case. But two-thirds of them were published before 2010, or before the period that Haidt focuses on in the book. Only 22 of them have data on either heavy social media use or serious mental issues among adolescents, and none have data on both.
There are a few good studies cited in the book. For example, one co-authored by psychologist Jean Twenge uses a large and carefully selected sample with a high response rate. It employs exploratory data analysis rather than cookbook statistical routines.

Unfortunately for Haidt, that study undercuts his claim. The authors did find that heavy television watchers, video game players, and computer and phone users were less happy. But the similar graphs for these four ways of spending time suggest that the specific activity didn’t matter. This study actually suggests that spending an excessive amount of time in front of any one type of screen is unhealthy—not that there’s anything uniquely dangerous about social media.”

https://reason.com/video/2024/04/02/the-bad-science-behind-jonathan-haidts-anti-social-media-crusade/

More Than 1 in 4 Kids Are Chronically Absent From School, Report Shows

“Chronic absenteeism has increased across the board—affecting both wealthier and poorer districts. According to new data from the AEI, absenteeism increased from 10 percent in 2019 to 19 percent in 2023 in the richest school districts. In the poorest districts, absenteeism increased from 19 percent to a staggering 32 percent over the same time period.
Surprisingly, the length of school closures didn’t seem to impact the increase in absenteeism that much. Districts that were closed the longest saw absenteeism increase 12 percent, while those with the shortest closures saw a 10 percent increase.

However, things were even worse in years closer to pandemic closures. In 2022, for example, 28 percent of students were chronically absent. Overall, absenteeism rates fell from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2022-2023 school year in 33 of the 39 states reporting data. ”

https://reason.com/2024/04/02/more-than-1-in-4-kids-are-chronically-absent-from-school-report-shows/