Children At Risk

Since its inception, C@R has placed high value on ensuring equitable access to early and K-12 education. To drive change in this area, C@R works closely with stakeholders to discuss reform strategies and advance policies to improve the quality of and access to education. C@R highlighted key issues including pandemic learning loss during COVID-19, tracked how ESSER dollars are being spent on our children, and released our Annual School Rankings to highlight the quality of Texas Schools. C@R also highlighted research around child care deserts in Texas and worked to increase access to and the quality of the subsidized child care system and ensure equity in the system for both the children and the child care workforce.

Too many Texas children lack access to quality healthcare and nutrition. Through its unique Food in Schools Initiative, C@R continues to raise awareness and advocate for the implementation of Universal School Breakfast and other school meal programs in schools with high poverty levels. Our annual School Food rankings highlight top-performing districts with school food programs and highlight innovations and best practices adopted by top districts. Through our Childhood Immunization Project, C@R also collaborated with key partners to help maintain the current code that establishes immunization requirements for Texas elementary and secondary schools and ensure equitable access to childhood immunizations.

C@R established the Center to End the Trafficking and Exploitation of Children (CETEC) in 2007 to launch a broad educational and outreach program to combat human trafficking. C@R continued to grow the Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Texas project and convened nonprofits, state agencies, law enforcement and local governments in a statewide Anti-Demand Coalition to share knowledge, best practices and lessons learned. C@R also developed critical research around opportunity youth (youth ages 16-24 who are neither in school nor in the workforce), highlighting policies that can put these young people on a path to success and prevent them from being exploited.

C@R established the Center for Parenting and Family Well-Being (CPFWB) in 2011. In its first phase, CPFWB took an inventory of the current network of parenting services in Houston, and found that there is a strong need for evidence-based parent education that is not punitive. Through a partnership including organizations that provide parent education services, pediatricians, academics, and public health practitioners, CPFWB determined that the community should move forward with developing structure to implement the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P). During its second phase, the CPFWB is creating an infrastructure to disseminate Triple P across Harris County.

Other programs were juvenile justice and mental health-related.