Strategies

Provide financial assistance to working parents, or parents attending school, to pay for child care

Provide at-risk expectant parents and families with young children with information, support, and training regarding child health, development, and care from prenatal stages through early childhood via trained home visitors

Expand refundable earned income tax credits for working individuals and families with low to moderate incomes

Use specialized courts to work with parents involved in the child welfare system who may lose custody of their children due to substance abuse

Adopt policies that allow custodial parents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to collect all child support paid by the non-custodial parent; no portion is retained by the state

Arrange full-time foster care by relatives or adults who are not a child’s parent but have a family relationship with the child when a child is removed from home due to a safety concern

Increase the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly compensation that employers may legally pay to workers

Use counseling, informational materials, etc. to inform smokers and non-smokers of the harms of secondhand smoke and encourage them to implement home smoking bans

Implement private sector rules or public sector regulations that prohibit smoking indoors or restrict it to designated, often outdoor, areas