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The past two decades have been characterized by a growing body of research from diverse disciplines-child development, psychology, neuroscience, and economics, among others-demonstrating the importance of establishing a strong foundation in the early years of life. The research evidence has served to document the range of early childhood services that can successfully put children and families on the path toward lifelong health and well-being, especially those at greatest risk of poor outcomes. As early childhood interventions have proliferated, researchers have evaluated whether the programs improve children's outcomes and, when they do, whether the improved outcomes generate benefits that can outweigh the program costs. This study examines a set of evaluations that meet criteria for scientific rigor and synthesizes their results to better understand the outcomes, costs, and benefits of early childhood programs. The authors focus on evaluations of 115 early childhood programs serving children or parents of children from the prenatal period to age 5. Although preschool is perhaps the best-known early childhood intervention, the study also reviewed such programs as home visiting, parent education, government transfers providing cash and in-kind benefits, and those that use a combination of approaches. The findings demonstrate that most of the reviewed programs have favorable effects on at least one child outcome and those with an economic evaluation tend to show positive economic returns. With this expanded evidence base, policymakers can be highly confident that well-designed and -implemented early childhood programs can improve the lives of children and their families.

Over the past decade, the Los Angeles Police Department has experimented with a unique model of community-oriented policing called the Community Safety Partnership (CSP). The program places a dedicated set of CSP officers in select housing developments and neighborhoods to engage with residents to better understand and ultimately address the root causes of crime. This study examined the first four waves of the program to assess whether, and the extent to which, the program reduced violent crime. Results reveal significant variation in program effects, with the first wave yielding crime reductions while subsequent waves experienced little to no change in violent crime. Supplemental analyses suggest that the null results for the final three waves of the program were not confounded by increases in crime reporting and reveal that crime reductions following the program’s first wave were not achieved through increases in traditional enforcement (e.g., arrests).

While scholars have linked immigration enforcement with reductions in Latinx crime reporting, little research has examined the tools localities can use to counter reporting declines. This study assesses whether a community policing program adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) offset documented decreases in Latinx domestic violence reporting after President Trump assumed office. Using data on crimes reported to the LAPD between 2014 and 2019, this study finds that while domestic violence reports made by Latinx victims declined elsewhere after Trump took office, they increased in areas exposed to the community policing program. Results suggest that community policing may be a viable tool to encourage help-seeking behavior among residents vulnerable to deportation.