This ASTHOBrief discusses how breastfeeding acts as a protective factor for maternal mental health, negative impacts of COVID-19 on breastfeeding and maternal mental health, state actions to improve maternal mental healthcare and lactation ...
Researchers estimate more than 140,000 children in the United States experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. The study highlights disturbing disparities in caregiver deaths by ...
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for screening children’s blood lead levels, as screening rates across the country dropped during stay-at-home orders. A substantive federal policy change and provisions in the Infrastructure ...
ASTHO convened focus groups of state environmental health directors and designated representatives from 11 states to talk about their agencies’ ventilation guidance for school districts. The discussions focused on recommendations for ...
This week might have marked the beginning of summer, but many policymakers and health officials have their eye on the upcoming school year and what that might mean in terms of getting students vaccinated against COVID-19. According to a ...
Recent state laws and governor emergency orders prohibiting universal school mask protocols are complicating the implementation of CDC’s evidence-based guidance for COVID-19 mitigation measures for in-person school. Ten states have enacted ...
The National School Lunch Program, a federally-assisted meal program run by USDA, has provided millions of children with nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost lunches each school day.
Conditioning school attendance on student vaccinations is an evidence-based way of maintaining and increasing vaccine coverage. State law establishes school vaccination requirements which apply not only to public schools but often to ...
In recognition of National Infant Immunization Week, ASTHO and AMCHP interviewed Michael Warren, MD, MPH, FAAP, and Associate Administrator of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) at the Health Resources and Services Administration ...
ASTHO interviewed two state health agencies (SHAs), two nonprofit partners, and one university partner that were heavily invested in state early childhood development policy about how their programs fared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we anticipate the likely approval of COVID-19 vaccination for children, our nation faces the final step to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. If approved for children ages 5-11, the COVID-19 vaccine will dramatically improve our ...
The findings detailed in this report were gathered during a series of School Behavioral Health Advisory Committee convenings in spring 2021. The goal was identify policy gaps and strategies for delivering behavioral health services in ...
Important everyday health services, including declines in immunization coverage, have been negatively impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. One particularly troubling example is that coverage for childhood vaccines has gone down, leaving ...