Elective on Child Well-Being and Public Policy

EVANS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY & GOVERNANCE

PUBPOL 579: Child Well-Being and Public Policy

Spring quarter 2017

Thursdays 8:30-11:30

Savery 130

Associate Professor Heather Hill

hdhill@uw.edu

This course is an elective on public policies that affect children directly, by investing in their development or protecting them from harm.  Many, but not all, of these policies focus on economically disadvantaged children and attempt to address socioeconomic and racial inequalities.  The class will cover the contexts of child well-being, the arguments for government intervention during childhood, and 4-5 specific topics in child policy. In doing so, we will integrate theory and knowledge from Developmental Psychology, Economics, Sociology, and Social Neuroscience. Our focus will be U.S. Federal, state, and local policies. The readings and discussion will relate to interventions across childhood, but there is a greater emphasis on early than middle or late childhood. We will engage both mainstream and critical perspectives on policies.

Our key organizing questions are:

1)      What are the key domains and contexts for child development?

2)      What are the arguments for government intervention during childhood, or for the benefits of investing in children?

3)      What are the areas of policy designed to directly and indirectly benefit children?

4)      What does research evidence tell us about the success or failure of policies focused on children?

5)      What are the political and practical challenges to promoting child well-being with government policy?

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