Research Library

Building on the success of hunter education courses in Texas and experience in other states, fellow Sandra McKay and other Texas physicians explain how mandatory firearm safety courses and waiting periods for young firearm buyers could reduce gun violence.

As the judicial battle over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates continues, the authors argue that the most effective way to protect children from COVID-19 is to require masks in schools. Click below for their full list of policy recommendations, including what exceptions should be made, and when and how to end school mask requirements.

Effective drug policy requires acceptance that, for better or worse, licit and illicit drug use is part of our world. The authors recommend several steps the federal government can take to facilitate more pragmatic and effective drug policy at all levels of government.

Decades of research demonstrate the critical importance of early childhood development, but the United States ranks last among wealthy countries in child health outcomes. This brief lays out a series of recommendations to improve the developmental potential of American children.

The Covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for resettled refugees in the U.S. and exposed underlying vulnerabilities that particularly impact refugee women and children, as well as the organizations that work to support them. The authors examine the difficulties facing refugees in the U.S. and offer policy recommendations that may help them.

Parental stress, which is heightened during natural disasters, can produce negative physiological responses in the developing brains of their infants and young children. This irreversibly alters the child’s brain structure, impacting their long-term prospects for good health and academic and economic success. Now is the time to institute policies and practices that mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the next generation, write the authors,

In order to increase the capacity of American children to become productive citizens and compete in a global economy, it is vital that future federal policies include a focus on improving children’s brain development, writes health policy scholar Quianta Moore.

There is broad consensus in the medical and scientific community that substance abuse should be treated as a medical and public health problem, not a crime. The authors recommend a sensible pivot from failed policies of drug prohibition toward a realistic approach to drug use.