State Levers to Impact Family Economic Security

This resource center is a brief inventory of state policies that impact family economic security and is designed to spark ideas of what might be possible in your state.

According to some measures, child poverty fell nearly 60 percent between 1993 and 2019. Then came a pandemic that threatened families’ economic security anew – and some families more than others. As federal rescue and relief dollars run out, what policy levers do states have to support families’ economic security and extend the declines in child poverty that have been achieved?

Use the navigation in the menu on the right or the list below to explore the policies:

TANF Policies
General Safety Net Policies
Cash Assistance Policies
Tax Credits and Policies
Housing Policies
Food Security Policies
Paid Family and Medical Leave Policies

To see how your state measures up on family economic security policies, check out the Brookings Institute’s State Safety Net Index, the National Center for Children in Poverty’s Early Childhood State Policy Profiles, and the PN3 Policy Impact Center’s Policy Impact Calculator.

This policy inventory was compiled by the Alliance for Early Success in 2022 and updated in 2023. Mandy Ableidinger is the project lead.

The inventory is not comprehensive and will continue to be updated. If your state has put a policy in place directly connected to improving families’ economic security that isn’t reflected here—or if you have worked against a policy that would have burdened families’ budgets—please let us know about it. We’ll make this resource better together.