Curated by Kinship Policy Lab
Policy Practice in the Wild
Current policy media, evidence, and questions for practitioners
Policy Practice in the Wild connects current policy media with research and questions for applied policy analysis. Selections are chosen for analytical value, not endorsement. Each entry identifies a tension raised in the source, notes the speaker's institutional position, and pairs the media piece with research or an authoritative source.
How to read an issue
Use each entry to ask:
- What claim is being made?
- What evidence supports it?
- Which outcomes define success?
- Whose perspective is missing?
- What additional evidence would change the decision?
Archive
All issues
5 issues published so far. New issues are published periodically — subscribe by RSS or get in touch to be notified.
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Straightforward on paper
SNAP enrollment after new verification rules, childcare beyond 9-to-5, a cyberattack on a school choice program, tech lobbying of federal health regulators, rising water bills, skilled-worker shortages, a contested rural gas pipeline, and state laws on intoxication and consent.
- Safety net
- Child & family
- Education
- AI governance
- Infrastructure
- Workforce
- Energy
- Criminal justice
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Beneath the headline outcome
Kinship care and declining foster-care entries, what free tuition actually does, the cascade of rigidity in implementation, cybersecurity for water systems, Medicaid managed care for children in foster care, a contested Boston street redesign, the federal scholarship tax credit, state budget gaps, and a Cornell report on the future of the American university.
- Child welfare
- Higher education
- Public administration
- Infrastructure
- Health
- Transportation
- Education
- State budgets
- Institutional change
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The machinery behind the goal
Modernizing foster-home licensing, cost evidence in education, communities weighing data centers, workforce policy for AI, Head Start for children in foster care, unequal access to AI, and a halted Postal Service system for mail voting.
- Child welfare
- Education
- Local government
- Workforce
- Early education
- Technology
- Elections
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Deciding before the evidence is in
SNAP payment-error penalties and access, local responses to automation, AI in schools, the early evidence on microschools, urban agriculture, and risk communication 25 years after 9/11.
- Safety net
- Workforce
- Education
- School choice
- Food systems
- Public health
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Eight sources, eight tensions
The first issue: early childhood evidence at scale, faith-property reuse, the Houston ISD reforms, traffic safety and public acceptance, paid-leave advocacy, climate mitigation versus adaptation, AI liability, and Medicaid work requirements.
- Early childhood
- Housing
- Education
- Transportation
- Child & family
- Climate
- AI governance
- Health
Working through one of these questions in your own system?
Kinship Policy Lab helps organizations, governments, and communities move from evidence to policy to practice — and understand why results differ across settings.
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