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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01cr56n439v
Title: THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL SERVICE APPLICATION, UPTAKE, AND COVERAGE AMONG CHILDREN
Authors: Zlotnick, Hanna Gillian
Advisors: Armstrong, Elizabeth
Contributors: Population Studies Department
Keywords: Administrative burden
Dual eligibility
Education policy
Housing hardship
Medicaid
Universal Pre-K
Subjects: Public policy
Public health
Demography
Issue Date: 2024
Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University
Abstract: Extensive research documents the role social services play in improving health, wellbeing, and opportunity for disadvantaged and vulnerable children. Evidence on programs’ efficacy and breadth is complemented by an equally rich literature on the complex eligibility, application, and enrollment procedures accompanying the social services millions of families rely on for health insurance, health care, education, childcare, nutrition, cash assistance, and housing. Yet less attention has been paid to how these requisite processes influence families’ abilities to access services and how social services’ procedures may threaten their capacity to reduce inequality. This dissertation empirically addresses this void through two overarching questions:1) How do disadvantaged families interact with social service uptake, enrollment, and redetermination processes? 2) How do policies and social determinants bolster or hinder families’ bandwidth and ability to receive the services for which they are eligible? The dissertation examines Medicaid and universal preschool enrollment behavior through a lens of lived experiences and housing instability with three substantive chapters. The motivation behind studying these two programs is twofold. First, both Medicaid and universal preschool have extensive application and enrollment processes and are not sought out or understood by all who are eligible. Factors that most inhibit the take up of social programs and benefits are prominent in both programs’ enrollment processes. Second, when utilized, both programs have strong potential to improve childhood wellbeing, narrow educational and health disparities, and reduce inequalities in their respective domains. Chapter 1 evaluates how homeless families participate in social service programs that require advanced engagement, knowledge of future residence, and institutional familiarity through the study of Universal Pre-K in New York City. Chapter 2 identifies temporal trends and demographic disparities in Medicaid uptake, enrollment continuity, and churn among children in Chicago, with particular attention paid to homeless students and those with special education needs. Chapter 3 ties together themes of enrollment, vulnerable populations, and housing instability from Chapters 1 and 2 by establishing national patterns of Medicaid enrollment, segmented by housing hardship experiences and dual enrollment in cash and nutrition assistance programs.
URI: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01cr56n439v
Type of Material: Academic dissertations (Ph.D.)
Language: en
Appears in Collections:Population Studies

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