Reducing Intergenerational Poverty

How can the United States reduce the number of children in our country who, after growing up in families with incomes below the poverty line, remain poor as adults? This article summarizes key conclusions of a 2024 report issued by the Committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on Policies and Programs to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty. The committee sought to identify evidence-based policies and programs directed at low-income children, their families, or their neighborhoods that could reduce children's chances of remaining low-income as adults. The committee found direct evidence of success in affecting correlates of adult poverty (e.g., low educational attainment and earnings, poor health) for more than two dozen programs and policies addressing health; education; income and parental employment; housing; and crime. Because we concentrate on interventions focused on child health, we include a brief discussion of the importance of the involvement of health care professionals in implementing policy changes resulting from the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB Act).