Displaying 1-20 of 36 results for

The 2020 holiday season is coinciding with a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases. With great concern that holiday travel to see loved ones may exacerbate community spread of the virus, many states are increasing public health measures ...

States Reassessing Vaccine Policy and Public Health Powers Shalini Nair, Andy Baker-White Review of state policies to weaken vaccine requirements and reduce public health powers. Immunization is a key pillar of public health, crucial for ...

Infographic depicting findings on a survey around opioid use among pregnant people.

This report highlights examples of health department partnership coordination strategies to enhance surveillance, increase resource and staffing capacity, and improve communication and collaboration in order to strengthen infection ...

Recap the state legislative sessions in 2025 thus far, spanning maternal health, infectious disease, and other important public health issues.

Over the past several years, states and jurisdictions have continued to implement important policies to reduce tobacco and nicotine use, including increasing tobacco prices, expanding areas deemed “smoke-free,” limiting the sale of ...

The youth mental health crisis has created the need for a comprehensive workforce response, which requires educators and school administrative staff, school-based mental health professionals, and communities to work collaboratively to ...

While communities transition from emergency response to long-term monitoring and recovery, the federal government and states are taking legislative action to improve emergency preparedness capabilities.

Under the Tenth Amendment, states have the power to protect the health and welfare of their populations, including the authority to implement isolation and quarantine orders to limit the spread of disease. This post is an examination of ...

This report contains lessons learned and examples of messaging strategies that were successful during cyanobacterial bloom responses, they were collected from 17 state health agency staff members across 12 states.

State Legislatures Moving to Increase Rural Health Care Access How States Are Incentivizing Health Care Providers to Practice in Rural Areas Lana McKinney Hospital closures and fewer care options in rural areas cause worse health outcomes ...

Effective Public Health Approaches to Reducing Congenital Syphilis astho, association of state and territorial health officials, provider bias, syphilis screening requirements, medicaid family planning programs, medicaid eligibility, ...

State issued documents, such as birth certificates, are often required to navigate daily life. Vital records policy is a complex and evolving issue with many of the processes and procedures left to jurisdictional policy-makers.

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for screening children’s blood lead levels, as screening rates across the country dropped during stay-at-home orders. A substantive federal policy change and provisions in the Infrastructure ...

In 2017, nearly 64,000 children under six had elevated blood lead levels as defined by the CDC. There is no safe blood lead level in children, and even low levels of lead have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention, and academic ...

States Support Postpartum Health with Medicaid Expansions astho, association of state and territorial health officials, 2023 state legislative session, medicaid expansions, postpartum health, the consolidated appropriations act, national ...

As many state legislatures seek to expand vaccine exemptions, it’s important to understand the fundamental differences in exemption type and their impact on a community.

States and territories have broad powers to protect public health and safety, including powers to prevent and control the spread of communicable disease typically exercised by state and territorial health departments. This authority is an ...

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, temporarily expanding the use of telehealth technologies by removing various requirements and ...

Anticipating a rapid deployment of COVID-19 vaccines as they are authorized, the CDC developed COVID-19 Vaccination Program Operational Guidance in collaboration with state and local jurisdictions to outline how each jurisdiction will make ...