Since last year, many in the District – elected leaders, school officials and parents – have been talking about middle school challenges facing the city.

This is a ripe and important topic – and not just for children currently or soon to be enrolled in middle school (and their parents). As our D.C. KIDS COUNT data show, the District is experiencing increasing birth rates and the beginnings of growth in the under 5 population, who will soon begin their school careers.

What are the recent middle school enrollment trends?

It is not breaking news that D.C. has a persistent achievement gap, a gulf, really, between black and white students. Many studies attribute this kind of achievement gap to income.

Our city’s economy is booming, steadily adding jobs during the last decade, including during most months of the recession.

Because of this economic boom, median family incomes have risen in D.C. – up 12 percent in the last decade, compared to a decrease of 4 percent in the U.S.

How many low-income children does it take to replace one janitor at a school?

This is not the opening line of a joke. Sadly, it is a subject that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich keeps talking about and, as a result, one we keep hearing about in the debates and news media.

In honor of World AIDS Day, here are a few ways HIV/AIDS is affecting children and youth in the District.

Data from a supplemental poverty measure released yesterday by the Census Bureau suggest that 3.2 million fewer children were living in poverty in 2010 than under the official federal poverty line. The supplemental measure counts a family’s gross income, government benefits and work expenses, while the traditional measure, which has been used to define poverty for about 50 years, only counts gross income.

DC Action is pleased to welcome Gwen Rubinstein, our new Deputy Director!

War is violent. War is bloody. War is deadly.

So why do so many well-meaning people continue to talk about fighting a war on poverty? A recent piece by the Center for American Progress even suggested fighting the “war on poverty” with early childhood education, a topic near to our hearts here at DC Action for Children.