Start Date: September 2011

ID #: 69299

Principal Investigator: Natasha Frost, JD

Co-Principal Investigator: Melissa Rodgers, JD, EdM

Organization: Public Health Law Center, Inc.

Funding Round: Round 6

See more related research

Share


This project will provide new data about the potential for local governments to take meaningful action to prevent childhood obesity through policy implementation in child-care settings. Because local laws often serve as drivers of state law, this research will help inform childhood obesity prevention policy both at state and local levels around the nation. This study aims to: 1) determine the scope of local government authority to impose nutrition and physical activity standards in child-care settings in all 50 states; 2) examine specific local government regulations and other strategies for addressing nutrition and physical activity; and 3) identify examples of promising or innovative local government practices. Investigators will use legal analytical methods to research and examine state and local laws relating to nutrition and physical activity standards for child care. Final products will include: 1) a simple, accessible 50-state database showing which states permit local child-care regulation and to what extent, and 2) analyses and summaries of promising and innovative practices in local child-care regulation designed to prevent childhood obesity.

Related Research

April 2026

Policy Priorities and Research Needs for Advancing Healthy Eating: A 2026-2027 Research Agenda for U.S. Children and Adolescents

Given recent changes to nutrition policies and programs and the food environment landscape, the need for new evidence on how these changes impact nutrition, health, and food access is greater than ever. HER has also published a research agenda intended to provide a blueprint for immediate (i.e., 12-18 month) research needs to inform strategies to More

November 2025

Forecasting WIC funding needs: Supporting families, strengthening access

WIC serves more than 50% of all infants born in the U.S. The goal of this study is to build a forecasting model to estimate national WIC funding needs under various policy and economic conditions through fiscal year 2027. The model will also be designed to allow for updates to forecast funding needs for future More

August 2025

Diet Quality and Weight Status are Predicted by Federal Nutrition Assistance Program Participation, Health, and Demographics

This study investigated whether demographic, social, and economic determinants of health, including length of time participating in safety net programs, are associated with diet quality and weight status in early childhood. Using the WIC infant and toddler feeding practices study-2, classification and regression tree identified the sequence of binary splits that best differentiated the sample More