KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City is on its way to becoming an international hub in genomic research and the fight against pediatric diseases.

Two major endowments totaling $150 million last month are being used to lure top-notch pediatric research scientists to study and combat rare diseases in children.

Dr. Tomi Pastinen is director of the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine. He led a genomic research lab in Montreal for 15 years before taking a position at Children's Mercy last year. Pastinen says the availability to help patients so close to him drew his interest.

"And the whole team taking care of patients which really allows us to rapidly deploy genomic tools in more or less a bedside manner," he says.

Children's Mercy already features the first genome centers in a children's hospital. The genome research aims toward finding solutions for complex issues in kids regarding DNA sequencing and analysis, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The genome research facility looks at ways to understand and treat diseases in infants, as well as fully grasp diseases such as diabetes that are caused by genetics and environmental factors. Dr. Pastinen says their work will increase the amount of genomic research done at the hospital by more than two-fold.

"It's big news in terms of getting the infrastructure to allow us to grow in directions in genomic medicine and other areas of pediatric research, that we think we should be going and building up the new research focus of Children's Mercy," he explains.

The two $75 million donations were made by the Hall Family Foundation and Sunderland Foundation. The new research institute - located in downtown Kansas City - will offer more than five times the amount of space than the current facility, standing nine stories tall with roughly 375,000 square feet.


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Colorado and other states are hoarding more than $6 billion intended for struggling families, according to new analysis.

In 2020, Colorado denied more applications for cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program than it accepted. Ali Safawi, a research associate at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said many Colorado families with children are not getting the help they need, even though the state has some $87 million in unspent TANF funds.

"So in Colorado, we see that for every 100 families with kids living in poverty, just 20 receive TANF," he said. "That means that 80 families out of that 100 are not, even though they are experiencing poverty and could really use that assistance."

Welfare reforms passed under the Clinton administration, aimed to help families transition to jobs that would end what critics called a cycle of dependency, gave broad leeway to states for how to use TANF funds. In Colorado, TANF distributions vary greatly depending on which county you live in.

Safawi noted that most Colorado families living in poverty already are working, but at jobs that do not pay a living wage. He added that investing in children's well-being pays off down the road. When families have cash resources to meet their basic needs, their kids do better in school, earn better wages as adults and are more financially self-sufficient.

"We know from a lot of research that giving cash to families who are struggling with very low incomes has a significant difference for children," he said, "and these impacts are not just immediate; we see improvements in their health and their economic outcomes well into adulthood."

He pointed to Columbia University research showing that raising a low-income family's income by just $1,000 a year, about $83 a month, creates more than $10,000 in societal benefits. Safawi said one way to get assistance to more Colorado families is to increase qualifying income limits, which are exceptionally low.

"It's $421 a month for a family of three," he said. "That means if they make over that, they don't qualify. We don't really see income eligibility that low anywhere else outside of the Deep South, which has a long history of limiting assistance primarily to Black families."

Washington state lawmakers are considering a policy which could help close the wealth gap for future generations.

The Washington Future Fund is a policy typically known as "baby bonds" and would allocate $3,200 to children born under the state's Medicaid program Apple Health. They would have access to it between the ages of 18 and 30.

Jennifer Tran, research and policy director for the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, said the policy would help address the racial wealth gap in particular.

"We know that children of color disproportionately represent households that have fewer wealth and assets," Tran observed. "It's really building at the state level a program that would encourage wealth building for kids in Washington state."

Recipients of the one-time benefit would be able to spend it in-state to help pay for a home, post-secondary education or to start a small business. The legislation was requested by the State Treasurer's office and modeled after legislation enacted in Connecticut last year. The House version of the bill, is scheduled for a public hearing today.

In the legislation's current version, the first distributions would go out 18 years from now for children born this year. Tran argued lawmakers should consider more flexibility with how the fund can be used.

"While buying a home and pursuing higher education and starting businesses might be the right mix of opportunities right now, there could be new, emerging ones to consider in the future," Tran pointed out.

The Washington Future Fund would be pooled in an investment fund. According to the State Treasurer's office, there are about 40,000 Apple Health births each year, or about half of the births in the state. A baby bond policy has been proposed at the federal level by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Finding and affording child care is no cakewalk for Oregon families right now. A new report details the pressures and some potential policy fixes.

The average Oregon family spends 30% of its monthly income on child care. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, families should spend no more than 7%.

Jyoni Tetsurō Shuler, research analyst for Our Children Oregon, which is taking a closer look at the issues.

"We're seeing that this lack of providers, the burnout there, as well as the lack of slots and availability to access, is impacting every single socioeconomic group," Shuler observed. "And then certainly, disparities exist among racial and ethnic lines as well. We're seeing Black and Latinx families, in particular, really struggling to afford and access care."

Shuler pointed out wages for child-care workers are among the lowest of any profession, affecting a workforce largely made up of women and people of color. Nearly one in seven child-care centers in Oregon faces staffing shortages.

Shuler added the pandemic has created additional hurdles, both for families and providers.

Shuler argued Oregon should reduce barriers for establishing child-care homes and centers, to improve access in those areas considered to be "child-care deserts" in the state, and added the federal government can do more to improve wages for providers and bolster subsidy programs for parents, such as the Child Tax Credit.

"Expanding the availability and the accessibility of care, and then, really investing in our workforce and ensuring that they're getting their needs met and really invested, at that governmental level," Shuler urged.

Our Children Oregon also suggested investments to ensure the availability of care and education services that are developmentally and culturally responsive, and in multiple languages.

Shuler remarked ultimately, this is about children, saying kids need trained providers to support proper child development in their first five years.

"We're really seeing a lot impacts on the children," Shuler stated. "Long-term, too. We're not just talking short-term, but on the long-term trajectories of their development."