For this assignment, students will be asked to choose a social problem and policy/bill that he or she is interested in undertaking for this assignment and research a specific policy/bill related to the problem. The final paper will be approximately 3-4 pages double-spaced not including the reference page (references must be in APA format). You do not need to include a title page.

Examples of social problems can be the same or different from your Photovoice project and could include:

• Poverty
• Educational Equity (Access to High-Quality Education) and Special Education (Disabilities)
• Child Welfare (Child Abuse, Foster Care, Adoption)
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health
• Child and Adolescent Health
• Adolescent Substance Abuse

Please label your paper with the following sections, and answer all questions within each section.

I: SOCIAL PROBLEM & BILL/LAW IDENTIFICATION

(You will need to research the bill/law to gather the required data)

1. Provide the title of the bill/law to be analyzed and the date on which it was enacted (signed by the President), if it was enacted (some bills won’t pass into law).
2. What social problem did this bill/law address? What or who were the influencers (sponsors) to pass the bill?
3. What was the scope of the social problem (i.e. approximately how many people are affected by it? Cite your source)?

Provide a link to the bill to this description.

Abbreviated Example. The Assets for Independence Act (AFIA) was a federal legislative bill that was passed in 1999 to help low- and moderate-income people build assets in the form of homeownership, small business development, and post-secondary education through Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). The AFIA was passed to address the problem of poverty in the United States. Approximately 13.5% of the U.S. population has a reported household income that is below the federal poverty. Continue…]

II: BILL/ LAW ANALYSIS

1. Provide a brief analysis of the bill/ law (choose one of the bullets below to respond to):
   • If the bill was canceled (not passed), is there any information as to why? Who (individuals, organizations, and/or corporations) opposed it and why? What individuals, organizations, and/or corporations are continuing to advocate for this issue?
   • If the bill was enacted into law, is there any evidence that the law has had an impact? What is the evidence (cite your source), such as more funding, more research, more aid to people, and/or more programs?
   • If the bill was recently introduced, who is the current sponsor? Who (individuals, organizations, and/or corporations) opposes it and why? Who will the bill impact if it is passed into law and how will it impact them?
2. What is one way that you could impact this bill and/or advocate for this issue (are there, for example, social media campaigns, decision-makers, and/or opportunities for research, education, and awareness? Be specific in how you could take action.)
3. Include at least 3 resources outside of your bill (GovTrack). Consider scholarly articles but also policy papers (examples are from the Pew Research Center (Links to an external site.), American Institutes for Research (Links to an external site.)), and in the media (news). These external resources will help you to answer question 2. Cite your sources in-text as well as in a separate Reference page (not included in page count) using APA format.

III: CONCLUSION AND REFLECTION

1. What did you learn about the successes and/or challenges with this bill/law? What would make it more likely to get it passed or supported if it wasn’t already?
2. What did you learn about yourself as a child and family development professional/ advocate? For example, in what ways do you already see yourself as an advocate and what do you feel you still need to learn?