The Best and Worst States to Raise Kids

As a country, the United States is the only developed nation that doesn’t guarantee paid family leave or paid sick days , and it ranks toward the bottom for how much it spends on early childhood education. But things are even spottier at the state level.

In a new report, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research has for the first time graded each state on how well it supports working parents and, in particular, working women when it comes to paid leave, elder and child care, and the share of parents of young children who are in the labor force.