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Children's Health

Deanna Staffo for NPR

15 states have laws that allow corporal punishment in schools. Here’s where, and why

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A child is prepped to receive an MMR vaccine at Lurie Children's Primary Care in Chicago. Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Getty Images hide caption

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Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Getty Images

5 questions parents may have after Trump's latest vaccine move

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President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order that calls for changing the childhood vaccine schedule. With him in the Oval Office, from left, are Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of NIH; Jayme Franklin, a conservative activist; Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Heidi Overton, deputy director of domestic policy for the White House. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Trump and RFK Jr. try again to upend vaccines for kids

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Cowgirl Jessie and her horse Bullseye face off against Lilypad in Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5. It opens in theaters on Friday, June 19. Disney/Pixar hide caption

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Disney/Pixar

'Toy Story 5' gets at something very real: It's hard to keep kids off screens in summer

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People in favor of healthcare for transgender youth march outside NYU Langone hospital in New York City in February 2025. Heather Khalifa/AP hide caption

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Heather Khalifa/AP

DOJ blocked in CA from getting trans medical files

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The Girls: “This is my story to tell”

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People hold hands near the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday. Gregory Bull/AP hide caption

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Gregory Bull/AP

School children at San Diego mosque need support to process trauma of shooting

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?”

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A study estimates that 32 million children live in homes with firearms, and a significant portion of those guns are not stored safely. Here, handguns are displayed at Kittery Trading Post, in Kittery, Maine. Charles Krupa/AP hide caption

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Charles Krupa/AP

About 7 million kids live in a home with a loaded and unlocked gun, a study finds

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Dr. Yilai Shu examines a young patient at the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University in China. Mass General Brigham hide caption

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Mass General Brigham

Gene therapy for a rare type of deafness shows lasting results

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What makes a person keep playing a video slot machine? Some of the same features that make children stay on social media apps or video games for too long. Paige Stampatori for NPR hide caption

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Paige Stampatori for NPR

The surprising origin of 4 features that superglue kids — and adults — to screens

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A woman at an abortion-rights protest in New York in 2023 holds a pregnancy test. The U.S. teen pregnancy rate in 2025 was 11.7 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19, according to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Teen birth rates hit another historical low in 2025, CDC says

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Olga Urbina holds her 9-month-old son, Ares Webster, at a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in May 2025. Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images

Babies are an afterthought in the birthright citizenship case, advocates say

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An electron microscope image provided by the National Institutes of Health shows human respiratory syncytial virus virions, colorized blue, and antibodies against an RSV protein, colorized yellow. AP/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH hide caption

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AP/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

Doctors worry about FDA scrutiny of RSV shots to protect babies

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Babies under 6 months of age are not able to be vaccinated for COVID, but if their mothers are vaccinated during pregnancy, newborns get some immunity, a large new study shows. The benefits wear off, though, at about 5 months of age. Didier Pallages/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Didier Pallages/AFP via Getty Images

A recording of Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's deposition is played for the jurors on March 4 in Santa Fe, N.M. Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican/AP hide caption

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Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican/AP

Kate Morrow and her 8-year-old twins, Jack and Lilly, at their home in Spartanburg County, S.C. Morrow struggles to understand why many of her neighbors haven't vaccinated their kids. Mike Belleme for NPR hide caption

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Mike Belleme for NPR

In South Carolina, measles shows how far apart neighbors can be on vaccines

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Dr. Acklema Mohammad checks a patient at El Nuevo San Juan Health Center in the Bronx in New York City in 2024. Community health clinics, like this one, are often located in immigrant communities and rely on Medicaid. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP hide caption

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Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP

Medicaid can share data with ICE. Here’s how that 180-degree change spreads fear

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Andrea D'Aquino/For NPR

A better way to help kids avoid junk food and screens

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Elizabeth Kanagawa, a certified child passenger safety technician, demonstrates how to adjust the harness of a car seat. She is also the owner of Three Littles, a children's store that sells car seats and strollers, among other items, in Washington, D.C. Beck Harlan for NPR hide caption

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Beck Harlan for NPR