Children's Services Division, Children's Services Toronto Report Card on Children 1999 2. During the past decade, the use of social research tools such as report cards has grown in North America.
Many organizations regularly report on the situation of children.
Every U.S. state now has some form of children's report card. Most report cards include statistical information on children based on a variety of indicators. The report cards are valuable in tracking progress in improving children's health and well-being. Following this trend, in 1996 the Canadian Council on Social Development began publishing The Progress of Canada's Children, an annual report on the status of the country's children and youth. The report draws heavily on the research findings of the federal government's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, a long-term study that will follow the progress of 23,000 young people from childhood through to adulthood.