School districts across the country are preparing for a rough road ahead as state lawmakers look for ways to cut spending from their budgets. In Seattle, the tough choices mean closing five schools and the pinch is being felt in some African-American neighborhoods. For more on this we are joined by Phyllis Fletcher, a reporter for KUOW in Seattle, and Michele McNeil, a reporter for Education Week.

Most of us have heard of the hygiene hypothesis. It's the theory that all of our antibacterial soaps and scrubs and sprays are actually weakening our immune systems. But here’s something new: Scientists say you may be able to treat certain diseases like autism and multiple sclerosis by ingesting the same worms we’ve spent all those years trying to kill. The Takeaway talks to Dr. Joel Weinstock, chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts University Medical Center.

The 1980s were an era of heavy rock and hard drugs. The drug of choice? Cocaine. At the time, public health experts predicted a coming generation of "crack babies" — a wave of children who were mentally and physically disabled after having been exposed to crack in the womb. But scientists are finding that despite the rampant drug use, the predicted generation of children never appeared. We are joined by Susan Okie, a New York Times reporter, who has been reporting on this story.

Read Susan Okie's article, The Epidemic That Wasn't in today's New York Times.

On February 10th a controversial new consumer product law goes into effect. It requires manufacturers of goods aimed at children under the age of 12 to test their products for lead. It also forbids retailers to sell goods with unacceptable levels of lead. While that is certainly well-intentioned, small business owners say they don’t have the money to test their products. They worry the law, which is meant to protect children, will actually put them out of business. The Takeaway talks to Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Marilyn Seitz, owner of the not-for-profit Pennyworth Thrift Shop in Silver Spring, Maryland, for their take on the situation.

Scientists have long suspected that poverty affects children’s brains. In recent years they’ve begun to use sophisticated imaging tools and other methods to understand exactly how the process works. Professor Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, has just written an article for a scientific journal reviewing recent research on poverty and brain development.

"I Kissed A Girl" isn't just for clubbing anymore, lots of parents are using it for putting their baby to sleep. The sound of the lullaby is changing.

The largest children's study ever undertaken in the United States kicks off in 2009. Researchers plan on tracking 100,000 kids from the womb to the age when they can legally crack open a beer. Scientists hope 21 years worth of hair, urine and environmental samples will reveal why the incidence of childhood disease is on the rise.