Like the earlier editions of Keeping Track, released in 1993 and 1995, Keeping Track Ill provides quality-of-life indicators and data on the economic and social well-being of New York City’s children. Unlike the previous releases which combined a review of the challenges facing children with the promise of improved circumstances, we release this third edition in a time of great uncertainty and grave concerns about the future. We are witnessing the biggest upheaval in public policy since the New Deal –devolution. Unlike the early social programs which built a safety net to protect children and others from economic displacement, devolution relinquishes the federal government’s role in protecting children from the casualties of a depressed economy. Devolution looks to states, cities and towns for the answers to the most vexing problems of our times, with a diminished federal role and vastly reduced federal funding.