OUR RESEARCH

Nevada’s Native American Fee Waiver Program, implemented in 2021 across most NSHE institutions, has expanded access to higher education by reducing financial barriers for Native American students. While participation and reported benefits have grown, administrative complexity, uneven outreach, data gaps, and unmet non-tuition costs continue to limit the program’s full impact.

Nevada’s literacy challenges extend beyond statewide proficiency rates; many third-grade classrooms include students reading across five or more grade levels, creating significant challenges for individualized instruction. This report examines literacy proficiency trends, contributing factors, and Nevada’s evolving literacy policies while exploring how competency-based education and personalized learning approaches may help educators better support students at varying reading levels.

This one-page infographic visualizes and highlights key facts from our September 2025 report on food insecurity in Nevada.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly and beginning to influence Nevada’s classrooms through tools that assist teachers, personalize student learning, and improve school operations. This Guinn Center study examines how policymakers and education leaders can address both the opportunities and challenges of AI to ensure students are prepared for a changing workforce.

The Guinn Center’s latest report reviews Nevada’s 2025–2027 Legislatively Approved Budget, which funds essential services like health care, education, and public safety. It provides an overview of major spending areas and impacts of H.R. 1.

This brief offers a high-level overview of the food security policy landscape in Nevada, examining the rates of food insecurity, the existing programs in Nevada, and the policy framework.

This brief examines the privacy laws governing school-based behavioral health services, specifically the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act, commonly referred to as FERPA, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to as HIPAA.

This brief provides a high-level overview of Medicaid’s governance and financing at the national and state levels, focusing on how Nevada administers the program and how recent federal changes may shape eligibility, administration, and policy decisions.

This study examines the growth of EVs and HEVs in Washoe County from June 2020 to June 2024 and its impact on fuel tax collections for road construction and maintenance. Policy interventions in other states are examined, including additional registration fees, Vehicle Miles Traveled taxes, and Electric Charging Station taxes to address the impact on fuel tax revenues. The study concludes that imposing additional registration fees on EVs and HEVs may be the best option for Washoe County.

This brief serves as a navigational tool for understanding Nevada’s Senate Bill 460 (2025), a wide-ranging education law focused on accountability, literacy, and system reform. It breaks down the bill’s major provisions by topic, section, and effective date while highlighting affected and responsible entities for each policy change. Designed for quick reference, the brief helps educators, policymakers, and researchers efficiently locate and interpret key components of the legislation.

This final brief in our chronic absenteeism series spotlights innovative strategies that Nevada school districts and public charter schools are using to reduce chronic absenteeism. Grounded in the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework, it showcases promising local practices that re-engage students and support consistent attendance.

This policy brief explores how mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, bullying, and trauma, contribute to chronic absenteeism and identifies strategies to support students through school-based mental health systems. With Nevada ranking last in youth mental health access, addressing these challenges is critical to improving student attendance and academic outcomes.

This policy brief explores chronic absenteeism, with a focus on national and state-level trends, contributing factors, and strategies for reduction. It is the first in a three-part series examining the issue of chronic absenteeism.

This explainer endeavors to clarify the status of cannabis law, tax policy, and related revenue matters in Nevada.

This report is a continued collaboration between the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Lee Business School’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) and the Guinn Center. It builds on our previous study of the labor force participation rate (LFPR) to examine whether the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still affecting Nevada’s LFPR.

This white paper, published in connection with our 2024 research on early childhood systems in Nevada, examines the current status of Pre-K education and answers vital questions about universal programming.

This policy brief, based on our 2024 study, “Examining School Funding in Nevada: Equity in Education and Policy Considerations,” unpacks the nuances and realities of K-12 funding in the Silver State.

A research brief based on "From Crowded to Coordinated: Examining the Governance of Nevada's Early Childhood System," published October 2024.

This policy brief offers a snapshot of current and projected health workforce supply and demand needs and provides parameters for the study of possible policy remedies to increase the supply and address the geographic imbalance of the state’s health workforce.

This policy brief provides a comprehensive overview of the role federal funding plays in supporting Nevada’s state programs, outlines the types of federal funding Nevada receives, and describes how these funds are distributed across state agencies.