On December 1, The New America Foundation and the Work-Life Policy Unit at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law hosted an event that highlighted state and local workplace flexibility practices. As a result of the Great Recession, there is a great deal of discussion around dinner tables and in Washington policy circles about policies to help families balance their work and family lives. Yet policy makers in Washington need not reinvent the wheel.  They can and should look to states and localities, America's laboratories of democracy, for ideas.

A distinguished panel of experts explored the benefits, challenges, and opportunities workplace flexibility offers to state and local governments as they strive to be employers-of-choice, and how such flexibility policy can inform debate on Capitol Hill.