Youth who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits experience disparate educational, employment, and economic outcomes when compared to youth with disabilities who do not receive these entitlements. Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) was a 6-year national research demonstration project that…

In 2010, the California Early Learning Quality Improvement System (CAEL QIS) Advisory Committee recommended a structure for a voluntary quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) that could apply to the state's 11,000 licensed centers and 36,600 licensed family child care homes (FCCHs). The proposed design consisted of an unweighted block system…

The human brain develops rapidly in the first five years of life. High-quality early learning experiences can have a profound and lasting positive effect on young children during these years, setting the stage for success in kindergarten and beyond. This is especially true for young children with high needs who are from low-income families; who…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), most recently reauthorized in 2004, requires the inclusion of transition services in an individualized education program (IEP) for students with disabilities by the time they reach their 16th birthday, or earlier if determined appropriate by the IEP team. The IEP must include "(1)…

Interviews were conducted with 60 human-services-agency staff of the Child and Adolescent Service System Program in California and 67 parents of children with serious emotional disturbance regarding changes over the previous four years in their local children's service systems. Results indicate increased interagency collaboration and family…

The vision for parent involvement presented in this document supports the California State Board of Education's policy initiative on parent involvement. Adopted in January 1989, the initiative includes a policy that encourages school districts and schools to implement long-term, comprehensive programs that build on the strengths of families. The…

This document describes four states' approaches to increasing the involvement of families in schools. It discusses the strategies used by the states to: (1) enhance teachers' capacity to work with families; (2) encourage local school districts to develop family involvement programs; (3) encourage efforts that use family involvement as a component…

Proposed a conceptual framework for analyzing kinship care policy that uses five new permanency outcomes. Concluded that, in formulating their own policies, states must separate a caregiver's need for support (money and services) from a child's need for supervision (casework oversight). Concludes that states must proceed cautiously in altering…