In recent years, the federal Department of Education (ED), and state and local educational agencies (SEAs and LEAs, respectively) have been increasing the emphasis on the need to engage parents and families of students in their children's education. Initiatives have sprung up across the fifty states and Washington, D.C. to help officials at the…

Much attention has been focused on the importance of providing physical and mental health services to students in educational environments in recent years. Millions of students receive school-based health services, and for many students, schools are their first and only option to receive health care. State policymakers have a lot to consider in…

More than one in four children in Tennessee live in poverty, and in Nashville the number creeps higher to one in three (Kids Count Data Center, 2012). Nearly three out of every four children in Metro Nashville Public Schools qualify for free and reduced lunch and are considered at risk (Tennessee Department of Education, 2013). This concentration…

There is growing unease about suspension and expulsion of children at the preschool level. Preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students (Gilliam, 2005). Boys--particularly African-American boys--comprise a disproportionate number of these cases, a fact that has caused concern among parents, policymakers, and advocates alike.…

As cities across the country and globe continue to generate new solutions to a wide variety of vexing problems, sharing information about what works and what doesn't has become more important than ever. Yet, outside of a few prominent policies, the vast majority of successful municipal experiments never reach a national audience or, for that…

This article summarizes state and community policy activities during the final six months of 2006 and provides updates of the progress to serve infants, toddlers, and their families. The following states are included in the report: (1) Rhode Island; (2) Virginia; (3) New York; (4) Pennsylvania; (5) Nebraska; (6) Ohio; (7) Washington; (8) Arizona;…

Nonprofit family-run organizations, such as Tennessee Voices for Children (TVC), are providing leadership in advocating for and delivering services to children and families in need. Utilizing a family-driven approach and a staff partially comprised of parent-professionals, TVC's Nashville Connection and Family Connection programs have strengthened…

The delivery model of the Birth-through-Three program incorporates interlocking community-based centers with a regional agency (Little Tennessee Valley Educational Cooperative) under the administrative guidance of an advisory council. The program goal is to provide highly qualified professional services to the targeted children/families within…

This book is about children who are living dangerously close to the edge, the edge of delinquency, mental illness, and poverty. Beginning with a discussion of the role of Joy Dryfoos in the development of comprehensive schools, this work is based on the Full Service Schools program which began in 1998 in three elementary inner-city schools in…

The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project was undertaken to identify effective strategies for helping low-income parents work more steadily and advance in the labor market. The 15 ERA demonstration projects that were operating in nine states (California, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, South Carolina; Tennessee, and…