This brief examines changes in Washington's welfare-to-work, child care, and child welfare systems since 1997, presenting information from visits to Washington in 1999 and 2000. It profiles Washington's demographic, economic, and political conditions, reviewing its income support and social services systems and highlighting recent changes,…

A project was conducted to establish criteria by which adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) student enrollment, completion, early separation, and educational level/category attainment are reported throughout Pennsylvania. First, staff at 10 Project Educational Quality for Adult Literacy (EQuAL) sites were interviewed to identify recurring…

The Illinois Social and Emotional Health of Infants, Toddlers and Their Families Committee hosted the Early Childhood Mental Health Regional Summit 2000 in November of 2000. Building on the momentum of the U.S. Surgeon General's first report on mental health, which underscores the importance of early preventive mental health services, this summit…

In 2001, a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in a landmark school funding case, Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Inc. v. State of New York, declared the current New York state funding system unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to replace it with a new cost-based system that ensures that every school district has sufficient…

The Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) is responsible for receiving and administering federal and state funds for the more than 200 public libraries in Alabama. This document represents the annual report for the Alabama Public Library Service for fiscal year 1998. Information is reported under the following categories: Evaluation and Research;…

This final report of the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council's (ODDC) project on transportation presents an evaluation of the current transportation options available to Ohioans with disabilities and offers recommendations to improve these options. The first section provides an overview of the ODDC transportation project including its…

The Migrant Education Program (MEP) is a federal formula grant to states to provide migratory children aged 3-21 with services that address special needs resulting from continual educational disruption. Services can be instructional or supporting, such as social work and health. This report summarizes MEP participation information provided by…

This document reports results from Rhode Island state standardized assessments with a particular emphasis on literacy and numeracy. These results are presented in the context of individual schools and school districts by illustrating the characteristics of student populations and indicators of each school's climate (such as graduation and…

The upcoming reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant is prompting closer scrutiny of how families affected by the law are faring. This research brief examines teen employment in the context of welfare reform, drawing on data from the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) to describe employment…

This report contains a compendium of the opinions and concerns of a task force that researched current conditions that affect court-involved youth and identifies the most promising strategies for connecting court-involved youth to the labor market. The report includes three introductory chapters, four chapters related to task force discussion…

This booklet is designed to help parents and community members answer questions about assessment in the context of the Vermont Framework of Standards, the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1997, and other statewide initiatives. Assessment is changing in Vermont in response to new legislative mandates that call for standards-based assessment…

This report from a California task force provides recommendations to improve the quality of education for the approximately 11,000 students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing in California. It begins by discussing the educational barriers faced by students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, including the significance of regional programs and then…

The Florida Writing Assessment was implemented in grades 4, 8, and 10 in 1998 as required by the Florida legislature. The assessment is designed to measure students' proficiency in writing responses to assigned topics within a designated testing period. This report contains writing assessment results for the whole state, school districts, and…

The Florida Writing Assessment was implemented in grades 4, 8, and 10 in 1998 as required by the Florida legislature. The assessment is designed to measure students' proficiency in writing responses to assigned topics within a designated testing period. This report contains writing assessment results for the whole state, school districts, and…

This report states that 21 South Carolina school districts are currently implementing "character education" through the Federal Partnerships in Character Education Grant and that in this, the second year of the grant, 17 district applications were selected to receive subgrant awards from the 21 that applied in December 1997. The report…