Evaluators are often faced with many challenges in the design and implementation of a program's evaluation. Because programs are entangled in complex networks of structures and stakeholders, they can be challenging to understand, and they often pose issues of competing and conflicting goals. However, by using a systems mapping approach to…

The Saginaw Valley (Michigan) Special Needs Clinic serves visually impaired children and adults, multiply impaired low vision persons, and developmentally disabled persons with vision problems and is based on a client-centered concept involving health professionals, rehabilitation specialists, special educators, consumers, and social agency…

This guide is intended to provide basic information about the transition from school to work for handicapped students. The guide contains articles by educators and copies of newsletters related to handicapped students and school-to-work transitions, along with descriptions of various transition programs. The following are included in the book's…

The document describes a project to initiate effective services for hearing impaired developmentally disabled (HIDD) individuals, thereby contributing to their deinstitutionalization. An introductory chapter presents the background for establishment of the regional demonstration center at the University of Arizona. Chapter 2 addresses general and…

This Vocational Education Resource Package (VERP) was developed to provide materials useful in replicating an exemplary vocational education program for special student populations in the California Community Colleges. This VERP provides information on a basic food service training program for physically disabled, learning disabled, and…

Described is the National Advocacy Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association involving demonstration projects and model programs advocating the legal and human rights of the person with a developmental disability and his family. Goals and objectives of the project are listed as follows: improving the effectiveness of agencies and services…

The document contains the final report of the Special Programs for Individualized Needs (SPIN) program designed to develop a demonstration model for training day care personnel to identify developmentally delayed or emotionally disturbed children and to program for them within the regular day care setting. Major objectives were to develop…

Reacting to an article describing the Individualized Support Project Program (EC 618 445) for young children with autism and their families, this article notes that the program's primary purpose is family preservation through restoring family efficacy, solving child behavior problems, and establishing child communication. The program is seen as…

Responding to an article (EC 618 445) describing an individualized program for young children with severe disabilities, including autism, and their families, this article notes features of the program such as its individualized nature, its emphasis on building capacity in families and early intervention providers, and its integrative practices…

Three demonstration models of advocacy programs for developmentally disabled children and their families are reviewed by the United Cerebral Palsy Associations, Inc. In a general summary statement, advocacy is defined as responsibility for seeing that legal and human rights are met; the history, rationale, and future plans for the 5-year Child…

Success in competitive employment placement of a demonstration project serving 53 persons with developmental disabilities is associated with three factors: (1) training approach and methodology; (2) program management; and (3) trainee characteristics. (CL)

This final report describes Project Dakota, an early intervention demonstration project serving newborns to preschoolers with developmental delay or disability in Dakota County, Minnesota, from 1983 to 1986. The first chapter describes the project model (which focuses on increasing the effectiveness of parents in fostering the child's development)…

Presented is a plan for evaluating Project KIDS (Kindling Individual Development Systems), a model program for developmentally delayed and physically handicapped infants, toddlers, preschool children, and their families. The KIDS program is described as providing services in a home-based training program, center-based infant stimulation classes,…

A 1-year demonstration project involving 24 developmentally disabled students (9- to 20-years-old) with severe physical limitations was conducted to increase their educational and vocational possibilities by using cost-effective bio-engineering techniques to modify their physical environment and develop improved adaptive devices. Phase I of the…

The text presents a compilation of three recently reauthorized Federal laws providing services to persons with disabilities: the Education of the Handicapped Act (amended by the 98th Congress through Public Law 98-199); the Rehabiliation Act of 1973 (amended by the 98th Congress through Public Law 98-221), and the Developmental Disabilities Act of…