By the time a child graduates from high school, they will have spent an estimated 15,600 hours at school. Because a significant amount of children's daily water intake comes from school water fountains, ensuring their access to safe drinking water at school is essential for their overall health. And one key health challenge that schools across the…

The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project conducted 15 randomized controlled trials of behavioral interventions across eight states, in the domains of work support, child support, and child care. BIAS used a systematic approach called "behavioral diagnosis and design" to develop the interventions and their…

This article describes some of the extraordinary accomplishments of the second cohort of states to participate in the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing Policy Project (IECMH-FPP). The purpose of the IECMHFPP is to support states' advancement of IECMH assessment, diagnosis, and treatment policies that will contribute to the healthy…

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) recognizes the current challenges faced by states and schools relative to the provision of high-quality intervener services for children who are deaf-blind. To respond to these challenges, OSEP asked the National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) to conduct an…

Multilevel programs--that is, programs with multiple levels of administration, funding, and implementation--present dynamic and challenging environments for the conduct and use of evaluation. The challenges include questions, priorities, audiences, and purposes that vary at each level. This chapter discusses the challenges as well as the…

This brief is intended to provide State Education Agency (SEA) and Local Education Agency (LEA) educators with a brief overview of key components of GraduateFIRST, a Georgia program targeting issues impacting school completion for students with disabilities. Georgia's GraduateFIRST program has redefined the state's approach to raising graduation…

Traces state financial support for elementary school counseling in the state of Utah. Due to extensive efforts on the part of school administrators, counselors, and parents, in 1973 Utah legislators allocated funds for improving elementary guidance programs. (HMV)

"Kids Count in Colorado!" is an annual publication of the Colorado Children's Campaign, which provides the best available state- and county-level data to measure and track the education, health and general well-being of the state's children. "Kids Count in Colorado!" informs policy debates and community discussions, serving as…

This document discusses a project undertaken as a way to accurately identify, develop prevention strategies for, and treat the underlying causes of some 20 "symptoms" experienced in the communities of Louisiana. The information presented provides a means for diminishing the associated human and financial costs of these symptoms. The…

"Moving the Needle on Poverty" is designed to provide Colorado leaders with an up-to-date picture of the diverse strategies that states across the nation are pursuing to lift individuals, families, and communities out of poverty. As the report indicates, many states are choosing to set specific and measurable goals for poverty reduction,…

Mississippi continues to lead the nation in excessive infant deaths, as shown by the 1984 infant mortality rate of 14.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. This report offers recommendations for actions that should be taken by various entities to rectify the problem. Recommendations are made in the areas of (1) public awareness of teen pregnancy…

The report presents results from a survey of four states (Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, and Nebraska) regarding mandates for the provision of special education services for children below 3 years of age. An overview of each state's mandate contains a brief description of the law and how it came to be; an explanaton of the way responsibilities are…

This publication provides background information on financing and programming for persons with developmental disabilities to assist state legislators in making public policy and funding decisions. The booklet is in a question-and-answer format and covers the following topics: (1) definition of developmental disabilities and factors of concern to…

Support for primary-age, at-risk children is examined in the context of renewed national interest in intervention programs for this population. This report describes alternative approaches to identifying characteristics of at-risk students and then presents a summary of states' definitions of "handicapped" or "disadvantaged."…

In 1987, the Governor of Alaska's Interim Commission on Children and Youth was given two tasks: (1) to develop a plan for a first-class child care system for working parents statewide that is workable, fair and sensibly integrates with the public schools; and (2) to produce a comprehensive plan to combat the problems facing Alaskans so they are…