To promote children's healthy development and give them opportunities to flourish, families need a wide range of support services. These services are often disconnected from each other. Early care and education (ECE) has a particularly fragmented system (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2018). Systems with myriad processes…

This article describes the efforts funded by the state of Colorado to address unacceptably high rates of expulsion from child care. Based on the results of a 2006 survey, the state of Colorado launched two complementary policy initiatives in 2009 to impact expulsion rates and to improve the use of evidence-based practices related to challenging…

A state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL requested information on state-run virtual education programs, specifically: (1) What are states doing to support districts through state-run virtual education (VE) programs? (2) What policies and procedures are necessary to support a successful…

Response to intervention (RTI) can be both a system for providing early interventions to struggling students and a special education diagnostic tool for evaluating and identifying students with specific learning disabilities. Contributing to the very limited literature on state-level approaches, this report describes how nine states define and…

Before the educational reforms of the early 1990s, Kentucky was in the bottom 10% of the states on most indicators of educational quality. Educators and policymakers in Kentucky approached educational reform in a thoughtful and systematic way and developed a state law mandating an education system that now serves as a national model. The education…

As states begin mandating induction-year programs as part of teacher preparation and certification, three issues have surfaced: the lack of consistency in definitions of mentoring among stakeholders, both between and within states; the need for the development of appropriate and effective models of mentoring; and the need for adequate funding to…

The Wisconsin Early Childhood Collaborating Partners (WECCP) is a grassroots effort providing leadership and guidance to state agencies and local organizations in facilitating the development and implementation of a plan to permit every child and family in Wisconsin access to a blended, comprehensive delivery system for high quality early…

This report describes a conference convened by eight child care advocates to create a plan for funding child care services for California's families. Part one describes the participants of the summit, their role, and the assumptions of the summit. Part two details the following three models that were proposed for financing child care: (1) create a…

This document was written to provide state and local child support offices with help in refining their case processing systems. The guide is divided into five chapters. Chapter I, Case Processing Overview, defines case processing and the case processing functions and provides a narrative description and graphic illustration of the processes…

Data were collected from more than 180 respondents through a lengthy interview protocol in a study of the current trend toward state funding of preschool programs intended primarily for economically disadvantaged children. The study also explored the implications of the findings for Head Start planning and policy development. An executive summary…

New York State's attempt to reduce welfare expenditures by collecting the child support payments of defaulting parents reinforces federal incentives containing penalties for localities operating ineffective collection programs. The state's program may serve as a model for the more effective implementation of legislation in other jurisdictions.…

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 paper offers a conceptual and technical framework for examining alternative approaches for funding special education. The paper discusses fundamental policy questions that guide the selection of an appropriate funding approach, presents criteria for evaluating funding formulas, and analyzes alternative approaches for their fiscal and…

Presented is a summary of the State Master Plan for Special Education in Oregon, designed to guide the activities necessary to achieve the goal of providing full educational opportunities for all handicapped children by September 1, 1980. The document is divided into two major sections: rationale, philosophy, and definitions for a state master…

This report investigated the financial expenditures of states for services for individuals with developmental disabilities and examined the factors that influenced the level of expenditure. Eight multiple-regression models are presented which explain 70 to 88 percent of the variation in states' total expenditures. In addition to the obvious…