In 2021, approximately five million young people in the United States were not in school or working. This group of young people transitioning to adulthood, roughly ages 16 to 24, are often referred to as "opportunity youth" and sometimes "disconnected youth." Young people from low-income families and from communities of…

Beginning on July 1, 2022, in the state of Connecticut, all new Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for special education began to be written in the new Connecticut Special Education Data System commonly known as CT-SEDS. This investigation sought to understand to what extent Connecticut's implementation of CT-SEDS had impacted parents'…

Background: Mobile crisis (MC) services is a pediatric behavioral health service that diverts those who need a lower level of care away from the Emergency Department (ED), enabling EDs to focus on providing acute behavioral health services. However, despite MC's efficacy, utilization could be enhanced. Implementation science provides an…

Asthma imposes tremendous burden on children, families, and society. Successful management requires coordinated care among children, families, health providers, and schools. Building Bridges for Asthma Care Program, a school-centered program to coordinate care for successful asthma management, was developed, implemented, and evaluated. The program…

There is a critical need to address educator health and well-being, yet only an average of 31% of schools offer workplace health and wellness promotion programs. As part of the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace -- a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health®…

The program evaluation examined the eighth-grade unit of the Second Step Program as implemented to special education students attending an approved private special education program (APSEP) in Connecticut. At the APSEP, special education students struggle to develop peer relationships, lack feelings of self-efficacy, and require a high level of…

The evolving educational landscape of our students' needs post-Covid has highlighted that student response to intervention must be of concern to all educators. Our student population has experienced an event that is like no other in our shared educational histories and our response to the aftermath of this event and how we assist students who are…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine teachers' perceptions of the impact of the RULER approach on both student academic achievement and emotional regulation in one suburban school district. This study explores teachers' perception of the impact of the RULER program in a large suburban district by examining the following factors:…

For the first time in U.S. history, a proposal for nationwide free community college passed through the House of Representatives in the fall of 2021. Although the provision was ultimately dropped from President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, its early presence suggests the political appeal of making college accessible to more Americans. These…

The book analyses and evaluates several key community college reform programs that emerged after the Recession of 2008 and as a result of major initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Because of the economic downturn in the early 21st Century, an already eroding financial base for public higher education…

The purpose of this research is to explore the perceptions and experiences of Connecticut's Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) Program's mentors and mentees in the state's ten opportunity districts. The research focuses on mentors who had worked with novice teachers in the last three years and novice teachers who were in their second year of…

There is growing interest in Family Navigation as an approach to improving access to care for children with autism spectrum disorder, yet little data exist on the implementation of Family Navigation. The aim of this study was to identify potential failures in implementing Family Navigation for children with autism spectrum disorder, using a…

This study focused on several important aspects of the implementation of Public Act 12-40 on remedial instruction within a four-year University setting. The implementation of the law has been minimally studied as it pertains to student impact. There are seventeen units of the Connecticut State University System so the decision to limit the scope…

The purpose of this study was to examine the current shortage of certified dual-language and bilingual teachers at dual-language programs. Currently, there exist problems surrounding the wider implementation of dual-language education programs as a result of the widespread teacher shortages, which has been shown in the literature to drastically…

As the COVID-19 pandemic shook the very foundation of our educational systems, Connecticut created adjustments through the 2020-2021 Teacher Evaluation Flexibility Plan. Using a qualitative phenomenological research design, three research questions were explored through the theoretical lenses of Knowles' (1978) adult learning theory and Weick's…