The article describes the Utah Community-Based Transition Project, a federally funded project on transition planning for severely disabled youth. The planning process is aimed at facilitating coordination and expansion of community services for each graduate. Barriers facing states as they attempt to implement effective transition planning models…

The availability of trainees, service providers, private employers, and low effective costs attest to the success of the Massachusetts Supported Work model, a state-funded transitional employment program for mentally retarded persons, featuring graduated stress and performance requirements, intensive supervision, supportive services, easy…

Asserts that mental health planning has been limited by conceptual and logistical restraints, causing planning to be isolated from management and ineffectual in describing total system of services required by persons experiencing severe mental illness. Describes application of new ideas and information technologies which can yield enhanced…

Factors that have contributed to the sluggish evolution of an adequate planning methodology in environmental health programs at the local level are detailed. Areas of environmental health programs identified by the author as needing change include: management, the administrative model, program evaluation, and community participation. (BT)

This policy brief describes the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative, a policy designed to improve early childhood programs to ensure that all children arrive at school healthy and ready to learn. The SECCS is intended to help states build a bridge from birth to school and addresses how states will support children and…

Noting that problems of high rates of poverty, hunger, and food insecurity will persist unless steps are taken to reduce them, this report of the Food Research and Action Center details food and nutrition programs throughout the country. The report, designed for use by federal government, states, localities, advocates, religious organizations,…

Noting that problems of high rates of poverty, hunger, and food insecurity will persist unless steps are taken to reduce them, this report of the Food Research and Action Center details food and nutrition programs throughout the country. The report, designed for use by the federal government, states, localities, advocates, religious organizations,…

Since 1992, Vermont has been pioneering the development of community partnerships for improving social well-being, using indicators to track success. The working definition of a community, for outcome purposes, is the area served by a school supervisory union. Vermont is divided into 60 such supervisory unions (school districts), but…

This project report presents findings on the implementation and progress of the On the Right Track program during the second year of a four-year grant period. The project, which began in July of 1997, is designed to assess and document the magnitude, severity, and secondary conditions of disabilities for persons with disabilities in Texas, to…

Noting that many children in the United States are not well nourished despite the recent economic boom, the state of Maryland began the Maryland Meals for Achievement (MMFA) program, a demonstration project to see if providing a classroom breakfast free to all students can improve student nutrition and academic achievement. This interim report…

Using the same approach of family involvement and empowerment that has guided Head Start, Early Head Start offers its services to pregnant women and children, birth to age 3. One of the characteristics that differentiates Early Head Start from traditional Head Start is the mandate to offer full-day, full-year services to infants and toddlers. The…

After 10 years of development, the California Statewide Automated Child Support System, run by the Department of Social Services (DSS), has been scrapped and the state has begun developing a new child support collection computer. This report evaluates the performance of publicly-funded child support collection programs in California, examining the…

In the 1997-98 school year, 219 more children were served by the Reading Recovery (RR) program than were served during the previous year in Maine elementary schools. In Maine, 333 Reading Recovery teachers taught 2,171 students in 219 schools that offered Reading Recovery services across 102 local school administrative units. Of all the RR…

The Regional Resource Center (RRC) program mission is to strengthen the capacity of state systems of education and early intervention to improve results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families. It is one of the longest and most successful technical assistance projects of the Office of Special Education…

Looks at the problem of determining how much is invested in the U.S. for inservice programs for elementary and secondary school personnel. (Author/JM)