The Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO) (section 9532 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001) requires that each State receiving funds under the ESEA establish and implement a statewide policy requiring that students attending a persistently dangerous public elementary or…

This book is the fourth of four volumes in a directory of more than 1,000 discretionary grants and contracts supported by the Research to Practice Division of the Office of Special Education Programs. This volume focuses on projects concerned with technical assistance, dissemination, parent information, and state improvement. The Technical…

This report is designed to provide consistent reliable indicators to allow analysis of educational trends in each state over time and to provide high quality data to provide comparable information from state to state. The accessible indicator formats are designed for increased uses by a variety of audiences. The report contains two-page profiles…

This volume describes federal student financial aid programs that are administered at the state level. Students must meet state eligibility requirements to receive assistance or benefits from these programs. The State grant programs are: (1) the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) Program; (2) the Special Leveraging Educational…

Because of an increasingly challenging fiscal climate, state lawmakers are faced with making tough financial decisions regarding their early childhood systems. This document describes and examines various funding sources used when making decisions about possible early childhood initiatives combined with policy choices that may be considered in…

Building on a pledge to support the state's job growth and successful transitions from welfare to work, the governor of Maryland issued an executive order in 1998 to establish the Maryland Child Care Business Partnership (MCCBP). This partnership, comprised of 23 members representing business, labor, state and local government, and the child care…

The topic of high-stakes testing (HST) is important because HST has direct and indirect effects on career-technical education (CTE) programs and timely because HST increasingly enters public discussion and has produced a large body of research and practice that generalizes to CTE. A review of HST has identified two persisting dilemmas: policy and…

This State Policy Update provides background on professional development (PD) in adult education. Section 2 describes survey methods used to document how states funded and designed their PD systems. Section 3 reviews data collected by the survey of state PD systems, highlighting PD activities in Kentucky, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee. It…

This document comprises the 12 issues for 2001 of the "Child Support Report," which explores problems related to child support enforcement, reports on federal and state government child support enforcement initiatives, and summarizes research related to child support. Featured regularly are editorials and information on events of…

A survey was conducted on the use of lay advocates to investigate state reaction to a recent court decision in Delaware on the use of lay advocates and the availability of representation for parents of students with disabilities in due process hearings. The Delaware Supreme Court found in 1999 that lay advocates representing parents at due process…

The Instructional Support Team (IST) Project of Pennsylvania identifies effective instructional approaches for students prior to referral for special education and helps support students with disabilities in regular classroom environments. Pennsylvania State Special Education Regulations and Standards require the IST process in schools that have…

This biannual report examines hunger in Ohio, providing current data about hunger programs and direct information from those who use these programs. An introductory section defines hunger and food insecurity and discusses how they are measured. The second section highlights national trends (by household composition, by household income, and…

This report reviews in detail the accomplishments of the third year of the 1999-2002 contract of the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN). It describes and quantifies the services--electronic collaboration, access to information services, and research, development, and assistance in using technology--provided by the entire three-year…

The youth development approach has gained traction over the past twenty-plus years, across a range of youth-serving fields, including public health. While it is important for Adolescent Health Coordinators, other practitioners and policy makers focused on youth to be familiar with youth development concepts, it is critically important that they…

This Technical Assistance Bulletin is to be utilized by districts and schools to design and implement their components of the Rhode Island High School Diploma System (Diploma System) as required by the RI Board of Regents' "Regulations Regarding High School and Ensuring Literacy for Students Entering High School" (Regents' Regulations)…