Child welfare personnel repeatedly move a lesbian youth from one inappropriate placement to another, subjecting her to constant rejection and discrimination and depriving her of a permanent home or family; Detention facility staff place a gay youth in isolation "for his own protection," depriving him of education, recreation, companionship, or…

This training module on transitioning young children with disabilities into preschool programs is from the Mississippi Early Education Program for Children with Multiple Disabilities, a program designed to train Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part H service coordinators and service providers to use family centered strategies.…

This document is a compilation of legislation on issues critical to children and families enacted during 1997 by the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The laws pertaining to various issues are listed by state and briefly described. Issues are: (1) abuse and neglect (including background checks and screening, court procedures, financing,…

Family preservation programs have long been used to prevent foster placement of children by providing services to the entire family. This manual presents the model for the Boys Town Family Preservation Program and discusses the foundations of in-home treatment, including cultural and family differences, community resources and networking, family…

Indian Child Welfare Act became federal law in order to prevent abuses of power by state agencies, courts, and church groups which disrupt Indian families by placing American Indian children in foster care in non-American Indian households. This article studies the impact of the law and discusses a case study of three American Indian children. (FC)

Educational reform presents a number of challenges for elders, tribal educational leaders, American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) teachers and administrators, and families across the United States, including the pressing need to address parent or caregiver and community involvement in education. This study was conducted to (a) summarize major…

The authors describe various parenting behaviors, such as nurturance, discipline, teaching, and language use, and explain how researchers measure them. They note racial and ethnic variations in several behaviors. Most striking are differences in language use. Black and Hispanic mothers talk less with their young children than do white mothers and…

In too many communities, child care, health care, and other family supports and services are rarely coordinated and are too frequently determined by where families live, their level of income, and their community connections. Policy initiatives at the local, state, and federal level influence how communities are able to develop more…

Since the first toy libraries opened in the 1960s and 1970s to support families of children with special educational needs, they have expanded to serve broader communities. Toy libraries do more than lend toys: they can provide family support services and specialist support to families with children with special educational needs, benefit…

Small towns and rural places face numerous barriers to development. In response, the four Regional Rural Development Centers serve as regional and national networks to catalyze, initiate, facilitate, and evaluate research and educational programs that have potential to improve rural economic and social well-being. Such programs focus on developing…

This final report describes a pilot project, "Quality Service Provision for Infants and Young Children with Deaf-Blindness: A Mechanism for State Intervention Teams," developed and implemented at the University of Southern Mississippi. The project developed a model of an intervention team that provides intensive training and technical…

This final report describes the Case Method of Instruction (CMI) Project, a project to develop, field test, and disseminate training materials to facilitate the use of the Case Method of Instruction by inservice and preservice instructors in developmental disabilities. CMI project activities focused on developing a collection of case stories and…

Noting that although families have always been characterized by change, there is strong evidence that they are changing faster today than ever before. This book focuses on the changing roles of mothers, fathers, and children, emphasizing how fathers and mothers meet parental responsibilities and what children have a right to expect from their…

Intended for those interested in building a collaborative system of services for young children and their families, this guide describes models used in developing Oregon's coordinated Head Start and early child care programs. Chapter 1, "Introduction and Overview," sets out the goals of the Oregon Child Care/Head Start Collaboration Work…

Why, despite society's common understanding of the problems of children, have individuals failed to act decisively and powerfully to bring them security and hope? This report, which includes articles excerpted and adapted from presentations and discussions at a 1996 symposium, addresses this question. After an introduction by Rosalynn Carter, the…