The purpose of this Children's Defense Fund (CDF) briefing book for child advocates, community activists, professionals, policymakers, parents, citizens, members of the media, and political leaders is to dramatically increase public consciousness about children's needs and solutions to those needs. The book uses the election year process to build…

Summaries are presented of individual state practices for collecting selected universe terms and data elements for the Education Data Improvement Project of the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Project is a joint effort of the states and Federal government to improve the quality and timeliness of data collected, analyzed, and reported…

The report and an accompanying executive summary of a statewide needs assessment on young handicapped children in Iowa examine services available, effectiveness of services, and needed changes. The introduction provides an overview of State Planning Grants, Iowa's history of early childhood special education, and this project's approach to…

This guide is designed to assist school librarians in becoming part of the planned statewide school library network in Hawaii. Approaches to the guide for librarians at all stages of planning are suggested, and an overview of the benefits, goals, steps, and historical development are provided together with a model of the networking plan. The steps…

This report describes recent gains in support for the movement to allow parents to choose the public school which their children attend. Reasons for the movement's growth and methods of implementing school choice plans are presented. The paper then focuses specifically on interdistrict school choice plans, identifying major aspects which are…

Effects of the first year of New York State's salary enhancement program for classroom and supervisory staff in licensed, not-for-profit child care centers, including Head Start, were evaluated. The evaluation was designed to help New York policymakers assess the effectiveness of this approach to improving child care staff recruitment and…

This instructional resource guide has been developed to assist Kentucky teachers in compensatory education programs funded under Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act. Over 100 suggested classroom activities, games, and bulletin boards are grouped under the following topics: (1) effective instruction for Chapter 1 students;…

This legislators' guide outlines state maternal health programs and strategies and offers states options for improving their maternal and child health services. The introductory chapter 1 is followed by an overview of maternal and child health status in the United States in chapter 2. Costs associated with the failure to provide adequate prenatal…

Many farmworkers are faced with serious problems such as toxic drinking water, malnutrition, low levels of education and income, and poor health care. Based on statistical review, social surveys, and case studies, this document describes older farmworkers' living conditions, focusing on their housing problems. For many, housing is a luxury item…

In the first in a series of regional hearings, the House Education and Labor Committee met in San Francisco to receive testimony concerning child care issues bearing on H.R. 3, the Early Childhood Education and Development Act. The legislation, which builds on programs of proven effectiveness, such as Head Start and early childhood education,…

Twelve data tables are presented covering federal grants, salaries and wages, direct payments to individuals, procurement contracts, and other direct federal expenditures, by state and by territory, for fiscal year 1989 (FY89), with some summary trend data. The tables provide the following data for FY89, respectively: (1) summary distribution of…

This fact book presents findings of the Children's Defense Fund's fourth annual survey on child care funding and priorities, and consists of five sections which provide an overview of states' child care activities, information about specific policies, and contacts in each state who can provide more detailed information. Section 1 presents recent…

This paper reports the results of analyzing financial, program, and client data collected from Minnesota's Developmental Achievement Centers (DACs) for 1986. A total of 4,883 adults were receiving services, with the largest group being severely mentally retarded. Persons with additional disabilities numbered 1,263, with severe behavior problems,…

This paper presents data from a 1989 survey of 48 state higher education executive officers regarding the use of fiscal enhancement programs as a strategy to influence higher education performance. The paper reports on the purposes and objectives most often funded through specific incentives, and on the key advantages and disadvantages of this…

The 10 articles in this theme issue provide 1989 prespectives on several library service developments in New York State and on the work that preceded them: (1) "Library Systems in New York State: Opportunity for Greater Service" (Statement by the Board of Regents, September 1989); (2) "King Research Report Evaluates New York's…