To help ameliorate the adverse effects of reduction in force (RIF), school districts facing declining enrollments should develop and adopt RIF policies before they are needed. School district officials should compile up-to-date enrollment projections and anticipated staff needs. The board of education should take care to inform the public and to convince the community that every attempt has been made by the board to be as fair as possible to affected individuals. Alternatives to job layoff (such as normal teacher attrition through retirement) should be exhausted first. To ensure that the brightest and most capable teachers are retained, the district should institute evaluation procedures that measure the relative effectiveness of the classroom teacher. A sample individualized teacher profile evaluation form, as well as statistical data gathered in a survey of Nebraska school districts' RIF policies, is included. (Author)