In view of current interest in and the legislative push for collaborative reforms in education, this paper reviews quantitative and qualitative evidence on the effectiveness of providing school-linked comprehensive services for elementary school students and their families. A preliminary taxonomy of features of collaborative school-linked services is presented. After a review of the literature, six urban sites were selected that represented three important dimensions of school-linked services: (1) single-site versus multisite programs; (2) publicly versus privately sponsored programs; and (3) direct service providers versus referral networks. All six programs had clearly defined goals that guided the collaboratives' actions. Each had identified its clientele carefully. In all six collaboratives, case management and the use of interdisciplinary teams to link students to services were used for service delivery. In all six sites, prevention was emphasized, and all six programs focused on multiple, rather than single, problems. Two-thirds of the programs mentioned stakeholder participation as a key to successful planning. A procedure that was essential to successful implementation was the sharing of client and family confidential material among the cooperating agencies and the school. Based on successful practices in these programs, 17 are made for program implementation or replication. (Contains 2 tables and 13 references.) (SLD)