This paper compares and analyzes features of the models represented in five efforts to provide coordinated services for children and families located in five cities in an effort to determine how best to study these programs in the future. The programs are: (1) the Minneapolis Youth Trust (Minnesota), a city-wide partnership of member organizations; (2) the Nation of Tomorrow, Chicago (Illinois), a college, community, and school partnership; (3) the School of the Future initiative, Houston (Texas), a project for school-based services; (4) the Family Service Center, Los Angeles (California), a center for school-based services; and (5) A Child's Place, Charlotte (North Carolina), which provides services for homeless children and families. The review of the different program models indicates that, regardless of program specifics, certain areas are essential to a structural analysis. The first is the goal structuring process, and the second is the area of institutional interests and reward systems. The third focus should be on institutional environmental control, and the fourth should be the examination of institutional conventions. Every experiment in children's services coordination should be examined as a point along a process continuum from little or no integration of services to a collaborative ideal by exploring these four institutional characteristics. (Contains 4 tables and 48 references.) (SLD)