This statutory report presents the activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) from October 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. The audits, investigations, and related work highlighted in this report are products of OIG's mission to identify and stop fraud, waste, and abuse; and promote…

The focus of this report is on mental health interventions delivered in K-12 neighborhood public schools. A vast array of commercially available programs, conceptual frameworks, and approaches to school-based mental health are not unanimously recommended, applied, or agreed upon. This poses a challenge to any comprehensive description or…

Federal and other studies have noted that exposure to violence and substance abuse make Native American youth susceptible to becoming involved with the justice system. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine federal and tribal efforts to address juvenile delinquency and the barriers tribes face in doing so. This report…

Taking risks is fairly common in adolescence. Risky behaviors can be associated with serious, long-term, and--in some cases--life-threatening consequences. This is especially the case when adolescents engage in more than one harmful behavior. The tendency for risky behaviors to co-occur has been well-studied. Yet prevention efforts traditionally…

In 2006, more than 6 million individuals were victimized by violent crimes. Although violence is below levels of the early 1990s, it remains high. The extent of violence and its impact highlight a critical need to develop and implement effective programs to reduce violence and victimization. Communities have initiated a wide range of such…

In fiscal year 2004, the Congress appropriated $6.8 billion to serve 919,000 poor children through 1,680 Head Start grantees nationwide. Recent reports of financial improprieties at a number of Head Start programs around the country raised questions about the effectiveness of the oversight provided by the Department of Health and Human Services'…

The overwhelming number of drug abuse prevention curricula available to public schools often impedes the rational selection of a program based on sound prevention education strategies. Guidelines for the selection of either predeveloped or for developing curricula are included in this workbook. Suggestions for the formation of a district selection…

Thirteen evaluations of programs to prevent child abuse and neglect are reviewed. The evaluations were characterized by careful attention to methodologic detail but lacked definitions of abuse or neglect. Important topics are omitted, such as the consequences and costs of medical neglect. (Author/JDD)

Selecting an effective prevention program for a comprehensive intervention can be a daunting task. Not only must the program address the specific needs and assets of the defined population, but also there should be a level of confidence about its ability to produce positive outcomes regardless of differing settings and differing populations. The…

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) is responsible for identifying and disseminating scientifically defensible knowledge about proven prevention models and principles to the substance abuse prevention field. This booklet is intended to assist prevention practitioners and…

Although hundreds of state and local organizations provide homelessness prevention assistance, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) could not determine the effectiveness of this assistance because few assistance providers have the resources available to collect the client follow-up data needed for evaluation. Homelessness prevention programs,…

This executive summary and six additional volumes comprise a report which presents the results of an evaluation of selected sexuality education programs, and provides materials to help others implement and evaluate more successful approaches. The report is designed for policymakers, educators, and evaluators. The executive summary contains an…

For more than a decade, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) has supported demonstration programs designed to identify interventions that work with populations at high risk to prevent substance abuse, delay its onset, and reduce substance abuse-related behaviors. Research now…

Although a necessary component of good program management and accountability, monitoring data do not usually provide answers to questions about whether, how, and why a specific program works. More in-depth, systematic inquiry is needed to do this. In this article, the authors focus on the evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-prevention…

This paper provides information on a substance abuse prevention effort called the Commonwealth Alliance for Drug Rehabilitation and Education (CADRE). After a discussion of the origins of CADRE, five steps taken by CADRE in its substance abuse prevention efforts are described, beginning with organizational establishment. The identification and…