For students to learn, they must be present and engaged in school. As a result, absenteeism is a concern for all schools. Poor attendance is associated with a host of negative short- and long-term outcomes, such as academic failure, disengagement, leaving school, and problem behaviors in school and community. Despite the challenges, evidence…

In the current context, barriers to student attendance and engagement have only increased. Schools and districts are encouraged to emphasize a supportive multi-tiered model for supporting student and staff engagement and attendance rather than punitive attendance or truancy policies. Leadership teams will need to be aware of and adjust policy and…

This case study report calls on school-community leaders to consider a made-in-Canada approach that raises literacy rates, prevents early school leaving and breathes life back into small towns. This step-by-step guidebook provides a practical toolkit and worksheets based on the concrete experiences of the "L'ÉcoRéussite" program, which…

Nationally, families of color--particularly African American and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN)--are over-represented in child welfare systems. These families also tend to have worse outcomes--such as children more likely to be removed from their homes, less likely to receive family preservation services, and in the case of African…

As individuals with multiple needs, substance abusing adolescents may seek the support and assistance of school counselors. The purpose of this article is to provide professional school counselors with information they can use to assist students with substance abuse issues. Specifically, this article examines (a) complexity of addressing substance…

The article describes a functional model for assessing family needs, specifying family goals, implementing family services, and evaluating effectiveness. The model draws on the "goodness-of-fit" concept to individualize family services to optimize the "fit" between family, child, and services provided. (Author/CL)

This approach to developing Individualized Family Support Plans for families of handicapped children is derived from a needs-based family systems model of assessment and intervention. The process and format are designed to be both flexible and functional in order to be continually responsive to the concerns and needs expressed by families. (JDD)

This paper questions the appropriateness of characterizing infants/young children who are handicapped or developmentally delayed as a group in jeopardy for abuse/neglect. It proposes the adoption of a family-focused view, which considers child, family, and environmental variables to determine risk and provide services to abusive and neglectful…

Intended for child welfare caseworkers and others working with children and families in crisis, this guide presents principles and techniques of crisis intervention with child abuse or neglect cases. After an overview of the manual, the first section considers a definition of crisis, the elements and phases of crises, and the psychological effects…

This report, in French- and English-language versions, synthesizes the policy laid down in the "Think and Act Family" guide, which Quebec's Conseil de la Famille made public in 1989. The report is intended for those who work with families in any function, such as a volunteer, a professional, or an administrator; it emphasizes that a…

Discharging the premature infant from the hospital calls for provision of support to families in such areas as capitalizing on family strengths and resources, empowering parents to make informed decisions, creating opportunities for parent-to-parent contact, focusing intervention goals on parent-identified needs, and providing services to families…

This manual was designed to provide school administrators, counselors, teachers, parent groups, and community members with a comprehensive school-based program for preventing alcohol problems. Detection and intervention before the onset of alcohol and drug problems is stressed. Modeled after employees' assistance programs used to identify and aid…

Traditional mental health approaches for serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders often fail to yield successful results. However, one method, Multisystemic Therapy (MST), which represents a departure from traditional treatment strategies, is described. MST was designed to provide communities with affordable and effective remedies for…

This manual is designed to help child care providers develop, implement, and evaluate a family development plan for at-risk families. The plan's five components are designed to: (1) identify family strengths; (2) identify family needs; (3) identify community resources; (4) develop and implement a family action plan; and (5) monitor family…

Informs helping professionals about the unique history and challenges of African families to guide them toward providing ethnically sensitive psychological services to African immigrant families in need. African families undergo great stress when faced with the alienation of being Black and African in a Euro-American culture. (SLD)