The state of the art in involving parents in the education of their handicapped children is reviewed, and model program approaches for increasing their participation are described. Background aspects considered include research findings that demonstrate the importance of parent involvement, and a review of legislative mandates on the topic. The…

The paper is a product of the 3-year project, "Functional Mainstreaming for Success," designed to develop a model for instructional mainstreaming of handicapped children (3-6 years old) in community settings. The paper reviews research on parent involvement in their children's mainstreaming along with variables that may promote or discourage…

The paper describes a federally funded research project which employs the "trainer of trainers" model with parents and teachers of handicapped children. The project has four major objectives: to train special educators in parent intervention techniques; to recruit and train parents as trainers of other parents; to establish a parent…

Home and family are important predictors of student attitude and achievement. However, the coercive assimilation policies of the past have left a legacy of barriers between schools and Native parents. Parent participation in schools goes beyond a supportive role and includes activities influencing decision making. Key issues for Native parents…

Developmental intervention programs for infants with handicaps and their parents generally focus on preventing eventual developmental delays; changing the infants' behavior, development, or relationships with caregivers; or changing the family system. For each intervention purpose, exemplary programs are described. Issues related to efficacy and…

The five chapters of this monograph review the literature and propose best practices for the successful transition of youth with disabilities from school to adult life in the community. The opening chapter, "Transition from School to Integrated Communities" (Janis Chadsey-Rusch and others), offers a review of the research on outcomes attained by…

This bulletin presents an overview of strategies that practitioners identify as methods of increasing young women's access to and success in school-to-work programs in nontraditional occupations. These strategies are discussed: outreach to female students; career information and advising; training for teachers and counselors; math and science…

The program goal of family literacy is to use early intervention to break the cycle of illiteracy perpetuated by parents' undereducation. This paper describes family literacy as a dropout prevention strategy that should be most heavily concentrated on the prenatal through 8-year-old child; a child ready for school is less likely to become a…

The project Sharing and Celebrating Exemplary and Promising Programs annually identifies outstanding career and technical education (CTE) programs in secondary and postsecondary settings. The programs were evaluated by using criteria based on programs' quality, educational significance, effectiveness, and replicability. Programs and teachers also…