The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between mothers' self-efficacy beliefs, their preschool children's home learning environments, and literacy skills. A sample of 112 mother-child dyads was recruited from Head Start centers in rural and urban communities. The measures included maternal self-efficacy and maternal perceptions of…

Program administrators and policy makers have placed a priority on expanding access to inclusive, center-based early care and education (ECE) for low-income children with special needs, a "doubly vulnerable" population characterized by academic and social-emotional achievement gaps at kindergarten entry. Yet, no research has documented…

This article connects Extension education and the Healthy Homes Initiative. Background on housing research and education is provided in the context of four issues (toxic materials, dangerous gases, hazards related to asthma, and other residential hazards). The federally funded Healthy Homes Partnership is described, and implications for…

Purpose: The Veterans Affairs or VA health care system is in the process of significantly expanding home health care (HOC) nationwide. We describe VA HHC use in 2003 for all VA HHC users from 2002; we examine whether VA utilization across a broad spectrum of services differed for a sample of VA HHC users and their propensity-score-matched…

This secondary analysis of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a randomized study of program participation of children and families in Early Head Start (that is, enrolled in programming prior to children's first birthdays) investigated sociodemographic (race and ethnicity, income level, and maternal education level) and program…

Context: Availability of Medicare-certified home health care (HHC) to rural elders can prevent more expensive institutional care. To date, utilization of HHC by rural elders has not been studied in detail. Purpose: To examine urban-rural differences in Medicare HHC utilization. Methods: The 2002 100% Medicare HHC claims and denominator files were…

Purpose: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has adopted two functional assessment systems that guide care planning: one for nursing home residents (the Resident Assessment Instrument [RAI]) and a compatible one for home care clients (RAI-HC). The purpose of this article is to describe the RAI-HC (often referred to as the Minimum Data Set-Home…

Notes that proposed federal long-term care reforms include eligibility criteria based on disability and cognitive impairment. Illustrates process of evaluating alternative eligibility criteria based on one possible targeting goal--serving those who need most care. Uses channeling data to construct measure of total care needs which is used to…

Results of a survey of the Handicapped Children's Early Education Program (HCEEP) indicated that projects within the program are diverse, offer services to meet individual children's and families' needs, and significantly involve families in the projects. More than one-third of these projects are administered by publicly supported educational…

ACCESS outreach identified more persons in need of service who met the Title XIX eligibility requirements. Home care emphasis provided the opportunity for increasing proportions to remain at home or return to their home from the hospital. (Author)

Presents three articles on housing policies for the elderly. Topics include the need for housing assistance and targeting aid to the disabled, the practicality of delivering support services to impaired elderly in current housing, and potential future directions of federal housing policy. (NRB)