Policy reform for at-risk youth is complicated by involvement of various service sectors. Issues related to coordinating systems of care in a dynamic policy environment are not new, but surprisingly little has been written to guide practitioners and policymakers in addressing them (Friedman in "Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders"…

Describes Family Impact Seminars, a series of seminars, briefing reports, and follow-up activities that provide up-to-date, solution-oriented research information to state policy makers. In support of the proposed "three communities" theory, the utilization of research in policymaking appears to depend upon several pragmatic practices and…

The findings summarized in this report are intended to shed light on what it means to cultivate demand for the arts, why it is necessary and important to cultivate this demand, and what state arts agencies (SAAs) and other arts and education policymakers can do to help. The research considered only the benchmark arts central to public policy:…

Describes the role of the guardian "ad litem"--a person invested with the power and duty to protect the rights and interests of a child (or incompetent person) involved in litigation. Areas of consensus arrived at during the first national policy conference on the use of guardians "ad litem" are listed. (Author/RH)

In February 2001, President George W. Bush announced his New Freedom Initiative to promote increased access to educational and employment opportunities for people with disabilities. In his charge to the Commission, the President directed its members to study the problems and gaps in the mental health system and make concrete recommendations for…

Examines the federal legislative and information policy leadership roles of the American Library Association (ALA). Highlights include the ALA legislative policy structure today, lobbying in the public interest, resources for successful lobbying, effective lobbying techniques, lobbies and organizational theory, ALA lobbying style, and the White…

Describes the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and reviews and assesses research on its impact. Recommends policy reforms and randomized experiments to evaluate the program and any changes made to it. Weaknesses in research to date make the real impacts of WIC unclear. (Contains 79 references.) (SLD)

A conference on Indochinese refugees, attended by representatives of Southeast Asian countries of first asylum and Western resettlement countries, has developed a Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) prescribing new measures to address continuing emigration from Vietnam and Laos. The CPA calls for the following measures: (1) controls on departures…

Looking back over the past 40 years, one can observe at least seven trends in public policy substance and in the study of public policy: (1) There is a trend toward higher goals for society in economic, social, political, and science policy. (2) Major changes in almost all fields of public policy have resulted in increased benefits for the less…

This article covers recent developments in the United States Refugee Resettlement Program and discusses the program's future. A formal refugee pollicy is a recent phenomenon, initiated with the passage of the 1980 Refguee Act. With the passage of the Act, greater attention has been paid to developing procedures for resettlement, and the…

Description of the accreditation process of the American Library Association addresses the purposes of accreditation, development of standards, eligibility, application for evaluation, visiting team, the visit, the team report, action on the report, appeal, reaccreditation, relations with other accrediting bodies, and advisory services. Issues of…

No work in social studies has been consistently referred to over the past 75 years as much as has "The Social Studies in Secondary Education," Bulletin No. 28 (1916) of the U.S. Bureau of Education. This volume, the "Report of the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the…

Twenty years ago, many leading political scientists advised their colleagues to focus only on the policy-making process and eschew the content of policy because, they argued, the scientific discipline did not have normative standards by which to judge policy contents, and because political scientists could not become experts in the many…

Provides an analysis of the development of contemporary terrorism research to be used as a model for the analysis of how knowledge in specialized communities evolves and influences decision making regarding policies and programs. The use of online bibliometrics and implications for information retrieval are discussed. (82 references) (Author/LRW)

Discusses, with reference to the covert policy goals of the American refugee program, the failure of U.S. Refugee Training Centers to facilitate Southeast Asian refugees' self-sufficiency after resettlement in the United States. Five characteristics of covert policy show how such covert policies have ensured their programs' ineffectiveness.…