This manual was designed primarily for use by people with disabilities. The hope is that it is also useful for families, as well as service coordinators and providers who directly assist families and individuals with disabilities. The focus of this manual is to provide easy-to-read information about available resources, and to provide immediate…

Education is a public health issue. Poor educational outcomes are correlated with many health and social ills. To improve the quality of education, it will be necessary to take advantage of the leverage points of policy, evidence, and implementation science. The idea of evidence informing policy may be non-controversial, but a closer examination…

Large numbers of adults and children have emotional difficulties that are severe enough to be classified as mental health problems. This places a current and future economic drain on society and prevents individuals from leading fulfilling lives and has led to a call for more therapists to work with those affected. However, there are insufficient…

Providing services for students with disabilities can be costly for school districts. Districts are required by law to fund the primary expenses of a special-education program; however, most spend far more than is legally mandatory. This situation puts those districts without sufficient resources to meet their obligations to educate special-needs…

Describes an adaptive-health program created by officials at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo for inmates who suffer physical or psychological disabilities. Discusses program goals, admission requirements, learning activities, techniques for motivating participants, evaluation methods, and staffing. (JOW)

Reviews the history of the Crippled Children's Service (CCS) program and reports results of a survey of state CCS programs conducted in 1981. Documents extensive variability among state programs in number of children served, conditions covered, services provided, and other indices. Emphasizes the considerable influence of historical and leadership…

Describes mental health services of the Senior Adult Growth and Enrichment (SAGE) Program, a North Carolina demonstration program. The SAGE staff used a differentiated model of day treatment that tracked clients according to disabilities and potentials. Services were tailored to meet unique needs brought on by diverse mental disorders, functional…

It is the position of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) that mental health is as critical to academic success as physical well-being. School nurses play a vital role in the school community by promoting positive mental health development in students through school/community-based programs and curricula. As members of…

The US juvenile justice system has gone through many changes since its inception in the late 1890s. Even with these changes and more than 100 years of empirical research, there is a paucity of literature published on juvenile delinquents with disabilities. The present article focuses on juvenile delinquents with disabilities, addressing…

This National Council on Disability (NCD) report defines or describes financial incentives affecting people with disabilities and presents research findings in key areas of people's lives, such as education and health care. It also describes selected state-level innovations affecting asset development and wealth accumulation. In addition, the…

This policy brief is the fifth of a series of analyses of Head Start Program Information Report (PIR) data by CLASP (Center for Law and Social Policy). It describes the picture for Head Start and Early Head Start children, families, and programs in the 2002-2003 program year. In this brief, "Head Start" refers to all Head Start programs, including…

No culture associates individual worth with a career like the United States. For juvenile offenders, in particular offenders with disabilities, this presents a significant challenge. In addition, the requirements that have been imposed on all education through the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; 2001) make programming that is consistent with the…

This guide to developing a physical fitness and wellness program for preschool children with disabilities stresses a holistic approach to wellness, the importance of play choices and food preferences, play experiences which develop spiritual values and ethics, emotional health, social development, and intellectual aspects of development. (DB)

Continuous quality improvement efforts are vital to high-quality early intervention services. This article describes an ongoing quality improvement project within an infant mental health-based Early Head Start program. Both strategies and challenges in implementing issues and lessons learned in the initial 2-year phase of the quality improvement…

Describes a program that addresses social, emotional, and behavior issues along with the developmental problems of infants and toddlers with developmental delays. Steps the early-intervention program in Montgomery County, Maryland, took to incorporate infant mental-health services are discussed and case studies are provided. (CR)