In this article, M. Rebecca Kilburn and Jill S. Cannon report on First Born, a targeted universal home visiting program operating in over half of New Mexico counties. Created in a small town in response to a lack of support for pregnant women and new parents, First Born adapts features of other home visiting programs, responding to conditions…

Los Angeles County's experience, write Christina Altmayer and Barbara Andrade DuBransky, shows how a universal offer of assistance can establish a foundation on which public and private agencies can plan meaningful systemic reform--and spark incentives for greater, more effective investments in services directed to vulnerable families. The…

This report discusses the issues surrounding the disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEPs) in Texas, its updated findings, and the authors' recommendations on what the state should do to address DAEP problems. DAEPs were supposed to be for criminal offenses--drug-related activities, gun violations and assault--all violations that had…

It is well documented that undetected hearing loss can have a profound effect on a child's holistic development, including communicative, language and cognitive development. It is crucial therefore that deaf and hard of hearing infants are detected as early as possible so that appropriate intervention services and support can be initiated. To…

The successful nationwide transport and evaluation of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) programs in Norway is described. This description is provided within the context of the nation's movement towards the adoption of evidence-based practices (EBPs) during the past decade, the conduct of a multisite randomized clinical trial to examine the effectiveness…

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique), an approach developed by the Navy to identify time and cost resources and organize steps to streamline management, can smooth the special education referral process. PERT is a sophisticated scheduling method which, when adapted to the district, can expose bottlenecks, accurately estimate timelines,…

The Healthy Learner Asthma Initiative (HLAI) was designed as a comprehensive, school-community initiative to improve asthma management and produce healthy learners. National asthma guidelines were translated into components of asthma management in the school setting that defined performance expectations and lead to greater quality and consistency…

The application of curriculum-based assessment (CBA) procedures across five decision-making areas in special education is presented, including screening and referring, determining eligibility and classifying, planning programs, monitoring progress and modifying programs, and evaluating programs. CBA procedures are proposed as a feasible,…

This project assumes that a youngster's problems with the law rarely occur in isolation. More often, they are part of a constellation of problems--family conflict, school failure, unemployment, emotional difficulties and, in urban ghettos, inadequate housing and health care. The Neighborhood Youth Resources Center (NYRC) of Philadelphia provides a…

As mandated by Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law (Act 124), the document presents the Department of Public Welfare's 1979 report on child abuse. Following an introductory section is a brief section on the nature and scope of the problem. Section III outlines the past year's activities of the Department of Public Welfare's Office of…

This report describes the information and referral services project in a 3-county rural area that was developed in the county public library systems to meet the educational, cultural, and recreational needs of their communities. Sections of the report cover recognition of need, the area served, funding, the project itself (objectives, staff,…

This report evaluated the Harlem Tutoring Program which was designed to give individual home tutoring in reading and mathematics to elementary school students in New York City. The students were at least two years below grade level in reading and/or mathematics. Forty-three students between the ages of six and thirteen participated in the program.…

Progress toward effective service delivery to young children with handicaps and their families is impeded by lack of coordination at local levels and variations in eligibility requirements and population definitions. A centralized interagency identification/referral program was found to facilitate data utilization for decision-making, interagency…

The mission of the Florida Model Noninstructional Adult Literacy Centers is to identify, contact, and counsel adults (16 years of age or older) who lack basic or functional literacy skills and to refer them to appropriate private and public agencies. The centers were mandated by Florida state laws. Funding is provided by the state and through…

This paper discusses findings from an evaluation of the effectiveness of a pre-referral intervention program that was being implemented in seven school districts in the Southern Tier of New York. The initiative is known as 7 SHARE, which stands for 7 districts supporting and helping to affect regional education. The paper explores the methods used…