The Department Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is a new cabinet level agency focused on the well-being of children. The vision is to ensure that "Washington state's children and youth grow up safe and healthy-thriving physically, emotionally and academically, nurtured by family and community." (House Bill 1661) DCYF serves as the…

Since the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), there has been a growing focus on improving the quality of programs for children with disabilities and measuring the results/outcomes of those programs. Across the country, IDEA Part C Programs for Infants and Toddlers and IDEA Part B, Section 619 Preschool…

This review traces the evolution from 1971 to the present of a national technical assistance (TA) program to support the creation, expansion, and improvement of services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs. From its beginning as a TA resource for demonstration projects, to linking outreach projects' expertise with state…

In 2005-2006, students with disabilities comprised 9 percent of the student population in the United States, and English language learners comprised about 10 percent. Many of these students spend a majority of their time in the general classroom setting in elementary and secondary schools. Most teachers are initially trained through teacher…

An investigation of the interrelationships and functioning of federal programs aiding the education of handicapped children and an evaluation of possible program improvement is presented. An introductory section discusses the purpose and scope of the study, the approach used, and information sources. Section 2 provides a general discussion of…

This paper reports the use of multi-attribute utility analysis for evaluating the goals and services of a state vocational rehabilitation agency. Uses included: (1) identification and clarification of agency goals and services; (2) engagement of stakeholders in the determination of measurable attributes of these goals; and (3) use of…

The General Accounting Office examined the effectiveness of the vocational rehabilitation program administered by the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) in helping disabled veterans obtain and maintain employment. Data were obtained from the following sources: analysis of the VA's nationwide database on all program applicants and their progress;…

The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Education Reform held a hearing on March 13, 2003, to hear testimony on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This booklet contains the minutes of the hearing. The hearing focused on how IDEA could be improved and on pre-referral intervention. The booklet is divided into the…

This paper reports on an ongoing 5-year study on practices and policies that improve postschool outcomes for students with disabilities in significantly restructured high schools. Four high schools with strong internal accountability measures are subjects of an intensive longitudinal study. The schools are in both urban and smaller communities in…

This review examined the evaluation components from 10 awarded state improvement grants designed to improve systems providing services for students with disabilities. The review examined the following aspects of the evaluation components: purposes, conceptual framework for the evaluation and systems reform, evaluation design and approaches,…

This final report describes Project I-TIP (Inservice Training for Infant Personnel), a 3-year project which developed and demonstrated a comprehensive model of inservice training for personnel serving children with handicaps (ages 0-5 years). Specifically the project provided training at 17 sites to over 900 individuals. Training protocols were…

Articles discuss evaluation of vocational agriculture: considerations for improving local program evaluation, self-rating a program, step-by-step program evaluation, advisory council assistance with evaluation, using an advisory committee in evaluation, accreditation evaluation, evaluation programs for handicapped students, evaluating agricultural…

Vocational education programs for handicapped students in Texas were evaluated in order to make recommendations for improvement. Three objectives were proposed: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of training for entry-level knowledge and skills provided to handicapped students enrolled in vocational education for the handicapped (VEH) programs; (2)…

Welfare reform must include reform of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which is more costly and faster growing than Aid to Families with Dependent Children. SSI allows growing numbers of disabled citizens to depend on the government in spite of new employment opportunities for the disabled and protective legislation. (SLD)

Measures of quality are now in widespread use across states as part of quality improvement initiatives. For example, many states are currently using global measures of quality that were first developed for research and practice purposes (such as the Environmental Rating Scales) in their Quality Rating Systems (QRSs). Although global quality…