The Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) is the State Lead Agency for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C program for Washington State. Within DCFY, the Part C programmatic home is the Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) program. During Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2017, the ESIT program held contracts…

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…

Describes the design and implementation of a mediation program for the resolution of child protection disputes in Nova Scotia. Focuses on the legal mandate for mediation, training programs for mediators, orientation programs for child protective workers, and the actual mediation process. (MDM)

This report discusses procedures for nationwide negotiation of teacher salaries in six European countries and considers possible applications of these procedures to negotiations on a Statewide level in the United States. Distinct negotiation patterns in the European countries fall into two categories: (1) with slight variations, that common to…

This presentation outlines the complaint investigation process developed by the Maine Department of Education to ensure a timely response to complaints concerning special education services, and to provide third party mediation and arbitration as needed. Complaint procedures required under federal regulations are outlined. Strengths and weaknesses…

This report describes the development, organization, and activities of the Massachusetts Children's Hearings Project, an experimental program set up by the Massachusetts Advocacy Center in August, 1980 to help parents and children solve family problems through mediation. Based on the Scottish Children's Hearings System, the Massachusetts program…

This brochure describes a cooperative way to help resolve differences of opinion between New York parents and schools regarding special education programs and services. It describes special education mediation as a process in which the parent or guardian of a student with a disability and a representative of the school district meet with a…

Defines conflict resolution and peer mediation and reviews the theoretical base for conflict resolution research. Examines the goals and activities of several peer mediation programs, and discusses the benefits of such programs. Notes that conflict resolution and peer mediation offer feasible opportunities for an entire school community to create…

In 1991 Pennsylvania began implementation of a direct writing assessment at the sixth-grade and ninth-grade levels. A total of 18,758 sixth graders and 16,575 ninth graders wrote a response to 1 of 9 prompts reflecting 3 modes of writing. A six-point holistic scale was used to score the papers, with two readers scoring each paper. A third reader,…