Children grow and change more rapidly during the first eight years of life than any other time in their life span. Progression through the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental stages varies for each individual child. Children with atypical development experience a wide spectrum of variability in their development. Over the past…

This paper discusses the importance of interagency coordination in developing services for young children with handicaps and their families. It suggests strategies to improve the functioning of interagency coordinating councils by considering council membership, role definition, goal commitment, vision of the early intervention system, and use of…

Comments on an article by Dunst and Bruder. Twenty years ago, amendments to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 99-457, 1986) included language that required each state early intervention system to ensure that families had access to a case manager. The article by the authors and the study conducted as part of the Research and…

This information packet is designed to assist local interagency councils to implement Public Law 99-457's requirements concerning the provision of high quality services to preschool children with disabilities and their families. The model described provides a framework for continual coordination of agency programs as well as use of collaboration…

This paper describes and analyzes the internal consistency of the formal and informal legal frameworks governing certain aspects of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 Chapter 1 Program. A major focus is how these frameworks differ from those of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the program which…

This report presents an overview of the vocational education delivery systems assisted under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act and the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) in Virginia. For the Perkins Act, the report reviews the purpose, delivery system, and the implementation of vocational education (enrollments, quality of programs for…

In-depth case studies were conducted in six states, concerning interagency service coordination in implementing Part H of Public Law 99-457, which calls for a comprehensive and coordinated system of service delivery to developmentally delayed infants and toddlers and their families. Major findings included: (1) states were unable to answer…

There are a number of approaches to the provision of services in the early childhood education field, one of which involves collaboration between organizations and individuals. This paper explores the challenges of collaboration as a strategy to expand and enrich early childhood services. Philosophical challenges involve: (1) facing the problem of…

This guide reflects the theories developed by Project RESPECT during 3 years of planning, implementing, and evaluating eight transition programs in central Kentucky. Project RESPECT sought to address the problems of vocational training for mentally handicapped secondary students and the coordination of services between secondary education and…

This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with respect to process evaluation. The first chapter provides an overview of the JTPA organizational system. Discussed next is the relationship among…

This paper explores the barriers and possible solutions toward the implementation of the goal of a coordinated service system for young children with special needs and their families. The components of the vision of a comprehensive, interagency, multidisciplinary, coordinated service system are outlined, such as interdisciplinary cooperation, a…

The General Accounting Office reviewed the eligibility requirements and annual operating cycles of 38 programs providing employment training (ET) assistance to economically disadvantaged, older, younger, and dislocated workers at a cost of $8.1 billion. The review confirmed that conflicting eligibility requirements and differences in annual…

This report describes the Federal commitment to improve early intervention services that enhance development and minimize the later dependence of infants and toddlers with handicaps. It presents the results of a joint study, completed by the Department of Education (DoE) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), of early intervention…

Under the Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (Part C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), service coordination is defined as "the activities carried out by a service coordinator to assist and enable a child eligible under this part and the child's family to receive the rights,…

Children with disabilities and their families tend to interact with numerous human services agencies, but often no formal mechanisms exist to coordinate the agencies' services. The Concurrent Services Model was developed and pilot tested to meet this need. Strategies are offered to ensure that interactions among agencies become more efficient and…