The flexibility federal block grants provide recipients poses challenges for evaluation. These challenges include aggregating data on wide-ranging activities grant recipients implement and the outcomes they achieve. In 2014, we began designing an evaluation to address the challenges of assessing outcomes and to improve outcome accountability for…

The increasing rate of food allergies in children, combined with the role of food as an integral part of the school day has led to the emergence of anaphylaxis as a daily threat to students, regardless of prior allergy diagnosis. Stock epinephrine--non-patient specific epinephrine auto-injectors that may be used during emergencies--is a means for…

This program evaluation assessed the implementation of Project PEAS toward improving health care and related outcomes for students and their families at Fonwood, Laurenzo, and Mistral early childhood centers. Among the 1,170 students enrolled at targeted schools during the 2018-2019 academic year, 356 were provided health-related services, such as…

In the United States, health insurance coverage for autism spectrum disorder treatments has been historically limited. In response, as of 2015, 40 states and Washington, DC, have passed state autism insurance mandates requiring many health plans in the private insurance market to cover autism diagnostic and treatment services. This study examined…

A large, Midwestern county implemented a four-tiered public health model of children's mental health with an interconnected systems approach involving education, health care, juvenile justice and community mental health sectors. The community sought to promote protective factors in the lives of all youth, while improving the capacity,…

Community-level policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change strategies may offer an economical and sustainable approach to chronic disease prevention. The rapidly growing number of untested but promising PSE strategies currently underway offers an exciting opportunity to establish practice-based evidence for this approach. This article…

Because newborn hearing screening has become the standard of care in the United States, every state has established an early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) program responsible for establishing, maintaining, and improving the system of services needed to serve children with hearing loss and their families. While significant developments…

This report addresses the following four questions by reporting on the impacts of Head Start on children and families during the children's preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade years: (1) What difference does Head Start make to key outcomes of development and learning (and in particular, the multiple domains of school readiness) for low-income…

School-based and -linked health centers (SBHC and SLHC) are becoming innovative centers for providing health care to adolescents. The Center for Population Options (CPO) has designed a site-monitoring team model for SBHCs and SLHCs. The first phase is preparing for the site visit. This begins with contracting a team leader, assembling the team and…

The Senior Home Care Program (SHCP) attempted to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating and coordinating medical, home health services, and home care for members of a senior health plan. It was designed to show how a state-supported home care system could work with health maintenance organizations to improve community-based long-term care. A…

Four interrelated parts make up a school health program: an administrative component; a health services component that determines the total health status of the student and seeks remedial action for health problems; a healthful school living component that designates the plans, procedures, and activities that provide a school environment conducive…

Tested the Homemakers Home Health Aide Program Evaluation Questionnaire, a management tool for evaluating homemaker/client relationship, job performance and achievement of objectives, for a sample of 40 clients. The questionnaire, which is appended, is valid, reliable, and relatively inexpensive. (Author/JAC)

This publication offers a checklist for identifying strengths and weaknesses of school health programs. The instrument can be used by school personnel, community members, or by an outside team of experts. Criteria are expressed in terms of desirable practices, with provisions for judging, on a five-point scale, the extent to which program…

Both evaluation and planning typically begin with an attempt to define the conceptual territory of interest; this paper presents an approach to such conceptualization. The term, structured conceptualization, is used to refer to any definable set of procedures which can help a user develop a useful conceptual representation. Structured…

In January 1995, the nursing program at St. Petersburg Junior College (SPJC), in Florida, undertook a project to enable nursing students to move from hospital- to community-based practice. Specifically, the project sought to establish partnerships with the health care agencies and facilities in the community, develop a community-based health care…