This 2004 Annual Report to Congress has two volumes. Volume 1 focuses on the children and students being served under IDEA and provides profiles of individual states' special education environment. It contains three sections. Section I contains the child/student-focused material, presented in a question-and-answer format. It contains three…

The Vermont Interagency Coordinating Council for Families, Infants and Toddlers (VICC) was established by federal law to advise the Vermont Department of Education and the Agency of Human Services on the statewide system of early intervention services for families of children with special needs, ages birth to three. In Vermont, the early…

Otitis media (OM) is an inflammation of the middle ear that is prevalent in childhood. OM can result in hearing loss, which interferes with learning. In Australia, indigenous children experience OM more often than other populations. Because teachers lack knowledge of OM and its effects on learning, affected children are often mislabeled as problem…

A team of clinician-researchers from several institutions collaborated to develop, implement, and evaluate an intervention designed to help children traumatized by violence. Reported findings include: (1) Students who participated in the program had significantly less post-traumatic stress symptoms, less depression, and less psychosocial…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of V.I.K. (Very Important Kids), a school-based, multi-component intervention designed to prevent teasing and unhealthy weight-control behaviors among fourth through sixth grade students. The effectiveness of the V.I.K. intervention was evaluated using a pre-post…

Science and technology are connected to each other and are mutually inspiring. The science-technology curriculum for junior-high school in Israel suggests that teachers integrate these subjects. In addition, this curriculum calls for infusing thinking competencies into the learning subjects and for implementing alternatives in assessment methods…

California counties receiving funds from Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) programs are required to report six outcome measures to the California State Legislature on an annual basis to measure the success of the program. These outcome measures are (1) successful completion of probation, (2) arrests, (3) probation violations, (4)…

This report, the second part of a longer study prepared by the Delinquency and School Environments Program, further describes interim results of the program's national evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) Alternative Education Program. The report consists of evaluations of 14 specific projects: (1)…

Information on the implementation of services for preschool children with special needs and their families is presented, based on current or previous surveys of 50 states, the District of Columbia, and eight outlying jurisdictions. The information is presented in tabular form and is organized into nine sections related to the Individuals with…

Begun in Israel in 1960, the HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) program is a family support, parent-focused, early childhood literacy program. This book compiles 17 evaluation studies of the program, from researchers and practitioners in 7 countries. The studies are organized around five themes: exploring theoretical…

Response-to-intervention (RtI) models utilize a proactive, prevention approach that requires the implementation of a sophisticated, multi-tiered problem-solving process in the regular education environment. Effective and sustainable implementation of these models will necessitate a mechanism to support professional development, treatment fidelity,…

Early Head Start services are typically offered through home- or center-based delivery models. A formative evaluation of an example of each service delivery model was conducted. The purpose was to examine the issues involved in the implementation of these two service delivery models relative to the content of services, intensity of services,…

Even Start is a family-centered national literacy program whose goal is to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by expanding the educational opportunities available to low-income families with limited educational experiences. To reach this goal, all Even Start projects provide services in each of three core areas: adult education, parenting…

This text summarizes the state of knowledge in the field of early childhood integration of children with disabilities. The 14 chapters are grouped in sections which focus on relationships, curriculum planning, organizational supports, and values/attitudes, respectively. Chapters have the following titles and authors: "Ecological Perspectives on…

Manual I describes the VIDEOSHARE Project, a demonstration project employing systematic, video-based technology in preschool special education classrooms to supplement traditional measures of academic and developmental progress. The VIDEOSHARE model focuses on using video to: (1) enhance family-school partnerships; (2) increase child study team…