This report provides background information on Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) revenue-based payments and a brief overview of a related payment program--the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. Because the revenue-based, Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (SRS), and PILT payments interact…

Mental health challenges for youth continue to be a growing concern. Youth-serving organizations have the potential to play a significant role in recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges in youth. The Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training course is widely used to equip adults working with youth with skills to support…

The Families Forward Demonstration (FFD) examined new strategies to increase the earnings of parents who owe child support but are unable to fully meet their obligations due to low earnings. It also focused on "responsive" child support services that helped parents understand their support obligations, and even suspended certain…

To meet current federal regulations and provide the opportunity for individuals to receive services in the least restrictive environments, states are focusing on providing day habilitation services in inclusive community environments, rather than traditional congregate facility-based programs. The two main services of day habilitation focus on…

Rural America is rapidly becoming more diverse, yet rural communities remain different from their urban and suburban counterparts. Despite several decades of economic hardship in rural areas, rural schools are under researched by scholars and under prioritized by policymakers. Therefore, this study was designed to better understand how school and…

What would it take for all students completing high school in Washington to be ready for their next step? What common knowledge and skills should students have to be successful in an array of pathways leading to countless careers? For the past two years, the State Board of Education (SBE), with the support of a National Association of State Boards…

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions and Jobs for the Future, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, launched the Youth/Industry Partnership Initiative (YIPI), to learn how employer-led industry partnerships could addressing the crisis of youth unemployment--7 percent of American youth (age 16-24) are neither in school or…

SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) is an important component of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) that supports a variety of education, training, employment, and related services for SNAP recipients. It gives recipients opportunities to gain skills, training, or experience that will…

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is dedicated to improving results for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities ages birth through 21 by providing leadership and financial support to assist institutions of higher education (IHEs), states, and local districts. During a 5-year period, OSEP…

The battle over public access to federally financed research is heating up again. The basic question is this: When taxpayers help pay for scholarly research, should those taxpayers get to see the results in the form of free access to the resulting journal articles? Actions in Washington this month highlight how far from settled the question is,…

"Steps to Health King County" ("Steps KC"; Seattle, Washington) was one of 40 community-level initiatives funded in 2003 as part of the "Steps to a HealthierUS" initiative. "Steps KC" goals included reducing the impact of chronic diseases through a comprehensive, coordinated approach and reducing health…

This guide aims to help states look beyond the major sources of child care and early education funding and consider alternative federal financing sources to bring comprehensive services into early childhood settings. Why? Because the sources of child care funding historically available to states have limited supply and allowable uses, and…

This Brief summarizes a study that examined the origins of state performance funding in six states: Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, South Carolina, Washington, and Illinois. In order to capture a wide range of possible forces at work in the origins of performance funding, the authors selected states that differed in a variety of ways, including when…

Extension is experiencing a trend toward closer alignment of its programs serving families and youth, notably Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H Youth Development. Projects are more multidisciplinary and comprehensive than in the past, and, in many states, FCS and 4-HYD are also becoming more administratively integrated. Several reasons for this…

The author reports on state and independent reviews that cite shortcomings in four urban systems. According to the reviews of those school systems over the past two years, four urban districts--in Boston, Massachusetts; Buffalo, New York; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington--did not provide special help to learn English to all students…