This document reports on a 1998 conference of some 30 parents, educators, social workers, advocates, physicians, nurses, and social scientists who met to develop an action plan for improving the quality of services and cultural competence of providers of services to children with special health care needs from diverse cultural backgrounds. The…

Discusses the role legal services play in public health care delivery in disadvantaged communities in relation to such socio-medical problems as lead poisoning, child abuse, involuntary mental commitment, and housing code violations. Recommends a legal advocacy program to ensure adequate public health care. (Author/SF)

Discusses the health problems of diabetes and obesity which are prevalent among the American Indians of Wisconsin, and describes a training program of paraprofessional health educators designed to help alleviate these problems in the Indian community. (JR)

Demonstrates empirical relationships between the socioeconomic and cultural background of parents to the quality of nutrition, health, and education prospects of their preschool children. Suggests some guidelines for the improvement of the cultural conditions of these preschool children. (Author/RJ)

Urges that mandatory sickle cell screening laws be repealed, and that all screening programs be voluntary; bogus sickle cell organizations are a major crisis in black communities and must be eliminated; research and education in sickle cell disease is badly needed. (Author/JM)

Psychological and educational correlates of prematurity in children during four periods, the last at 7 years of age, were assessed as part of a prospective longitudinal study of 241 infants classified by birth weight, gestational age, and sex to determine later functioning in school. (Author/MC)

Described are two cases of males, first seen as 2-month-old infants and followed until 6 years of age, having linear nevus sebaceous syndrome, an abnormal condition manifested by skin lesions or fatty tumors in a particular formation and neurological impairment; also, 11 cases now reported are reviewed. (Author/MC)

A 22-month-old child with argininosuccinic aciduria presenting a 1 year with hypotonia, developmental delay, and seizures was reported. (Author)