Improving teacher quality in early education is a major part of ensuring young children's school readiness and closing the achievement gap. This is the book decision-makers and administrators need to begin developing coordinated, effective teacher quality systems--ones that not only get teachers ready for the classroom, but also promote continuous…

Although most Americans know that the U.S. population is aging, they are far less informed about the reality of providing elders with personal care, health care, and social support. Families--particularly women--have always been critical in providing elder care, but the entry of so many women into the paid labor force has made elder care…

The purpose of this study was to explore with key members of the Pilot Reintegration Education Program (PREP) Advisory Committee, the characteristics of their interagency process and how they perceived that these factors contributed to accomplishing the common objective of providing a smooth and effective transition for students between release…

As communities across California commit to developing systems of high school pathways that will engage students in school and prepare them to succeed in postsecondary opportunities and contribute to a vital regional economy, many are realizing the importance of providing "broad-based support" for this work. Students need a choice of…

This case study examined a joint assessment and allocation panel set up to inform local implementation of the UK Government's policy of integrating children's services, particularly the introduction of a Common Assessment Framework and the lead practitioner role. It brought together agencies serving one community. Professionals and parents agreed…

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) was assigned the task of compiling, analyzing, and summarizing the data for Indicator 2--Dropout--from the FFY 2010 Annual Performance Reports (APRs) and the revised State Performance Plans (SPPs), which were submitted to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)…

Background: Evidence-based programs (EBPs) targeting effective family skills are the most cost effective for improving adolescent behavioural health. Cochrane Reviews have found the "Strengthening Families Program" (SFP) to be the most effective substance abuse prevention intervention. Standardized cultural adaptation processes resulted…

This report presents information reported by New Jersey public schools on incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse offenses. It also includes information on harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) for the 2013-14 school year. The information is presented annually by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to the…

This article illustrates how effective a threat assessment program like the Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment (STAT) program can be in dealing with violent and threatening students. STAT is a a regional system that draws together resources from schools, mental health agencies, law enforcement bureaus, and other youth-serving organizations in…

This article reports on patterns of links from and to the Web sites of 100 U.S. academic and public libraries with regard to the originating and targeted URL domain categories. Libraries, grouped into small and large by their collection size, were found to have numbers of inlinks proportional to their size, but public libraries, and particularly…

The "Greenbook" demonstration initiative provided federal funding and other support to six communities to establish collaborations to plan and implement policy and practice changes in systems that serve families who are experiencing domestic violence and child maltreatment or child exposure to domestic violence. The demonstration sites established…

Medically fragile infants, those born prematurely or with other complex medical or genetic problems, are at risk of long-term health and developmental problems. When a medically fragile infant comes home to a family with significant social problems such as domestic violence, mental illness, or substance abuse, the infant is at double jeopardy--at…

A growing number of families are sandwiched between the long-term care needs of parents and grandparents, on the one hand, and the healthcare, income, housing, and other needs of children with disabilities on the other. As the parents of a child with disabilities age, they need to develop a plan to meet the caregiving needs of their child when…

In response to the heightened societal concern over autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Congress passed the Combating Autism Act (CAA) of 2006 (P.L. 109-416). Through this Act, Congress intended to rapidly increase, accelerate the pace and improve coordination of scientific discovery in ASD research. The CAA requires the Interagency Autism…

Launched in the 1990s by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a five-site demonstration project, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) has steadily swept the country in recent years and is on track to become the standard of practice for how local justice systems nationwide handle the critical front end of the juvenile court process.…