Discusses the coordination and history of pre-school services in Britain since the 1970s. During this century, British preschool services have developed within separate areas of public policy. In the late 1970s, coordination became a central issue in public debate and government policy. (RJC)

Providing transition services to special needs learners in rural areas is a challenge for most school districts. It takes a coordinated effort on the part of the school staff and the community to meet the needs of these learners effectively. (JOW)

The inadequacy of available foster homes frequently paralyzes the foster-care system and hinders agencies in meeting their most basic mandates. This examination of foster-parent recruitment discusses escaping the inoperable system cycle, a broad-based holistic recruitment approach, retention efforts initiated and maintained comparable to…

Discusses the "Children Can't Wait" project, aimed at improving child welfare practice through improvements in attorney-social worker relationships. Describes seminars held to facilitate the project's goals. Identifies two ways to improve such relationships: multidisciplinary training and interagency collaboration. Attributes the success…

A total of 637 cases of unattended or questionable deaths of children 12 years or younger in Orange County (California) were reviewed by a multiagency team investigating possible cases of fatal child abuse. Analysis revealed that, when compared with unreviewed deaths, differences were found in age distribution, gender, ethnicity, and cause of…

Provides a comprehensive view of California's school-to-work transition programs as they have evolved and grown. Discusses next steps including interagency collaboration, joint planning, and professional training. (JOW)

Discusses legal and psychological issues involved in erroneous reporting of child abuse. Addresses whether the child protection field will have the vision and initiative to address the problem proactively from within or whether regulation and restriction of activity will be imposed from without. Explores ideas to make child abuse detection more…

Adolescents share the basic needs for food, shelter, physical safety, access to health care, and transportation to essential services. Although mindful of survival issues, educators and community agencies must cooperate to design and implement programs to meet early adolescents' developmental needs for positive social interaction, structure and…

This article describes a model of comprehensive and coordinated services in developmental disability medicine developed for children and adults in Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia. Key features of the model are a conjoint structure between government departments of health and community services, multiple medical specialty clinics, and…

The Michigan Vocational Education Personnel Development Project has three components: (1) participant involvement by basing activities on self-perceived needs; (2) collaboration among Michigan State University, the state department of education, and the Michigan Association of Area School Administrators; and (3) a systematic process for planning,…

A framework for evaluating public-private partnership projects in housing and community development organizes nine criteria in three categories: (1) need for partnership (problem magnitude, duplication); (2) process (planning, structure of partnership, management of operations, resource acquisition/management); and (3) outcomes (achievement of…

In 1986, Lilly Endowment launched Middle Grades Improvement Program as a major initiative to meet young adolescents' needs. This article describes development of the MGIP's "building public support" component. A survey of Indiana schools involved with this component showed that most districts developed new programs involving schools,…

Examines issues in the transition of young disabled children between programs: ignorance or misinformation about available resources; eligibility criteria; interagency information exchange; and advance planning. Provides a troubleshooting guide to help agencies evaluate transition procedures. Discusses interagency assessment models and tools to…

A discussion of program cosponsorship by two or more college student organizations looks at considerations in making agreements between groups, types of cosponsorship, their advantages and disadvantages, and formation of policy for the relationship. The policy established by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is used as an…

A study compiled the reports of 12 Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services demonstration projects to examine services for individuals with severe disabilities and patterns of emphasis. Results showed a consistently greater emphasis on the program level and a lesser emphasis on other levels, particularly at the community level. The…