The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, per Section 162.1136 RSMo, conducts an annual study of the educational status of eligible blind/visually impaired students and reports the findings to the Missouri Legislature on December 1st each year. The information contained in this report pertains to the twelve data elements…

Starr Commonwealth has served troubled children and youth and their families for nearly a century. Starr's Montcalm Schools operate from campuses in Michigan and Ohio, enrolling students referred by families and educational consultants. The Montcalm Outdoor Challenge Program is a key part of Starr's network of nonprofit alternative education and…

Objectives: Increasing numbers of young children referred for a differential diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) necessitates better understanding of the early syndrome expression and the utility of the existing state-of-the art diagnostic methods in this population. Method: Out of 31 infants under the age of 2 years referred for a…

Children with antisocial, aggressive and disruptive behaviour problems are among the most frequent referrals to mental health services. These young people and their families present with a range of adverse contextual factors and can prove challenging to engage. We examined the characteristics of children with conduct problems, treatment…

This paper describes a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of child psychotherapy used by child psychotherapists in an inner city Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). The Hopes and Expectations for Treatment Approach (HETA) involves using the assessment for psychotherapy that normally precedes treatment to derive a baseline…

Results are reported for an exploratory study of eligibility decisions made for 21 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) with learning disabilities (LD) and no secondary disabilities who received special education support in reading. Eligibility determinations by an expert panel resulted in decisions that differed significantly from…

The development and psychometric properties of a brief screening tool for use with American Indian youth suspected of abusing substances is described. The Indian Health Service-Personal Experience Screening Questionnaire (IHS-PESQ) is a brief questionnaire that screens for drug abuse problem severity, response distortion tendencies, and…

In this evaluation we used Messick's construct validity as a conceptual framework for an empirical study assessing the validity of use, utility, and impact of office discipline referral (ODR) measures for data-based decision making about student behavior in schools. The Messick approach provided a rubric for testing the fit of our theory of use of…

Noting that schools need to be concerned with non-academic conditions that affect academic achievement and need to work with other services and programs to help students, the introductory chapter of this book offers reasons why existing programs are not working and suggests interagency collaboration as a solution. The second chapter offers, as a…

This report presents the analysis of a descriptive study of adolescents (n=590) at four Washington high schools who were assessed for substance abuse. Areas of concentration in evaluating referral processes are as follows: (1) general information regarding communication between school staff and Consultation Programs; process within the school to a…

This report uses a question and answer format to describe Project Innovative Parenting (P.I.P), a model project to provide assistance to parents with physical disabilities. The program offers such parents assistance in locating appropriate assistive technology, help in finding educational programs to teach and enhance parenting techniques,…

This resource guide lists organizations that provide information, referral, and/or direct services to adults with disabilities. The organizations are grouped by the main focus of their activities, including: employment issues (10 organizations), postsecondary education (3 organizations), independent living (6 organizations), recreation (7…

This digest discusses the process of referring language minority students to special education, focusing specifically on the problems of overreferral and underreferral. The prereferral process, the assessment and referral process, and the characteristics and behaviors of language minority students in need of special education are described in…

The text provides an overview of the content and implications of Bill 82, Ontario's special education act. Chapter 1 reviews the bill's contents which emphasize five principles: universal access, education at public expense, the appeals process, appropriate programing, and ongoing identification and continuous assessment and review. Chapter 2…

This pamphlet focuses on the concept of information and referral (I&R) as a system and describes seven highly effective I&R systems that bring together people in need with the human service agencies that can help them. It is noted that when thinking in terms of I&R systems, attention must be directed to the overall quality of the structures and…