This issue of "Learning Times" discusses how LDA assessments for children and adults provide self-understanding, renewed hope, and improved achievement. It also includes: (1) Where do Your Candidates Stand on Controlling Toxic Chemicals?; (2) ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) Tips: Back-to-School (Ty Sassaman); (3) Healthy…

Extended schools have featured in a range of government policies, promoting integration between education, social services departments and health services, supported by children's trusts, to better meet the needs of children. Legislative changes, and developments such as the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the role of the lead professional,…

Project Forum at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) and the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) worked together to collect information regarding the need for a policy forum on the topic of administrative collaboration between school personnel who support homeless education under the McKinney-Vento…

The Youth Crisis Network (YCN) is an alliance of human service agencies and school systems located in northwestern Connecticut that share a mutual concern about suicidal youth and other youth in crisis. The YCN provides system networking, coordination, collaboration, and advocacy aimed at developing quality services for youth at risk and youth in…

The Training, Research, and Assistance Cooperative Extension Service (TRACES) was formed to provide a central source of technical and training resources, knowledge, and avenues of government funding for the benefit of businesses and small to mid-sized industries in southeastern Ohio. The 16 organizations involved in TRACES are educational…

Discusses the potential of community education programs for organizing and coordinating efforts to solve a wide variety of social problems, but cautions against the danger of overselling community education as a cure-all for society's ills. (JG)

The benefits of people and agencies working cooperatively clearly outweigh the costs. When an agency works by itself, it avoids risks, protects its resources, gets sole credit, and controls goals, methods, and efforts. When agencies cooperate, they can prevent duplication of efforts and services, economize and stretch resources, multiply the…

State and local efforts at interagency collaboration for handicapped children are examined in a report that first describes the mandates of P.L. 94-142, The Education For All Handicapped Children Act. Effective approaches to state-level interagency collaboration in Louisiana, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, Michigan, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,…

This report presents findings of a study of case management in the United States refugee program. "Case management" is defined as a coordinated activity designed to improve use of services and assistance programs by providing for formal linkages between multiple service providers and by designating a single individual or agency to be…

The report describes efforts in six state projects demonstrating that communication and cooperation in state and local service delivery systems can improve services for children, especially preschoolers, with handicaps. State responses to questions of changes attributable to the project, additional resources received to continue the project, and…

The paper describes a collaborative effort between Head Start and the Family, Infant and Preschool Program at Western Carolina Center (Morganton, North Carolina). The collaborative effort was designed to accomplish the goals of improving (1) services to handicapped children and their families, (2) the quality of parent involvement, and (3)…

A systematic investigation was conducted into the nature of interagency cooperative relationships to identify characteristics, factors, and components. Through a review of the literature, terms were defined, and incentives and benefits, facilitators, and barriers were identified. A naturalistic approach to inquiry was used to study the interagency…

The author describes differences in the number and quality of special education programs available in Latin America and suggests directions for improved delivery of special education services. The relatively high level of services provided in Costa Rica are contrasted with the minimal services available in Honduras. The training-based model in…

A 3-year demonstration program on interagency coordination among California employment and training agencies is reviewed in this six-chapter report. The history and rationale for the demonstration program is described in chapter 1. Chapters 2 through 4, written by the three project directors, describe the cooperative planning experience in…

This article describes the Humanities Project in Arlington, Virginia, an effort to expand the arts program in the county's school system. (PD)