Since its enactment in 1975, the federal special education law, now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), has made each state responsible for the compliance of all their local education agencies (LEAs) and other public agencies that provide special education for students with disabilities. The 2004 reauthorization of the…

Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's School Health Index (SHI), a guide for completing a coordinated school-based program needs assessment relative to healthy eating, physical activity, a tobacco-free lifestyle, and prevention of other health risk behaviors and conditions, was used to assess current programming at 3…

The school choice movement has become a major focus for traditional public school leaders. Facing declining student population and millions of dollars in lost funding, superintendents are now focused on the creation of effective market competition strategies. This represents not only a shift in thinking but adds another dimension to their…

A significant issue in correctional education is the lack of policy-relevant data comparable across states. This article describes an effort to address this issue: the Correctional Education Data Guidebook and website and the two research projects that led to their development. Analyzing results from two national surveys conducted by the U.S.…

Given the latest reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and evolving views on the identification of cognitive disabilities in special education, many high school graduates with learning disabilities and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder will have a Summary of Performance (SOP) in lieu of a recent…

The goal for this project was to recognize the volunteers at the beginning of the project and to focus on a program to increase the utilization of volunteers in essential service delivery to at-risk persons in the Big Sandy region of eastern Kentucky. A diverse committee made up of business, education, civil leaders, service providers, and…

The Delta Adult Literacy Council, Inc. (DALC) is a volunteer, nonprofit organization that seeks to recruit, assess, train, match, and support volunteer tutors and adult new readers. Its accomplishments, its history as a literacy organization, and its tutor training process are described. The process of student recruitment and support involves…

A senior member of the administration at Filton College (England) who was the internal nominee to the college's Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), recounts his experience of the college inspection process. The FEFC, an agency of the government, funds colleges and ensures that satisfactory arrangements exist to assess the quality of…

The Subcommittee met to examine recent new standards of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) that require training programs in obstetrics and gynecology to perform and teach abortion techniques, as well as the impact of these standards on program accreditation, and the programs' and students' consequent eligibility for…

The annual State Library Agencies (STLA) Survey is a cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The survey provides state and federal policy-makers, researchers, and other…

This report summarizes information from an annual survey on child care centers located in General Services Administration (GSA) space, reflecting status as of October 2, 1995. In 1995, 102 centers were operating, about a tenfold increase from 1985. Total enrollment in the centers is 6,496, and about 40% of the children are between 37 and 60 months…

Eleven rehabilitation/independent living counselors in 5 states and the Navajo Nation completed consumer data summary questionnaires on 121 American Indian clients receiving independent living services. The clients lived in Arizona, California, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Colorado, and Utah; 48 were served by the Navajo Nation vocational…

A participatory action research project examined vocational rehabilitation (VR) services provided in New York State to American Indians with behavioral health diagnoses, including dual diagnoses involving substance abuse. In 1991, the New York public VR system had 81 American Indians apply for VR services (only 2.8 percent of American Indians with…

In response to increased federal requirements for mandated services under child support reforms, several states have begun privatizing child support enforcement services that were traditionally delivered by public agencies. This report to the U.S. House of Representatives examines: (1) states' rationale for full-service privatization; (2) how the…

This paper describes the restructuring of the Virginia Department of Education, a process that began in 1990. Data were obtained from four sources: (1) Virginia Department of Education documents; (2) a prerestructuring study conducted by Price Waterhouse in 1989; (3) an evaluative report undertaken by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review…