Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA) requires that parents and students be involved in all aspects of the transition planning and decision-making process, and most teachers recognize that this involvement is vital to success. To fully participate effectively, students and their family members need to become…

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three…

This study investigates the relationship between the welfare state and poverty with multiple measures of the welfare state and poverty in an unbalanced panel of 18 Western nations from 1967 to 1997. While addressing the limitations of past research, the analysis shows that social security transfers and public health spending significantly reduce…

Analysis of Current Population Survey and Social Security data through 1985 did not support hypothesis that increase in median earnings of Black men after 1964 reflects labor force withdrawal of large numbers of low-income Black men who received government transfers. Of the total gain in relative earnings from 1964-85, only 14 percent can be…

While West Germany is an affluent society, it is also progressive in terms of its social weflare system. This country's constitution of May, 1949, known as The Basic Law, formed the foundation of the system that simultaneously guarantees human dignity and free personal development and promotes social justice and progress. A national economic…

The passage of the Contract with America Advancement Act terminated the Social Security Administrations Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income benefits for persons diagnosed with drug or alcohol addiction (also known as DA&A recipients), effective January 1, 1997. From an evaluation standpoint, the law created the opportunity…

Designed to assess the validity of the determinations among applications for Social Security disability benefits, a comprehensive evaluation of each applicant was made including medical, psychological, social, and vocational data on each subject and his family. A followup study was conducted for 705 applicants from Ohio two to six years after the…

The anti-poverty impact of government benefit programs has decreased since 1979 due to budget cuts during the Reagan Administration and the failure of states to keep benefits up with inflation. Since 1979, 30 percent of the increase in poverty has been among families with children, and half of the increase since 1981 is due to the declining…

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should take actions in four critical areas in order to serve the millions dependent on it for benefit payments and services. First, HHS should improve departmental management by investing in department-wide planning, its personnel, and its financial and information management. HHS can eliminate…

The 1972 annual report of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) on Federal activities related to the administration of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act presents statistics demonstrating a 12 percent increase in persons rehabilitated over fiscal year 1971. Special efforts were directed toward rehabilitating disabled public…