The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, signaled a major shift in the roles of states and districts in supporting school improvement. Under ESSA, state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) have more responsibility and flexibility in developing and implementing plans, informed by local context, to support the…

High-quality out-of-school-time (OST) programs have a positive effect on youth development, but many cities have found it difficult to address the challenges of expanding and improving the quality of programs offered to underserved and high-need students. In response, The Wallace Foundation sponsored an initiative to help five cities increase…

Best preschool programs provide both developmentally appropriate curricula and school-based family support services. This article describes four exemplary, innovative, and low-cost early education programs in Kentucky, Colorado, Iowa, and Florida that integrate family support, day care, and health and social services. These districts had visionary…

More cooperation between Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) programs and vocational education programs is both desirable and feasible, concludes this year-long study in Kentucky. The study was conducted (1) to determine the feasibility of developing a plan for coordinating vocational education resources and supporting services to…

Schools can no longer act alone as surrogate parents. First appearing in Florida's innovative legislation, the full-service school concept is catching on in several other states. Full-service schools integrate education, medical, social, and/or human services to meet families' needs in easily accessible locations. Primary health centers are key…

The humanities professors of Northern Kentucky University conducted a series of four forums to bring together representative senior citizens, community leaders, political leaders, and educators of the Northern Kentucky area for a series of discussions focusing on the question of whether public agencies fairly serve senior citizens or merely offer…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of Project STEPS (Sequenced Transition to Education in the Public Schools), a 3-year outreach project designed to provide training and technical assistance (TA) related to the development of statewide transition systems for children with disabilities, birth through 5 years of age, and…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) Preschool Programs is a comprehensive early childhood educational delivery system that provides developmentally appropriate practices to children, integrated services to families, and interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration among organizations serving young children in Kentucky. This report…

This final report describes activities of the 3-year Project Lexington Multidisciplinary Training Program for Child Care Personnel at the University of Kentucky. The project goal was to train child care personnel in skills needed to facilitate the integration of children with disabilities into generic child care settings. The project worked with…

This report outlines the national and state environmental context for the SECCS Initiative in supporting MCH strategic planning in early childhood systems building. This strategic context has implications for roles, relationships, and activities within a planning process and ultimately an implementation process. It summarizes the opportunities and…