The purpose of the United States Department of Education's (the Department) Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 "Agency Financial Report" (AFR) is to inform Congress, the President, other external stakeholders, and the American people on how the Department used the federal resources entrusted to it to promote student achievement and preparation for…

This report argues that this is a promising time for entrepreneurs and developers to enter the adult learning market. Economic and labor trends are applying unprecedented pressure on policymakers to think differently. Federal, and in turn state, policies are shifting. The adaptation of K-12 and postsecondary education technologies (ed-tech) to the…

Living without permanent, long-term housing creates a number of stressors for children and families, but being homeless can be particularly detrimental to the healthy development of young children. The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that more than 1.6 million children--or one in 45 children--were homeless annually in America…

Many industries in the United States already have seen positive results and increased productivity from the effective use of technology. With the challenges currently facing the nation's education system--including a persistent dropout rate of nearly 30 percent, slashed state and district budgets, and the economically and socially important goals…

This article provides a comprehensive and current synthesis of the legislation, regulations, policy interpretations, and case law concerning students with traumatic and nontraumatic brain injury from pre-K to grade 12. The primary focus is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but the scope extends to other applicable legal bases. The…

U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good schools for some students while…

This report has been provided to the Legislature on an annual basis since the year 2000. This report is issued in the context of a change in focus for the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the federal agency which oversees the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) implementation in each state. OSEP's new accountability…

The transition out of high school to postsecondary education or the workforce can be a challenging time, especially for students with disabilities. Multiple federal agencies fund programs to support these students during their transition. In 2003, GAO reported that limited coordination among these programs can hinder a successful transition. GAO…

The purpose of this policy analysis was to examine the responses of selected states to the special education monitoring requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) with particular attention paid to the years after this most recent reauthorization. This study examined the legislative and litigative history of…

On February 20, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the 2009 Budget Package. This set of bills revised the current year (2008-09) budget and adopted a budget for the upcoming 2009-10 fiscal year. This 17-month spending plan was designed to address a two-year budgetary shortfall of more than $40 billion. The plan contains the…

Faced with their first reporting deadlines for economic-stimulus aid to education, school districts are toiling over how every stimulus penny has been spent so far and how many jobs have been saved--numbers that will be scrutinized not just by the public, but by government auditors as well. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed by…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2016" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. The ideas offered by President Obama in this 2016 Budget are designed to bring middle-class economics into the 21st Century. They are intended to help working families…

To achieve President Obama's stated goal of making increased expectations for students and schools a national priority, the administration has designed a blueprint for a reenvisioned federal role in education through the reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA"). The new "ESEA" will…

The history of the school lunch program is laden with the political wrangling and compromises that usually beset massive government initiatives, and as with other government initiatives, the results of the wrangling and compromises have tended to be sadly durable. The school lunch program has consistently been viewed and managed not primarily as a…

Many federal assistance programs are funded by formula grants that have historically relied at least in part on population data from the decennial census and related data to allocate funds. In June 2009, the Census Bureau reported that in fiscal year 2007 the federal government obligated over $446 billion through funding formulas that rely at…