Effective Services for Young Children

This nation has an enormous stake in reversing the alarming deterioration of the circumstances in which poor and otherwise disadvantaged children grow up. Many past efforts to reverse unfavorable trends in damaging outcomes (school failure, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and violent crime) have been relatively ineffective.Effective Services for Young Children describes the available options and steps that could be taken to improve the situation through more effective services to children and families. Many of the nation's leaders in current efforts to improve services, and many who are at the forefront of attempts to understand these efforts in current contexts contributed to the workshop and are represented in the volume.Policymakers, administrators, and practitioners will benefit from their perspectives on the possibilities for major improvements in education, social services, health care, and family support services.Table of ContentsFront MatterReport of the WorkshopBackground papersAttributes of Effective Services for Young Children: A Brief Survey of Current Knowledge and Implications for Program and Policy DevelopmentEffective Services for Children and Families: Lessons From the past and Strategies for the FutureState Financing Strategies that Promote More Effective Services for Children and FamiliesThe Challenges of Services Integration for Children and FamiliesThe Role of Training and Technical Assistance in the Promotion of More Effective Services for ChildrenCollaboration as a Means, Not an End: Serving Disadvantaged Families and ChildrenOutcomes as a Tool to Provoke Systems ChangeAppendix: Workshop Agenda and Participants