Safe and Smart: Making After-School Hours Work for Kids - June 1998

A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Publications

U.S. Department of Education

Most publications are available, free of charge, by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN or on the Internet at http://www.ed.gov/. An asterisk (*) means that the publication is available through the National Library of Education at 1-800-424-1616.

America Goes Back to School Partners' Activity Guide. This packet will help you create your own America Goes Back to School event in your local community during the months of August to October to celebrate and launch family-school-community partnerships, making a year-long commitment to better education.

Checkpoints for Progress for Families and Communities

Checkpoints for Progress for Teachers and Learning Partners

These two publications help teachers and learning partners to identify what most children can do in reading and writing at different ages and what most children can read by grade level.

Community Update. This monthly newsletter contains lots of valuable information--examples of what communities across the country are doing to improve schools; listings of resources, services, publications, and upcoming events; and summaries of the latest research in education.

A Compact for Learning: An Action Handbook for Family-School-Community Partnerships. This kit can help you develop and use a compact that outlines the shared responsibilities of families, schools, and others for children's learning. The guidebook and its activity sheets engage partners in a continuous improvement process to build and strengthen partnerships for learning.

Creating Quality in After-School Programs: A Guide to Effective Project Management. This guide provides step-by-step project management guidance for after-school programs, focusing on a core set of indicators from which to manage. The guide, designed for use by grantees of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, is available to all after-school programs. {NOT AVAILABLE UNTIL AUGUST 1, 1998}

Employers, Families and Education. Learn about what employers are doing to support their employees' involvement in their children's learning and to support education in their communities.

Family Involvement in Children's Education: Successful Local Approaches. Intended to assist educators, parents, and policy makers as they develop and nurture school-family partnerships, this idea book identifies and describes successful strategies used by 20 local Title I programs that have overcome barriers to parent involvement.

Helping Your Child series.* These pamphlets for families address a range of topics, including test taking and teaching responsible behavior as well as learning math, science, and how to write. They may also be useful to after-school staff in designing activities that address the individual needs of children.

Including Your Child. This booklet for parents of children with special needs covers the first eight years of a child's life and gives information that may answer some questions and guide parents in their search for the education and services that will best help their children succeed.

Getting Ready for College Early. This booklet will help families and their children understand the steps necessary to take during the middle and junior high school years to get ready for college academically and financially. The Spanish version of this document, Preparándose a Tiempo Para la Universidad, is also available.

Just Add Kids. This resource directory lists learning partners, reading sites, and other literacy organizations that serve children and their families.

Keeping Schools Open as Community Learning Centers: Extending Learning in a Safe, Drug-Free Environment Before and After School. This guidebook shows the benefits of keeping schools and other community facilities open for children and families beyond traditional operational hours, and it gives practical advice about how to provide access to valuable education resources in public buildings that are safe for children.

Learning Partners Series.* These booklets show families how they can get involved with their children's learning in a range of areas, from math and reading to homework and using the library. Some contain ideas for after-school learning activities.

Learning to Read: Reading to Learn. This book discusses how families, teachers, and others can help children with learning disabilities to succeed in reading and in school.

New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement. Developed by the Harvard Family Research Project and released in conjunction with the November 1997 teleconference "Partners for Learning: Preparing Teachers to Involve Families," this report emphasizes the critical role of teacher preparation for the success of family involvement in education.

Parent's Guide to the Internet. Learn about using the Internet as an educational tool, regardless of your technological know-how. This guide suggests how parents can allow their children to tap into the wonders of the Internet while safeguarding them from its potential hazards.

Preparing Your Child for College. This resource book for parents and their children gives practical information about what it takes to go to college and to pay for college.

Reaching All Families: Creating Family-Friendly Schools* Learn about school outreach strategies to get all families involved in their children's education.

READ*WRITE*NOW! Materials in both English and Spanish are available to help children build their reading skills outside of school, especially during the summer months.

Seven Good Practices for Families (poster)

Simple Things You Can Do to Help a Child Read Well and Independently. This booklet provides suggestions for parents, schools, librarians, concerned citizens, community organizations, universities, employers, and members of the media on how to help meet the America Reads Challenge.

Strengthening Your Child's Academic Future. This booklet from the Education Excellence Partnership helps to explain what academic standards are and why they are so important to children's learning.

Strong Families, Strong Schools: Building Community Partnerships for Learning. This report summarizes 30 years of research showing that greater family involvement in children's learning is crucial to providing a good education and a safe, disciplined learning environment for every student.

Summer Home Learning Recipes. These brochures, available for grades K-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12, offer creative ideas for activities families and children can do at home together that build skills in reading, writing, math, and science.

Safe and Drug Free Publications

These and other publications are available free of charge from the U.S. Department of Education by calling 1-800-624-0100:

  • Creating Safe and Drug Free Schools: An Action Guide
  • Creating Safe Schools: A Resource Collection for Planning and Action
  • How to Raise Drug-Free Kids
  • Manual on School Uniforms
  • Growing Up Drug Free: A Parent's Guide to Prevention
  • READY SET GO [Drug Prevention]
  • School Administrators' Violence Prevention Resource Anthology
  • Success Stories '94: A Guide to Safe, Disciplined, & Drug-Free Schools

    U.S. Department of Justice

    Unless otherwise noted, all publications are available free of charge from the:

    Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
    National Criminal Justice Reference Service
    P.O. Box 6000
    Rockville, MD 20849-6000
    (800) 638-8736
    www.ncjrs.gov

    Bridging the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems. Describes four programs that focus on family preservation, delinquency, early intervention, and improving the judicial response to the needs of children. Identifies specific opportunities for increased collaboration among public officials and community leaders (Juvenile Justice Bulletin. 1995. 4 pp. NCJ 152155).

    Child Development--Community Policing: Partnership in a Climate of Violence. Describes a unique collaborative program between the New Haven, Connecticut Department of Police Service and the Child Study Center at the Yale University School of Medicine that addresses the psychological impact of chronic exposure to community violence on children and families. This program serves as a national model for police/mental health partnerships across the country (Juvenile Justice Bulletin. 1997. 8 pp. NCJ 164380).

    Combating Fear and Restoring Safety in Schools. Focuses on the national effort to reach youth who are absent or truant from school because of school-associated fear and intimidation (1998. 16 pp. NCJ 167888).

    Combating Violence and Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action Plan. Summarizes innovative and effective strategies designed to reduce juvenile violence and victimization that were developed by the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Identifies eight key objectives that individuals, communities, States, and the Federal Government can support to bring about positive change (Summary. 1996. 36 pp. NCJ 157105).

    Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings. Provides a reference tool that offers both basic information and the experience of experts to assist educators and other youth-serving professionals in building effective conflict resolution education programs. The guide is based on a shared vision that youth of all ages can learn to deal constructively with conflict and live in civil association with one another (Program Report. 1996. 134 pp. NCJ 160935).

    Delinquency Prevention Works. Provides a synthesis of the most current information on programs and strategies that seek to prevent delinquency. Summarizes research and evaluation efforts to assist States and jurisdictions in their prevention activities (Program Summary. 1995. 74 pp. NCJ 155006).

    Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Provides communities with a framework for preventing delinquency, intervening in early delinquent behavior, and responding to serious, violent, and chronic offending. Identifies effective prevention and intervention programs and offers a blueprint for assessing their present juvenile justice system and planning new programs that respond to community needs (1995. 255 pp. NCJ 153681).

    Keeping Young People in School: Community Programs that Work. Highlights dropout prevention initiatives, with a particular focus on the Communities in Schools (CIS) initiative and its evaluation conducted by the Urban Institute (1997. 12 pp. NCJ 162783).

    Law-Related Education for Juvenile Justice Settings. Assists juvenile justice practitioners in the implementation of law-related education (LRE) programs and includes information on the benefits of LRE programs, their use as prevention and intervention tools, and how to design and implement an LRE curriculum and program (1993. 173 pp. NCJ 147063. $15.00 U.S.).

    Matrix of Community-Based Initiatives. Presents, in narrative and graph format, a collection of major public and private comprehensive community-based violence prevention and economic development initiatives that can assist in delinquency prevention efforts (Program Summary. 1995. 51 pp. NCJ 154816).

    Mentoring--A Proven Delinquency Prevention Strategy. Presents the results of an independent evaluation of the Nation's oldest and largest mentoring program, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. The study found that mentored youth were less likely to start using drugs or alcohol, were less assaultive, skipped fewer days of school, and had better relationships with their parents and peers than similar youth without a mentor (Juvenile Justice Bulletin. 1997. 8 pp. NCJ 164386).

    OJJDP and Boys and Girls Clubs of America: Public Housing and High-Risk Youth. Describes successful delinquency prevention initiatives developed and implemented by OJJDP and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, including Targeted Outreach, SMART Moves, and the Drug Demand Reduction Program (Update on Programs. 1991. 5 pp. NCJ 128412).

    Peer Justice and Youth Empowerment: An Implementation Guide for Teen Court Programs - November 1998 Update. Offers juvenile justice agencies baseline information to help them develop, implement, and enhance teen court programs as a viable alternative for juvenile offenders in their communities. Appendices include model teen court programs, sample resources for program development and implementation, and sample volunteer and program evaluation resources (1996. 285 pp. NCJ 162782).

    Preventing Crime and Promoting Responsibility: 50 Programs that Help Communities Help Their Youth. Presents a planning process, selected programs, and resources to assist community efforts in preventing youth crime and violence (1995. 96 pp. NCJ 158622).

    Reaching Out to Youth Out of the Education Mainstream. Describes a new effort to reduce the number of juveniles who leave school prematurely and who are at risk of delinquency because they are truants or dropouts, afraid to attend school, suspended or expelled, or in need of help to be reintegrated into their mainstream school from the juvenile justice system. This Bulletin introduces a series of OJJDP Bulletins focusing on effective programs and innovative strategies to reach these children (Juvenile Justice Bulletin. 1997. 12 pp. NCJ 163920).

    Sharing Information: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Participation in Juvenile Justice Programs. Provides basic information on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for elementary and secondary education professionals and those involved in the delivery of services to juveniles, including students involved in the juvenile justice system (1997. 52 pp. NCJ 163705).

    Truancy: First Step to a Lifetime of Problems. Discusses truancy as a major problem in this country, both for youth and society. Highlights seven communities whose truancy reduction programs are achieving good results through innovative approaches that involve schools, law enforcement, families, businesses, judicial and social service agencies, and community and youth service organizations (Juvenile Justice Bulletin. 1996. 7 pp. NCJ 161958).

    Youth Environmental Service in Action. Offers an in-depth description of the history and structure of the Youth Environmental Service (YES) program, as well as a detailed description of six diverse pilot programs. Designed for policymakers and practitioners who want to learn more about YES (Program Summary. 1996. 38 pp. NCJ 159762).

    YES Technical Assistance Package. Assists youth service agencies and Federal land managers in developing a Youth Environmental Service (YES) program. Describes the steps involved in becoming a site and explains how to obtain Federal technical assistance during startup and implementation.

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

    Understanding Youth Development: Promoting Positive Pathways of Growth

    This publication examines the factors that influence adolescent development and provides a brief overview of strategies that might help communities support young people moving from adolescence to adulthood. A companion piece to Reconnecting Youth & Community: A Youth Development Approach, this report provides the theoretical underpinning of the youth development approach.

    National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth Publications

    Supporting Your Adolescent: Tips for Parents

    This brochure offers parents a general framework for understanding and supporting their child during adolescence. It also provides guidance on recognizing signs that children might need help, locating and interacting with community resources that assist youth, and supporting children who are in trouble with the law. (Also available on audio cassette and in Spanish.)

    Reconnecting Youth & Community: A Youth Development Approach

    This publication provides guidance to youth services providers, community leaders, and policymakers about how they can help communities shift from a problem-focused approach to serving youth to a community-youth involvement model. Reconnecting Youth & Community provides an overview of youth development and offers strategies for implementing a youth development approach at the local level. It also provides steps for implementing a campaign to promote positive images of young people and ideas for involving youth and the community in that process. Also available on audio cassette.

    U.S. Department of Treasury

    Investing in Child Care: Challenges Facing Working Parents and the Private Sector Response (1998). (Portable Document Format [685K]--requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) This report discusses what businesses can do to promote access to affordable, high-quality child care for their employees, including after-school programs.


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    [Federal Resources] [Table of Contents] [Acknowledgments]