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This study evaluates the impact of a college-based dormitory program on transitioning youth with intellectual disabilities. A qualitative study, with interviews at pre and post, was conducted to evaluate the program's impact. Data were collected with semistructured interviews from young adults with intellectual disabilities who participated in a college-based residential program and their parents or guardians. Three general themes emerged from the data: Participants reported experiences that were (a) typical of normative life transitions, (b) typical of growing pains associated with significant life transitions and learning new skills, and (c) one step forward. Results indicate that the experience of living away from home for the first time was in some ways comparable to that of a typical college student. Improvement in life skills, including increased awareness of personal goals, enhanced vocational goals, increased maturity or assertiveness, was reported. Respondents were generally satisfied with the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the efficacy of placing individuals with developmental disabilities into college campus dormitories in the interest of facilitating transition into adulthood. Developmental challenges for participants and families are addressed, in addition to concerns for normalization, self-determination, and the broader concepts of social inclusion and community integration. An interactive model that incorporates the perspectives of participants, parents, local agency providers, and the hosting college is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Characteristics of the child victim, perpetrator; and maltreatment incident were used to examine predictors of court involvement in cases of serious child maltreatment. Method: Cases were drawn from those reported to: child protective services (n = 225), sheriff's office (n = 225), prosecutor's office (n = 60), and dependency court (n = 65). Logistic regression was used to calculate predicted probabilities of criminal court involvement and dependency court involvement Results: Cases involving female victims were more likely to be filed in criminal Court, and sexual abuse had the highest likelihood of prosecution. Cases involving male perpetrators, older perpetrators, and multiple victims were more likely to be filed for prosecution. Physical neglect was the most common type of maltreatment to result in dependency court filings. Perpetrator gender had opposite effects in the two systems. Conclusion: Tracking cases even in the same jurisdiction is confounded by the lack of common identifiers across the agencies involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre/post designs that rely on self-report measures are potentially contaminated by response shift bias, a change in respondents' understanding of the phenomena being measured between the pre- and posttests. Retrospective pretests, or then tests, have been shown to be useful in identifying response shifts. Pre/post/then designs are highly utilitarian designs that have the potential of providing more accurate assessments of respondent change. This article reviews the literature on response shift bias and the utility of retrospective pretests in detecting such bias. Three studies that used the pre/post/then design to evaluate self-reported changes in caseworker abilities (knowledge or skill) relative to practice evaluation, basic interviewing skills, and/or assessment are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the findings from an evaluation to assess the level of satisfaction among mandated reporters with an upstate western New York county child protection system. Procedures, sample and survey used in the study; Overall reporter satisfaction; Correlateion of satisfaction during initial contacts; Suggestions for child protection agencies that seek to improve their relationship with mandated reporters.

This paper reports the effects of a package of instructional methods on the academic achievement, behavior, and social bonding of seventh grade students who were low achievers in math. Proactive classroom management, interactive teaching, and cooperative learning methods were included. Low achievers in experimental classrooms showed more favorable attitudes toward math, more bonding to school, greater expectations for continuing schooling, and less serious misbehavior as measured by suspensions and expulsions from school than did their low- achieving control counterparts at the end of one academic year. Among low achievers, significant effects of the leaching practices were not found for California Achievement Test scores or for self-reported delinquency or drug use. The results suggest that interventions in mainstream classrooms can promote school attachment and deter misbehavior among low-achieving students. The absence of short-term effects on standardized achievement scores suggests possible alternatives to the authors' hypotheses, whereas the absence of short-term effects on self- reported delinquency and drug use was consistent with the authors' hypotheses of delayed effects for these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]