America's schoolchildren: past, present, and future.

To provide a context for the articles in this journal issue, which focus on programs for children in elementary and middle school, this article depicts the cohort of children who were between 5 and 14 years old in the 1990s and compares them with their counterparts earlier in the century. It reports their numbers, overall and by racial and ethnic heritage; the makeup, employment, and economic status of their parents; and the time they spend in school. The article examines changes in these demographics and characteristics of school-age children with an eye to the effect that these trends may have on public attitudes toward children and youths, and on support for government funding to keep young people safe and to promote their development.

Introduction to the AFDC program. Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

This journal issue discusses the policy challenges of helping parents move from welfare to work. As a foundation, this introductory article explains the federal-state program of cash assistance called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), to which the term welfare refers in most of these articles. While a number of other social programs are sometimes included under the umbrella of welfare-such as the Supplemental Security Income program for the disabled, food stamps, and Medicaid-the program that has drawn the most public scrutiny and negative attention, and the centerpiece of the 1996 welfare reform legislation, is AFDC. This article explains the basic structure of the AFDC program, including eligibility criteria and benefits; discusses the characteristics of families that have received AFDC; describes trends in the program's size and cost from the 1970s to 1996; and indicates the major ways in which the block grant established in the 1996 welfare reform legislation compares to the AFDC program that it replaced.

Special education for students with disabilities: analysis and recommendations.

Twenty years ago, the educational rights of students with disabilities were dramatically and firmly established in law and practice. Prior to that time, many students were refused enrollment or special educational services. As recently as 1973, at least one million students were denied enrollment in public schools solely on the basis of their disabilities, and at least two million others were not receiving an education appropriate to their needs. Although every state has provided some form of special education throughout this century, these services were largely at the discretion of local school districts. Only since a federal court case in 1972 and the passage of federal legislation in 1975 have all states been mandated to provide a free, appropriate public education to all students with disabilities. Today, as Parrish and Chambers point out in this journal issue, special education for students with disabilities is the largest categorical program in public schools, costing an estimated $32 billion. Since the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975 (later retitled the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or the IDEA), the number of elementary and secondary students receiving special education has increased from 3.7 million to 4.6 million, increasing also from 8% to 11% of all students in public schools. According to Parrish and Chambers, the population of students eligible for special education is expected to continue to rise. The IDEA governs the educational rights of individuals from birth to age 21, though only students in elementary and secondary school are addressed in this journal issue. The IDEA allowed access to the public schools for many students who had previously been denied enrollment. The IDEA has also been given partial credit for decreasing the rate of institutionalization of individuals with disabilities. Before the IDEA, many parents had the sole responsibility of meeting all the needs of their severely disabled children 24 hours per day; once schools began to provide extensive services to students with severe disabilities, more families were able to avoid institutionalization. Under the IDEA, states and local districts were given a mandate to provide specialized educational programs to students with special needs, and students and parents were given a mechanism for enforcement of their rights. In a 1989 survey, 94% of parents of students with disabilities agreed that services for these students had improved since the implementation of the IDEA. Yet special education today is widely criticized as expensive, ineffective, inadequately coordinated with regular education, and/or culturally biased. The National Association of State Boards of Education has recommended radical reduction in the size of special education. Special education also has its champions, who argue that many students perform better academically and have better self-esteem when provided with special services, often in a separate setting. This analysis addresses five questions concerning special education under the IDEA: (1) Why are so many students considered disabled? (2) What are the educational needs of students with disabilities? (3) How should appropriate, individualized services be funded? (4) Are the IDEA's procedural protections necessary? (5) Can regular education meet the needs of more students?