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- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
National Center for Safe Routes to School
The National Center for Safe Routes to School assists states and communities in enabling and encouraging children to safely walk and bicycle to school. The National Center serves as the information clearinghouse for the federal Safe Routes to School program. The organization also provides technical support and resources and coordinates online registration efforts for U.S. Walk to School Day and facilitates worldwide promotion and participation.
Videos: Reminding Kids About Street Safety Ages 5-18
Pedestrian Safer Journey has created videos for multiple age groups that can help teach young people about pedestrian and bike safety. Each video is accompanied by a quiz or discussion and resources for educators. Access materials on pedestrian safety for ages 10-14 and 15-18 and resources on bike safety for ages 10-14 and 15-18.
College Preparation Checklist
This resource can help students of all ages to prepare academically and financially for education beyond high school (PDF, 28 pages). It provides an overview of options for financial aid for college, and checklists for students and parents to reference at each stage of a student’s education.
Share With Youth: Budgeting for College
ED’s Office of Federal Student Aid reminds students about the importance of budgeting to achieve future financial goals and prepare for unexpected bumps in the road.
Share with Youth: FAFSA Overview
The Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education provides an overview of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA takes about 30 minutes to complete, is free, and provides students access to grants, loans, and work-study funds from the federal government.
Share with Youth: Types of Federal Student Aid
The Office of Federal Student Aid offers more than $150 billion to students each year in the form of grants, loans, and work-study funds. While some colleges can also offer private student loans, federal loans often have lower fixed interest rates and other benefits.
Share with Youth: After the FAFSA — What Happens Next
This Office of Federal Student Aid video explains what happens after students complete and submit their FAFSA. The U.S. Department of Education will process the application and indicated colleges will be notified. Students will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) and can check their student aid status online.
Resource: Program-Level Gainful Employment Earnings Data
This data set provides information on program-level outcomes of college students preparing for gainful employment that can be used by prospective students and their families to weigh their options. Overall, the data show graduates of career training programs at public institutions generally fare better than those of comparable programs at for-profit colleges, earning higher salaries and being more prepared to enter higher earning fields.
Report: National Student Loan FY 2014 Cohort Default Rate
These data describe the FY 2014 cohort student loan default rate, which increased slightly from 11.3% to 11.5% for students who entered repayment between fiscal years 2013 and 2014. During the tracking period, more than five million borrowers entered repayment and 580,671 of them defaulted on their loans.
Resource: Digital and Social Media Financial Aid Collateral
This website provides digital and social media resources to help teachers and counselors share important federal student aid information with students and parents. It features sample social media posts, messaging guidelines, blog posts, infographics, presentations, videos, and fact sheets on a variety of financial aid topics.
Children and Identity Theft
This resource from the Federal Trade Commission offers steps to help parents avoid, recognize, and repair the damage caused by child identity theft.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule
Understanding the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule has been simplified by the Federal Trade Commission through this set of frequently asked questions.
Heads Up! A Guide to Online Safety
This blog entry from the Federal Trade Commission illustrates the risks that young people encounter when communicating and socializing online and provides a few key questions for teens to ask themselves before posting to social networks.
Keeping Up with Kids’ Apps
This blog post from the Federal Trade Commission highlights a new infographic, titled “Keeping Up with Kids’ Apps” that can help parents as they make decisions about what apps their children should download.
Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disapointing
This report by the Federal Trade Commission, “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing,” reveals that mobile app developers and distributors are not providing information around what data is being collected when children use apps, and how this data is shared.
Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online
The FTC developed “Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online,” a booklet for parents, teachers, and other adults to use when having conversations with young people about online safety. Recent updates to the booklet include tips on using mobile apps and Wi-Fi, ways to recognize text message spam, and changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
OnGuard Online
The Federal Trade Commission manages OnGuardOnline.gov, in partnership with other federal agencies. OnGuardOnline.gov is a partner in the Stop Think Connect campaign, led by the Department of Homeland Security, and part of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is an educational website, providing educators, parents, kids, and others with information on online safety.
Resources on Children's Online Privacy
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) requires commercial website operators to get parental consent before collecting any personal information of kids under 13.
These Online High Schools Didn’t Make the Grade
FTC has charged companies known as “diploma mills” for selling fake high school diplomas that they promise can be used to apply for college and employment. Users may be dealing with a diploma mill if the company states that they charge a flat fee; can provide a diploma in months, weeks, or days; require little or no coursework; or can offer a degree solely for “work or life experience.”
Passport in Time
Passport in Time (PIT) is a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program of the USDA Forest Service (FS). PIT volunteers work with professional FS archaeologists and historians on national forests throughout the U.S. on such diverse activities as archaeological survey and excavation, rock art restoration, survey, archival research, historic structure restoration, oral history gathering, and analysis and curation of artifacts. FS professional staff of archaeologists and historians serve as hosts, guides, and co-workers.
Civil Rights Guidance to K-12 Schools on Single-Sex Classes
Guidance from OCR advises schools on how to offer single-sex classes (PDF, 36 pages) while complying with Title IX. Presented in a question-and-answer format, the guidance addresses common scenarios that schools may face when designing single-sex programs.
Supporting the Success of Youth in Juvenile Justice Settings
On February 25, 2015, OCR and the Choice Program at UMBC partnered to host a symposium on supporting the education of young people in juvenile justice settings. At the event, young people who have had brushes with the law shared how the Choice Program is helping them to turn their lives around.
Report: Delivering Justice
This report (PDF, 44 pages) describes OCR’s efforts during the last year to protect students’ civil rights and increase educational equity. The report includes examples of OCR’s enforcement activities, highlights of notable cases, and the guidance documents OCR released in 2015.
Report: Sexual Victimization in Prisons, Jails, and Juvenile Correctional Facilities
This report (PDF, 97 pages) presents the findings of the Review Panel on Prison Rape. The Panel gathered information on the practices of selected correctional institutions that had either a low or a high prevalence of inmate sexual victimization and made recommendations that aim to help eliminate sexual victimization in prisons, jails, and juvenile correctional facilities.
Resource: Combatting Discrimination Against AANHPI and MASSA Students
This policy fact sheet (PDF, 1 page) supports educators and community leaders as they work to protect all students, including Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) and Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian (MASSA) students, from discrimination and to create safe and supportive learning environments.