Federal Resources

This booklet was created to assist parents and caregivers in helping youth cope with disasters and emergencies. The guide also provides information on preparing family emergency plans and discussing these plans with youth.

Resources developed by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities are now housed by the Center for Parent Information and Resources. 

The Technical Assistance on Transition and the Rehabilitation Act (TATRA) Project offers Parent Information and Training Programs funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) a variety of services to help them achieve their goals. Individualized services for each center are identified in technical assistance plans on an annual basis.

MilitaryKidsConnect.org, a Department of Defense-sponsored website, features content for children, tweens, and teens of military families. The site provides an online community that allows these young people to support one another while learning coping and resilience-building skills

To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.

The Technical Assistance ALLIANCE for Parent Centers National Center works with the six regional Parent Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) to provide innovative technical assistance, up-to-date information and high-quality resources and materials to the parent centers.

Youth Indicators is a statistical compilation of data on the distribution of youth, their family structure, economic factors, school and extracurricular activities, health factors, and other elements that constitute the world of young people between the ages of 0-17 years. This report is created and published by Child Stats, a division of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. 

This clearinghouse helps providers identify, select, and implement evidence-based programs and practices to address wide-ranging family and mental health issues. The searchable database includes effective and promising intervention programs as well as resources and strategies to ensure the welfare of military families. 

This guide has been developed to give higher education institutions a useful resource in the field of emergency management.

This blog post from the Department of Education discusses the issue of sexual assault on college campuses and the damaging effects of sexual assault for victims and communities. The post also describes key elements of sexual assault prevention campaigns and provides links to resources from the Department of Justice created to aid in campus sexual assault prevention efforts.

The #AskArnie video series features Secretary Arne Duncan discussing current hot topics in education today. The first episode, titled “Free from Fear,” focuses on gun violence, school safety, and the multiple factors that influence student achievement.

CYFERnet is a national network of Land Grant university faculty and county Extension educators working to support community-based educational programs for children, youth, parents and families. It provides program, evaluation and technology assistance for children, youth and family community-based programs and is funded as a joint project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's NIFA and the Cooperative Extension System

A  Dear Colleagues letter, released by the Department of Education during a White House event on teen dating violence prevention, calls on state school chiefs to take immediate action to reduce gender-based violence in schools. Accompanying the letter was the “What Schools Can Do” toolkit, which outlines simple actions that communities can take to reduce gender-based violence, as well as available resources.

This website, Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS), provides information that can help school leaders plan for any emergency, including natural disasters, violent incidents and terrorist acts.

The fight against sexual violence on college campuses is gaining momentum with the growth of many new programs and initiatives that increase awareness, educate students, and increase pressure on universities to re-evaluate sexual misconduct policies. This blog post outlines federal and local efforts to prevent domestic, dating, and sexual violence, and provides resources that can assist schools and communities in their efforts to build safe and healthy learning environments.

Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools offers research-based practices designed to assist school communities identify these warning signs early and develop prevention, intervention and crisis response plans.

The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse & Violence Prevention is designed to help college and community leaders develop, implement, and evaluate programs and policies to reduce student problems related to alcohol and other drug use and interpersonal violence.

This site, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, includes a consolidated list of federal links providing information on internet safety for children and youth.

The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics' report, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2011,” examines crimes occurring in school and presents data on school safety.

The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) administers, coordinates, and recommends policy for improving quality and excellence of programs and activities related to youth safety and drug prevention.

This report from the Study of the Implementation of Research-Based Programs to Prevent Youth Substance Abuse and School Crime offers the following information which can be applied to gang prevention efforts: collecting background information on substance abuse and school crime, identifying research-based programs and practices, using data collection instruments, developing implementation fidelity measures, and collecting, processing, and analyzing data.

A principal vehicle by which OSDFS communicates with the field, and provides information on research-based activities, best practices, and other information related to effective drug abuse and violence prevention strategies.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights released a list of the institutions of higher education that are being investigated for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints. 

This blog post describes the outcomes from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and the efforts of the Office for Civil Rights to improve the coordination of ED’s enforcement efforts related to sexual violence. The post also outlines the new regulations that took effect on July 1, 2015, with the implementation of the changes to the Clery Act by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. These regulations increase transparency and require institutions to make enhanced disclosures regarding disciplinary proceedings and protective measures following sexual crimes, as well as have training programs to inform the campus community about awareness and prevention. 

The Lost Person Behavior mobile app provides step-by-step instructions on search plans for first responders and response teams involved in missing person searches. Designed using data from more than 150,000 missing person cases across the country, the app provides guidance for more than 40 different scenarios, including lost children.