Federal Resources

 “America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood,” a report from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), compares the current generation of youth in the United States to youth in 2000, 1990, and 1980.

Each year, AmeriCorps offers 75,000 opportunities for young people of all backgrounds to serve through a network of partnerships with local and national nonprofit groups.

College.gov is intended to be the go-to source for information and resources about planning, preparing and paying for postsecondary education.

The Federal TRIO Programs are educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes six outreach and support programs targeted to serve and assist low-income, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.

This discretionary grant program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

The National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) coordinates national resources, offers technical assistance, and disseminates information related to secondary education and transition for youth with disabilities in order to create opportunities for youth to achieve successful futures.

The Board on Children, Youth, and Families (BCYF) addresses a variety of policy-relevant issues related to the health and development of children, youth, and families. It does so by convening experts to weigh in on matters from the perspective of the behavioral, social, and health sciences.

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) supports the national implementation of provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide successful school outcomes for students with disabilities. NDPC-SD supports states in assisting local education agencies to increase school completion rates and decrease dropout rates among students with disabilities.

The Center assists SEAs to develop and implement rigorous and practical post-school outcome data systems to track the early adult experiences of youth who had IEPs while in high school. It also helps states collect, analyze, and use post-school outcome data to improve the quality of secondary and transition programs for youth with disabilities.

The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC) helps states build capacity to support and improve transition planning, services, and outcomes for youth with disabilities and disseminates information and provides technical assistance on scientifically-based research practices with an emphasis on building and sustaining state-level infrastructures of support and district-level demonstrations of effective transition methods for youth with disabilities.

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.

The National High School Center serves as the central source of information and expertise on high school improvement for the Regional Comprehensive Centers (RCCs).

EDJJ focuses on assisting practitioners, policymakers, researchers and advocates to identify and implement effective school-based delinquency prevention programs, education, and special education services in juvenile correctional facilities, and transition supports for youth re-entering their schools and communities from secure care settings.

This guide is a companion piece to the Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities (above). It emphasizes a valuable part of emergency management planning—ongoing vulnerability assessment—and is intended to assist schools with the selection and implementation of an effective vulnerability assessment tool.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED)'s Office of Safe and Healthy Students' (OSHS) Center for School Preparedness provides support, resources, grants, and training to support emergency management efforts for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education.

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.

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 REMS TA Center has developed five new online courses for practitioners in the field of K–12 school emergency management that address the following topics: (1) Developing a Bereavement and Loss Annex; (2) Developing a COOP Annex; (3) Developing a Food Contamination Annex; (4) Planning for Infectious Diseases; and (5)Planning for Large Events. (Note users must create an account). 

In this publication, FEMA, the Red Cross, and ED outline a vision for a nation of prepared youth through the mobilization of youth preparedness education (PDF, 32 pages) in communities across the country. It identifies nine key steps, each associated with one or more short- and long-term activities that are critical to fulfilling the vision of a prepared youth community. 

Taking action now can save lives, prevent injury, and minimize property damage in the moments of a crisis. Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities is designed to help navigate the process of reviewing and revising school and district plans. The guide is intended to give schools, districts, and communities the critical concepts and components of good crisis planning, stimulate thinking about the crisis preparedness process, and provide examples of promising practices.

The REMS Technical Assistance Center supports public and non-public schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education in school emergency management, including the development and implementation of comprehensive all-hazards emergency management plans. The TA Center disseminates information about school emergency management to help individual schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education learn more about developing, implementing, and evaluating comprehensive, all-hazards school emergency management plans.

Developed by Enterprise Green Communities, in partnership with HUD and other supporters, this toolkit can help affordable housing organizations develop comprehensive disaster staffing plans to protect buildings, residents, and business operations. 

This virtual toolkit helps state and local education agencies, emergency management agencies, school safety centers, and others who play a key role in school safety build capacity in emergency management and preparedness. It is divided into three sections:

1. Develop high-quality emergency operations plans
2. Engage youth and the school community
3. Connect with other emergency management practitioners

This free mobile application, developed by the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center, allows school and school district personnel to walk around school grounds and examine their safety, security, accessibility, and emergency preparedness.