School adjustment and achievement are at the heart of a child's development. Both are influenced by a myriad of factors that are complex and interconnected. For children with difficulties, school psychologists are integral to the assessment of those diverse factors and to the implementation of intervention strategies that help those children reach their potential. The traditional role of the school psychologist as an evaluator has often required a focus on the immediate results of psychological and emotional assessment and an interpretation of those results for placement. Nonetheless, environmental factors affect learning and behavior and influence children throughout their lives--even from before birth. Those variables interact during critical developmental periods, thereby affecting the youngster's function in substantial ways. This set of articles addresses some of the varied preconceptional and perinatal influences that may affect a child's performance in school, at home, and in his community--the knowledge of which will assist the school psychologist in helping the child and family. The articles combine concern for individual functioning with a public health model, addressing broader population-based data. The intersection of school psychology and public health has been too little explored, and this volume helps to close that gap.