Explores the situations of "missing" children and discusses sources of information about these children. More than 99% of all missing child cases reported to police in 1996 were successfully resolved, but data suggest that about 150,000 children each year are hurt physically or mentally during the time they are missing. (SLD)

Examines the measurement of class size and a related measure, the student-teacher ratio, and considers the variations across states in class size and student-teacher ratios. Student-teacher teacher ratios are consistently lower than average class size because class-size figures do not reflect the use of specialized teachers or those who work in…

Examines data collected by the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) on the identification and classification of special education students. Analysis suggests that the OSEP count data, by themselves, do not indicate how many children have disabilities or what types of disabilities they have, and the data cannot by used to evaluate…

Available data on homeless families and children are reviewed, focusing on definitions of homelessness and the most common methods used to estimate the size of the homeless population. Trends in the duration of homelessness and the numbers of families at risk of losing housing are discussed. (SLD)

Examines three concepts of school readiness and national survey data on parent and teacher ideas about what constitutes readiness for individual children. The authors then examine some of the indicators and benchmarks that have been proposed to measure progress toward the readiness goal as proposed in Readiness 2000. (GR)