Federal Resources

The mission of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program is to intervene in and reclaim the lives of at-risk youth to produce program graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline necessary to succeed as adults.

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

The Volunteer Clearinghouse serves the Corps of Engineers nationwide to link potential volunteers with Park Rangers at lakes and waterways that need them. It provides information about the volunteer program and directs people to the point of contact, usually a Park Ranger, at the lake or location of interest.

This site helps young adults plan their next steps in life by bringing together the most recently available information about colleges, careers and military services. Designed primarily for individuals between 16 and 24, the site features information drawn and collated from the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education and Labor. The site contains information on more than 1,000 military and civilian careers and nearly 7,000 accredited colleges, universities and trade schools, and can serve as a central resource for valuable background on college admission requirements, employment trends and military benefits.

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) offers a Virtual High School (DVHS), which provides more than 70 online courses to students in DoDEA secondary schools to meet DoDEA eligible students’ academic and career-oriented goals. DVHS also offers the Domestic Transition Program, which provides students transitioning from an overseas DoDEA-supported program or Non-DoD Schools Program to a local public school or an accredited educational program in the United States, allowing for continuity in students’ education.

This website provides information on the Safe and Sound Campaign to connect military parents, service providers, and leaders to resources on parenting skills and child abuse and neglect prevention. 

This program connects federal and private sector employers with college students and recent graduates with disabilities seeking summer or permanent employment. WRP recruiters from federal agencies conduct personal interviews with interested candidates, who are then included in a searchable database that is available to hiring officials in federal agencies. Colleges and universities can apply to host interviews with WRP recruiters, and students and employers can apply to gain access to the database.

Using survey data from approximately 95,000 undergraduate and 16,000 graduate students, this report from the Department of Education provides information on the percentages of students receiving various types of financial aid and how much they received, by institution, attendance pattern, dependency status, and income level. The study indicates that 71% of undergraduates and 70% of graduates received some type of financial aid.

Forty-eight schools were honored as 2014 Green Ribbon Schools for their exemplary efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, promote better health, and ensure effective environmental education, including civics and green career pathways. In addition, nine districts were honored for the District Sustainability Award. 

This blog post, from a representative from the Office of Federal Student Aid, features advice on paying off student loans faster. Tips include signing up for an automatic debit payment plan and using tax refunds to pay off of part of a loan. 

This blog entry provides ideas for how counselors and other school professionals can promote the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at their high school or college campus. Examples include using social media and hosting a FAFSA night on campus. 

Borrowers who default on still have options. This blog post outlines steps that borrowers can take to get their loans back in good standing, including loan repayment, rehabilitation, and consolidation. 

This blog entry outlines seven common errors that students make when completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and presents resources to help them avoid these mistakes. 

This blog post from the Department of Education features information for students on the next steps they should take after they have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 

This blog post and video from the Department of Education can help students and recent graduates understand the details of loan repayment, including when repayment starts, who to pay, how much to pay, and how to make payments. 

The Secretary of Education Arne Duncan shares his advice for students when picking a college, laid out in five steps.

This blog entry outlines the four things recent graduates should do as they prepare to make their first student loan payment: get organized, contact the loan servicer, estimate monthly payments, and select a repayment plan. Learn more.

This program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low performing schools. The program: helps students meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and math; offers students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs; and offers literacy and other educational services to the families of participating children.

Talla Hashemi, a junior at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and ED intern, shares why attending community college, and then transferring to a four-year university,  was the best choice for her. 

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

This blog entry, written by a Department of Education intern, discusses the author’s personal experience with cyberbullying and her undergraduate research on states’ implementation of cyberbullying policy and the impact on students and rates of cyberbullying. Learn more.

According to new data from NCES, graduation rates for black and Hispanic students increased by nearly four percentage points from 2011 to 2013, outpacing the growth for all students in the nation. The data also show that the gap between white students and black and Hispanic students receiving high school diplomas narrowed over that time.

This booklet from the Department of Education helps parents, regardless of their level of technological expertise, use the on-line world as an important educational tool.

This blog post written by a school counselor in South Dakota provides tips for students as they prepare to head off to college. Tips include making a financial plan and ensuring credit is received for high school courses. 

This report, published by WestEd and funded by the Department of Education, describes a study that analyzed data from more than 1,700 public schools in California. The study found that schools that “beat the odds,” meaning their students performed better on standardized tests than predicted on the basis of student demographics, had more positive school climates, thus adding to the growing body of evidence that suggests a relationship between school climate and academic success.