This month, readers wrote in about how schools can better help kids in special education and how parents can help kids be safer in cars. Take a look at Connect for Kids' reader mail and add your two cents!

Each year, about 5,000 children are taken to emergency rooms across the country suffering injuries resulting from carrying heavy backpacks. The American Occupational Therapy Association is sponsoring a National School Backpack Awareness Day to give kids and adults the lowdown on ergonomics for kids and how to improve the environments in which kids learn, play and grow at school.

As the school year gets underway, National Education Association President Reg Weaver reflects on how parents and teachers can build on their shared commitment to each child's school success.

More than 2 million teenage and pre-teen girls turn to YM for advice on boys, beauty and fashion. But thanks to new editor Christina Kelly, readers looking for diet tips will have to go elsewhere. This article appeared in WomensEnews.com.

Children at Longfellow Elementary School in El Monte, California have something special going for them—parents who not only want to be involved in helping their children succeed in school, but who have been trained to do so effectively. This article originally appeared in the January-February 2002 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

For the week of January 14, 2002, Connect for Kids partnered with Harvard's Family Involvement Network of Educators to present a real-life example of challenges to parental involvement in education. We also interviewed experts, and hosted an online discussion. How did it work, and what did we learn? Managing Editor Susan Phillips sums up.

Children under five make up the fastest-growing segment of the population of children in care. For these very young children, consistent medical care is critical. How can agencies, courts and others help? Connect for Kids' managing editor Susan Phillips finds some answers in Improving the Odds, an issue brief from the National Center for Child Poverty.

If the year 2001 taught us anything, maybe the most important lesson is how critical strong families are to a resilient nation. Since September 11th, we've been reminded that the healing process is enhanced when people who grieve feel connected—to families, neighborhoods and communities. Connect for Kids Project Director Cecilia Garcia shares a few examples of how foundations, the armed services and public broadcasting are helping to strengthen our most important asset—our families.

An idea for a film on the problems that adolescent girls face turned into an exploration of girls who succeed. The result is 5 Girls, part of the POV series on public television. Filmmaker Maria Finitzo spoke with Connect for Kids' Caitlin Johnson about the surprising strength of her subjects.

How do the stories in POV's documentary 5 Girls strike someone finding her own path through the tough terrain of adolescence? Sharon Feder, a 17-year-old senior at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn New York, found a lot to like in this review from Youth Communications.