The federal Rules and Regulations of P.L. 94-142 for the development and implementation of child-identification systems present severe policy problems for state planners. The constraints imposed by the federal design may be critiqued by examining the Child Count required for child-identification activities and the research literature. The authors identify the Child Count report as the most significant factor hindering the development of comprehensive child-identification systems. In the research literature, three concepts have emerged that provide the outline of a comprehensive system: (A) prevention as a primary purpose, (b) the critical relationship of identification to program intervention, and (c) the use of identification procedures rooted in an instructional framework. The Child Count requirements serve as a constraining influence on state planners, with the resulting procedures resembling child inventories more than comprehensive child-identification systems.
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