partment of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service and the U.S. Department of Education).

The National Committee for Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention, through a consensus development process, identified specific steps to minimize agricultural injuries among children (see Chapter 5). Among the recommended steps were a variety of educational initiatives ranging from a national public-education campaign to the incorporation of agricultural health and safety curricula in classrooms from kindergarten through high school. The committee also called for the rigorous evaluation of educational materials and methods.

Although education is a key part of preventing workplace injuries and illnesses, it cannot solve the problem alone. A comprehensive prevention strategy will require education, engineering modifications, and the rigorous enforcement of both child labor laws and health and safety laws. Also needed is increased research, based on sound scientific principles, to identify successful approaches to intervention.

Current regulations and standards do not reflect the changes in technology, industries, and hazards that children and adolescents encounter in contemporary workplaces in the United States. Nor do these standards adequately protect children and adolescents, who are more vulnerable than adults to certain health and safety hazards on the job. Child labor standards have not kept up with contemporary research on the psychosocial, health, and safety implications of work and school for teenagers.

Connecting education more closely with work is a promising strategy for improving the health, safety, and quality of young people's work experiences. Instruction in health and safety at both the school and the workplace and attention to reducing hazards in the workplace should become a larger part of vocational education, school-to-work, and related initiatives that try to strengthen connections between education and employment.

Everyone with a role in the employment of young workers needs more and better knowledge and the ability to use it effectively. They need to have: (1) knowledge about the basic legal issues (e.g., regulations that limit the number of hours minors may work); (2) access