Follow-up. All children (intervention and control groups) will receive follow-up calls at 14 days, and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Queries for primary and secondary outcomes will be made. Patients’ families will be mailed a gift certificate for a local fast-food restaurant or toy store as a token of gratitude for their time after each follow-up call (5$ per contact for a maximum of $30 of gift certificates). The regimen for phone-follow is outlined in the PI’s Educational Intervention Study (Sockrider, et al. Delivering Tailored Asthma Family Education in a Pediatric Emergency Room Setting: A Pilot Study. Pediatrics, in press). The one month re-evaluation is only to ascertain that the drug is being used as per recommended usage (ie as per FDA approved indications). Should the drug be changed by the primary care physician, the patient will be left on the drug prescribed by the primary care physician. It is important to remember, as noted in my previous cover letter, that this is not a trial to test the efficacy of a drug, but an intervention in health outcomes research to evaluate the effect of starting controller medications on health care utilization while assessing asthma outcomes. There will be no need to contact the PCP after one-month as the initital contact with the PCP will include an explanation for decreasing the dose of steroids after the acute excaerbation to the dosing recommended by the NAEPP guidelines after the first month unless the patient is experiencing an acute exacerbation. If the PCP changes the therapy, this will be an important outcome to track as this is both relevant and assures generalibility of the findings. Unlike a drug efficacy trial, this trial is intended to measure the health outcomes of the ED intervention of STARTING chronic care. The additional measures for the one month follow-up only assure the drug is being delivered as per initital ED discussion (to include the stepdown) or as per the PCP recommendations. If the PCP instructs the parent not to change the dose or to alter the dose, then this will be taken as priority and the PCP change in plan will be noted and its impact analyzed.