Questionnaires were mailed to 80 administrative units in the western United States, of which 85% responded, to examine administrative arrangements for administering special education programs in rural areas and to determine whether a relationship existed between administrative arrangement, cooperative size, and compliance with the mandates of P.L.…

Within the literature on special education administration in rural areas three topics emerge: difficulties associated with bringing special education programs to rural areas; need for research pertaining to special education in rural areas; and a concern with cooperative arrangements as a means of providing special education programs in rural…

A questionnaire was developed in order to discover the aspects of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975) that prove both most and least problematic for rural special education cooperatives. A cooperative was defined as any interdistrict administrative arrangement that provides specific services to member school…