This study examines the circumstances under which a large urban school system opens the budget development process to the input of citizens groups and the difficulties involved in this effort. The scope of the study is limited to the analysis of the 1977 Budget Task Force (BTF) of the Philadelphia School District and observations of the Philadelphia Board of Education relating to citizen participation on budget development. The document contains a section on methodology; a review of the literature; a section on data analysis, findings, and conclusions; implications and recommendations; the conceptual framework for evaluating the success of the community participation; suggestions for further research; and a summary. Appendices and a bibliography are also included. The conceptual framework for evaluating citizen participation was constructed using five variables (origin, composition, scope of task, time span, and locus of decision-making) and eight fixed elements (candor, representativeness, consensus on criteria, time, access to information and people, support services, dissemination, and evaluation/feedback). (Author/IRT)