Secondary students with mild disabilities often are unprepared to make a successful transition into adulthood. The traditional secondary curriculum for mildly disabled students focuses too much on remedial academics and not enough on the specific skills needed in social interactions, daily living, occupational choice, and employment. In addition,…

This paper describes a leadership model based on assumptions about connections between human development and organizational development, and the application of the model in leadership training for New Hampshire special education directors. The model assumes that four critical factors of human development outlined by Piaget and Meisels can be…

This study surveys states' mandates, definitions, and components of transition programs that assist disabled students in successfully moving to the community environment. Among the 60 state-level directors of special education surveyed, 34 state and 4 territorial directors responded to the questionnaire comprised of 8 questions, and nominated 230…

The Preservice Early Intervention Project of the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas (ACCK) was designed to recruit highly promising students into the preservice specialization in Early Childhood Special Education and to give them competencies from multiple disciplines to appropriately serve infants/toddlers with disabilities or developmental…

A consortium of universities in Utah developed a teacher training program in sensory impairments to address a long-term critical shortage of teachers qualified to service hearing-impaired/deaf and visually-impaired/blind students. The teacher shortage was a direct result of program cuts at the University of Utah. An advisory board was selected to…

A joint masters degree program in special education administration was developed through collaboration among Gallaudet University (Washington, D.C.), Plymouth State College (New Hampshire), and Keene State College (New Hampshire). The program was established in 1990 to meet the needs of special educators in rural areas of New Hampshire, Maine, and…

This practicum sought to reduce the number of inappropriate referrals to a rural school system's Special Education Department from the private sector, by increasing the private sector's knowledge of eligibility criteria for learning disability services. A school social worker conducted individualized consultations with clinicians in the private…

In the northern high desert region of San Bernardino County (California), about half of special education teachers do not hold special education credentials. In September 1988, the Desert-Mountain Rural Training Program began to provide appropriate training to uncredentialed special education teachers in this sparsely populated area. The program…

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 calls for each state to develop and implement a comprehensive system of personnel development (CSPD) to train special education personnel. Support for training activities has depended heavily on federal funds. However, in 1988, the basis for allocation of federal funds to such training…

The rural special education context is unique because of the distinct environment and the variety of rural school subcultures. However, little information about rural special education is available prior to the late 1970's, partially because federal agencies lacked a working definition of "rural." Although rural and urban special…

The successful computer program in rural Hillsboro-Deering (New Hampshire) Cooperative School District was the result of a program of excellence in education adopted by a completely new and inexperienced school board in 1978. Supported both by oldtimers and by newcomers, the board acquired new administrators, purged the faculty, and acquired…

This proceedings contains the conference program, a list of presenters, and profiles of keynote speakers. Program descriptions are provided for the 10 1989 Exemplary Rural and Small Schools Program award winners chosen by the National Rural and Small Schools Consortium, and for the 7 1989 Exemplary Rural Special Education Program award winners…

The Alaska Consortium for Transition Services (ACTS) is a federally funded project to develop and implement secondary transition planning for rural Alaska students with severe disabilities. Secondary transition is the process of change occurring as students prepare to move from high school to adult life. As rural Alaska's severely disabled…

Although children of migrant workers tend to have low educational achievement, there is a surprising lack of data concerning educational challenges faced by handicapped migrant children. It is often a teacher's advocacy that results in a student's enrollment in special education services. This paper describes a Florida program for training special…

A proposed project at the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences at the University of Tulsa would recruit and train speech-language pathologists for service to handicapped children and youth in rural settings. The project would address the shortage of speech-language pathologists in rural communities, the lack of training programs in…