Court decisions concerning the residential placement of disabled children have tended to assign the primary responsibility to school districts when a child's education is affected by the placement. Because the costs of full-time residential placement are very high, school districts should analyze requests for such placement quickly and should be inventive in suggesting programs that will utilize the resources of other social agencies in addition to those of the school. Rejection of requests for placement may lead to litigation that could result in the district having to shoulder the whole burden, even for those aspects of the placement not specifically linked to educational needs. This report reviews several legal issues associated with the assignment of responsibility for various degrees of residential care, citing 30 relevant court cases. (PGD)