A comprehensive descriptive study of educational service agencies (ESAs), this project sought to provide an initial database on ESAs that could support future inquiry, to assemble information on present practice that could be used by states to guide the formation of new ESA systems or the modification of existing ones, and to develop an improved classification system, making possible more precise terminology and leading to clearer communication on subjects related to ESAs. Twenty-six states were surveyed using two questionnaires, which were distributed between July and October in 1978. Data were analyzed according to nine categories and further broken down into three types of state networks--the special district ESAs, the regionalized ESAs, and the cooperative ESAs. The report is divided into eleven chapters; each considers one of the nine principal characteristics studied. Chapter eleven presents a discussion of the findings. One important conclusion is that the large number of selected characteristics is useful in identifying the critical variables to be considered in the development of a meaningful taxonomy of types of ESAs. Such a taxonomy is an essential prerequisite to the design of evaluation strategies for comparing the effectiveness of different types of education service agencies. (Author/WD)