Based on a review of the literature, these guidelines are intended to assist policy planners and decision makers at state and local levels interested in establishing a state system of education service agencies (ESAs) or in modifying an existing system. The report offers an overview of education service agencies and organizes the guidelines into sections on planning, needs assessment, organizational features, implementation, and evaluation. There are three basic types of service agencies: special district ESAs, regionalized ESAs, and cooperative ESAs. While emphasizing that no one way to structure the state networks can be applied with equal effectiveness in all settings, the paper includes traditional arguments for and against each type. The conceptual model presented for development of a state plan follows closely the work of Roger Kaufman. Within each topic, major options available to planners are listed. (WD)