Effects of participatory planning on internal consistency within the special education referral, planning and placement process and the Individualized Education Programs (IEP) were investigated. A stratified representative sampling procedure was used to select 114 handicapped students enrolled in one district's special education program. Referral information, psychoeducational assessment results and IEPs were reviewed and coded on 3 checklists which contained 16 different instructional areas. Results revealed the predictive power of various professionals and noted, among other findings, that assessment results provided by the educational diagnostician and the school psychologist do not provide predictive power in readng and mathematics. Among recommendations made were that students should be assessed at least in those areas for which they have been referred; and that present level statements, short-term objectives, and annual goals must be related to one another in some coherent fashion within instructional areas. (Author/CL)