The use of communications technology as an influential educational tool to meet such pressing concerns as increased academic requirements and shrinking financial resources will be tested in one of the most geographically remote areas of rural New York State. The pilot laboratory will consist of an 18-member school district consortium that is currently part of the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Building on the pioneering efforts of other innovative rural schools throughout the country that have successfully integrated a new wave of communications technology into the classroom setting, the Delaware-Chenango program will combine a federal-state-local-private sector partnership critical to the strategic development of a comprehensive communications network. A state-level task force will be created to provide the standard for a self-sustaining network, including on-going development of a state-local educational telecommunications capability, as well as identification and encouragement of research, development, and strategies to support implementation of cost-effective educational innovations in rural New York State. Collaborating in a microcosm of rural America, the pilot program will provide its state-level co-sponsors, the New York State Education Department and the New York State Legislative Commission on Rural Resources, and a private sector sponsor--AT&T Communications, Inc.--with innovations for replication in other rural areas. (Author/BRR)