A paper on the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-142) provides information to state legislators on requirements and application procedures and speculates on significance of compliance for rural New Mexico school districts (New Mexico has never implemented P.L. 94-142). The five purposes of the paper are to describe major…

Preliminary data from a survey of 51 small, rural public school districts in New Mexico generally indicate that the quality of educational programming for students with severe handicaps is currently satisfactory and would improve with the additional federal funding under P.L. 94-142 (New Mexico was slated to receive funding effective January…

Two surveys were conducted to determine perceptions of administrators and teachers regarding the impact of Public Law 94-142 on programs for severely handicapped children in New Mexico's small, rural school districts. One year after the infusion of federal funding, 55 percent of the respondents perceived no improvement in the level of services.…

Teachers who have been trained to work with normal young children (early childhood certification) or with older handicapped children (special education certification) are often unprepared to assume the multiple responsibilities of the teacher of preschool handicapped children. The purpose of this project was to address this need by implementing…

This panel longitudinal study, originally conducted in Washington and systematically replicated in New Mexico, investigated the long-term educational placements of students served in preschool special education programs. Subjects were the 4338 children who graduated from preschool programs for children with disabilities during two 5-year periods.…

A 3-year university-based inservice training model for personnel serving handicapped preschoolers (aged 0-5) in rural New Mexico has been comprised of seven major steps: establishment of traineeships, information dissemination/recruitment, selection of trainees, needs assessment, development of coursework, training, and evaluation. Twenty-eight…

This study investigated initial placements, current placements, and stability of placements for 1,646 graduates of special education preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds with developmental disabilities from 61 New Mexico school districts. Subjects graduated in four waves from 1986-87 through 1989-90. Major findings were that 10 percent of the…

Evaluation data are presented for the Open Door infant, toddler, and preschool programs (Las Cruces, New Mexico) for handicapped young children. Effects of intervention are reported in terms of learner gain for each child, mean gains for each child across developmental areas, mean gains for groups within each developmental area, subsequent…

The report describes accomplishments of a project to provide training and support services to regular educators serving handicapped infants and preschoolers. Project activities for each of 3 years are delineated for the following areas: field-based regional workshops/conferences; summer campus-based inservice training; collection of materials on…

The ability of principals to evaluate special education teachers is an area of concern due to the principals' lack of training or experience in special education. Available research findings clearly indicate the need for training of principals in special education concerns. A statewide survey of principals was conducted to determine their levels…

Teachers who have been trained to work with normal young children (early childhood certification) or with older disabled children (special education certification) are unprepared to assume the multiple responsibilities of the teacher of preschool disabled children. Prior to the 1979-1980 academic year, few (if any) formal on-going inservice (or…

This study investigated initial placements, current placements, and stability of placements for 2,643 graduates of special education preschool programs for children (ages 3-4 years) with developmental disabilities from 74 New Mexico school districts during the first 5 years of such programming (1986-87 to 1990-91). Major findings were that 10% of…

This paper examines the first educational placement and current placement for 1068 New Mexico students who graduated from special education preschool programs, 1987-1989. All subjects met eligibility criteria for the developmentally disabled and were divided evenly between rural and urban districts. With regard to initial placements, 9% of…

The paper discusses the transdisciplinary model, an alternative approach for meeting the needs of children in early education programs for the handicapped. A brief review of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to providing services for such children is provided, and the limitations of the two approaches are examined. The…