The organization and format of this primer which is designed for state officials differs from the other two in this series based on the recommendations of the state officials who participated in the Special Education Technical Assistance for Charter Schools (SPEDTACS) Project state team meetings convened to assist in the development of the set of primers. In accordance with their recommendation, this primer was developed to provide short treatments of critical aspects of special education, to be used separately or in combination, to address specific areas most pertinent to the responsibility of all state officials concerned with special education in charter schools, especially the state director of special education and the state director for charter schools. State officials strongly advised us to produce a document composed of sections that could stand alone and be duplicated for use with new state staff and others who need a brief understanding of particular topics related to including students with disabilities in charter schools. This document is designed to meet this need. A glossary is appended. (Contains 11 footnotes.)