The study examines the implementation of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, in one metropolitan school system. The first section details the judicial and legislative background, enactment, and politics of implementation of the law. Chapter 2 reviews theories and research about the conditions for educational change, and describes the study's research design in which 9 sample and 7 case study schools were selected from 67 in the district and implementation criteria designated. The school district from which the schools were chosen is examined in the third chapter which touches on merits and disadvantages of the administrative structure, the history of special education in the district, and implementation strategies employed. The next two chapters focus on implementation factors in the elementary and secondary schools selected, with overview of each of the school's student population, administrative climate, teacher morale, and rate of referral to special education. Among findings were that high performing schools shared a commitment and ability to meet individual needs of children as well as a differentiated program structure; and that secondary schools were shown to be very limited in the special education services they offered and in the handicapped populations they served. A final chapter summarizes implementaton progress and problems in the following areas: child find/referral; provision of services in the least restrictive environment; staffings and individualized education programs; the school district; the general experience of P.L. 94-142; the federal, state, and local role; and strategies of leadership at the local level. Among the study's conclusions are that ways must be found to change grass root routines; complete federal delegation to the states of responsibility for implementing the law would be an abdication of federal responsibility; and implementation may be only indirectly, if at all, related to favorable outcomes for children. (CL)