This proceedings contains approximately 92 presentations focusing on rural education and rural special education. Topics include: meeting the needs of handicapped and disabled students in rural areas; education and inservice training of special education teachers; teacher cooperation models; higher education of at-risk students; rural teacher education; job satisfaction and burnout among rural teachers; transition from school to work for learning disabled and other special education students; school-community and school-business partnerships; teaching methods, educational strategies, and alternative instruction for at-risk students; educational cooperation between districts; culturally relevant education for rural areas; distance learning technology for rural education and information access; vocational special education; dropout prevention programs and strategies; issues for rural public colleges and universities; effects on rural schools of reform legislation and "one best model" approaches; issues related to educational diagnosis and identification of at-risk students; national survey of at-risk status in rural, urban, and suburban schools; multigrade instruction; substance abuse prevention; organizational structure of rural schools; supported employment in rural areas; education for gifted students; negative effects of grade repetition on at-risk students; the role of the rural special education administrator; and social skills instruction for rural special education students. (SV)