This manual lists the procedures followed and presents the checklists used by the Illinois State Board of Education to monitor school districts' special education programs to ensure that the districts meet minimum standards for educational programs, personnel, and fiscal management practices. The first section presents an overview describing the purposes and philosophy of special education monitoring in Illinois. A summary providing descriptions of major activities and projected outcomes for each phase of the compliance monitoring process is in the next section. Documentation which should be provided to the monitoring committee before on-site assessment occurs is listed in the third section. Check lists for reviewing student files and for eliciting parent attitudes are presented in the next two sections. The sixth section contains 31 standards for monitoring various aspects of the school districts' special education programs. Each standard has one or more investigative hypotheses for the monitoring committee to assess. Each hypothesis is given one of the following designations: compliance, corrective action needed, not reviewed, or undetermined. Standards cover such areas as handicap identification, referral of students, student evaluation, educational conferences, and resource programs. (CB)