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Reducing fiscal and administrative burdens on Texas school districts involved in special education due process proceedings
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to produce a list of strategies used by Texas school districts to reduce the fiscal and administrative burdens associated with special education due process proceedings. Most of the unnecessary burdens arise from adversarial relationships that force the proceedings to move toward the more formal stages of due process. The strategies identified by this study are primarily aimed at preventing or reducing adversarial relationships. Input from a panel of experts was used to help produce a preliminary list of 46 strategies for special education administrators to use as they interact with parents, students, and faculty within the existing framework of special education in Texas. A stratified random sample of 90 Texas special education directors and the persons to whom they reported (either a superintendent or an assistant superintendent) were asked to indicate the level of effectiveness of each strategy they had used and their level of willingness to use each one. Pairings were made for 59 of the returned responses, matching the special education director with the superintendent to whom he/she reported. The data were than analyzed for variance of the means of the responses using Veldman's Analysis of Behavioral Science Data. Of the 46 strategies listed on the questionnaire, 34 were found to have the mean response for the combined population above the moderate level for effectiveness and willingness to use. Based on the results of the analysis of the data, it was concluded that 34 strategies can be used by Texas special education administrators to minimize the unnecessary burdens associated with special education due process proceedings in their school districts. It was also suggested that the other 12 strategies which appeared in the questionnaire might be useable by some special education administrators depending upon their particular set of circumstances. This study recommended that Texas special education administrators be made aware of the relationships of unnecessary fiscal and administrative burdens to adversarial relationships in special education due process matters. It was also recommended that the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education develop a formal means of sharing time and money saving ideas. Continued research in this area was suggested, particularly to follow-up on the willingness of building level administrators to use the 34 strategies suggested by this study.
Description
Typescript (photocopy).Subject
Educational Administration1984 Dissertation K83
Children with disabilities
Education
Law and legislation
Texas
Conflict management
Texas
Collections
Citation
Kopec, Joseph Francis (1984). Reducing fiscal and administrative burdens on Texas school districts involved in special education due process proceedings. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -592368.
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