Interagency collaboration : related services for low-incidence handicapped learners in Tennessee

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of interagency collaboration as an alternative method of providing related services to low-incidence handicapped learners in Tennessee. It also was to provide accurate information from which a data base could be established that would enhance the development of a more cost-effective method of service delivery.

The target population for the study was the administrators in each of 145 LEAs responsible for Education of the Handicapped in their system. A copy of the survey instrument was distributed to these administrators in a meeting that was held in their Development District.

The following major conclusions were drawn:

1. Interagency collaboration in Tennessee is not being utilized to the extent possible.

2. Informal (verbal) agreements exist with greater regularity among special education and other state agencies than do formal (written) agreements.

3. Data confirmed those problems identified through literature as inhibitors to interagency collaboration.

4. Persistent communication and negotiation are the primary strategies used to overcome developmental and operational difficulties.

5. Multi-agency delivery of services to handicapped learners was viewed by respondents as both efficient and effective.

6. Theoretical forces which bring agencies together for collaboration are in reality those forces which bind agencies together for services.

7. Those forces viewed as restraining forces which inhibit collaboration correlate with those factors which surface as problems in the development and operation in collaborative agreements.

8. There was a broad representation of related services indicated as being provided to handicapped learners in Tennessee.

9. The respondents had proposed recommendations for present and future collaborative programming.

10. The literature had revealed successful strategies and effective practices in other states used in providing related services to low-incidence handicapped learners.