A Study of the Implementation of Public Law 94–142 for Handicapped Migrant Children

During the spring of 1980, the Research Triangle Institute conducted a telephone survey to determine the extent to which a sample of 153 handicapped migrant children were identified as being handicapped—and had IEP's prepared—by schools in which they were enrolled from January 1978 through June 1979. The survey also was used to determine the extent to which IEP's and IEP-related information were transmitted between, and utilized by, staff of the various schools in which the students were enrolled. Findings indicate that: (a) the various schools in which students were enrolled were inconsistent in identifying these students as needing special education and in preparing their IEP's; (b) IEP's were developed less frequently for the most mobile than for the less mobile migrant students; (c) only a small percentage of the students had IEP's developed at more than one school; and (d) IEP's and IEP-related information were rarely transmitted between schools.