 General Information & School Programs - Part I (52 KB)
Data collected in this part of the school questionnaire will be used for providing basic information on the types and intensity of services being offered to all students within the sample schools. The first section focuses on the school type and environment, which includes grade levels served, type of school, enrollment composition, poverty, and basic composition of special education enrollments by grade level. We have also asked for general information about the characteristics of the school environment, the types of students, the length of the school day, the availability of extended-time programs, and resources available for parents. These data provide general contextual information about the sample schools and help us compare how opportunities for special education students vary in different types of communities around the U.S.
Special Education Programs Operated Within the School - Part IIA (69 KB)
This part of the questionnaire will collect information about special education enrollments for the different types of services offered to this population of students. It will be used in conjunction with the staffing and other resource data collected in Part III of the school and district questionnaires to determine per pupil expenditures on various types of services offered to special education students. In this section, we will also collect information on the operation of pre-referral programs that are designed to reduce the identification of special education students. We expect all schools to respond to this part of the school questionnaire.
Special Education Programs Operated by Your Central Office - Part IIB (69 KB)
This part of the school questionnaire will be used to collect data on special education programs that the central office operates and that are not officially part of the school at which they are operated. For example, in some cases, districts will use classrooms at specific schools to house preschool programs that may or may not officially operate under the jurisdiction of the principal. These programs merely borrow or rent classroom space from the school. In order to avoid confusion about enrollment counts, we have asked principals to provide this information separately and to allow the person at the school most knowledgeable about these programs to complete this part of the questionnaire.
Special Education Programs Operated by External Agencies - Part IIC (67 KB)
This part of the school questionnaire will be used to collect data on special education programs that are operated by external agencies such as intermediate educational units or IEUs (e.g., county offices of education, boards of cooperative educational services, and various other intermediate school districts). These programs are not officially a part of the school at which they are operated. For example, in some cases, IEUs will use classrooms at specific schools to house programs directed at specific populations of special education students. These programs are operated under the jurisdiction and supervision of the IEU, and may serve students from a consortium of school districts in the local region or county. The programs merely borrow or rent classroom space from the school. In order to avoid confusion about enrollment counts, we have asked principals to provide this information separately, and to allow the person at the school most knowledgeable about these programs to complete this part of the questionaire.
Request for Personel Lists and School Budgets - Part III (55 KB)
This part of the school questionnaire requests a variety of rosters, lists, and budget documents available from the school for the purpose of estimating more detailed expenditures for various types of services provided to general and special education students. We will collect comprehensive information on all employees from the custodian to the principal and from general to special education staff because we are interested in understanding the full expenditures on services to various student populations. We not only want to know how much is spent on general education students for purpose of comparison, but we recognize that a substantial portion of general education spending may directly or incidentally benefit special education student populations. The comprehensive data collected on school staff will help us to determine how much is being spent on various types of general and special education services (e.g., the self-contained classroom, departmentalized instruction, the special classroom, resource programs, related services, and aide time). It will also provide data on expenditures for general administration and support services at the school site (e.g., the principal's office, instructional support, and maintenance and operations). These data will provide detailed breakdowns of expenditures by program, including general education, programs for limited English proficient students, Title I, gifted education, and special education. These breakdowns will enable us to determine how much of each of these programs is used for various kinds of service delivery arrangements such as preschool classrooms, self-contained classrooms, integrated classrooms, pull out programs, departmentalized classrooms, extended day programs, speech and language therapy, and related services including physical and occupational therapy. These data will be combined with the information on the general education and special education teacher questionnaires described below to estimate expenditures on specific service delivery approaches for students with different needs.
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