Special Education Administrators in the United States: Perceptions on Policy and Personnel Issues

This study presents a description and analysis of special education administrators' perceptions regarding (a) personnel needs, (b) quality of preparation, (c) training needs, and (d) administrative policies/practices for mainstreaming students with disabilities. A randomly selected national sample of 2,900 special education directors were mailed a questionnaire focusing on these policy and personnel issues. A total of 1,468 special education directors responded to this survey. A current shortage of special education administrative personnel was found in 10% of the responding school districts. A projected shortage of special education administrative personnel in the next 4 years was found to affect 789 of the 1,468 school districts represented. The education and experience of many special education directors appears adequate; however, over one third of the respondents had neither certification in teaching special education nor appreciable experience teaching in special education. The policy/practice with the highest training need was “to increase collaboration between regular and special education.” Special education directors having backgrounds including both special education teaching and special education course work had significantly higher levels of mainstreamed students.