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This study examined the relation between multiple family and child factors and the amount and type of parent participation in schooling activities for 35 families of children aged seven and eight with developmental delays. Informational resources and school characteristics related most strongly to variations in amount and type of participation at school and home. Parental beliefs and attitudes about school related only to variations in amount and type participation at school. Family SES and child status related to variations in amount and type of participation at home but not at school. Implications for practitioners are discussed.

Eighty-seven children with developmental delays identified in the preschool years (CA 3-4) were followed through elementary school in order to document regular or special education placement, child characteristics associated with placement, and preschool characteristics associated with placement. More than 3/4 of the children were in special education programs through the primary grades, and over 1/2 remained in separate placements throughout their elementary school years. Regular and special education placed groups differed on cognitive, communication, and daily living scores assessed in preschool and at entrance to elementary school. Groups also differed in teachers' perceptions of competencies and problems gathered over the elementary school period. Differences among special education placed groups were limited primarily to cognitive and learning abilities rather than to social/behavioral characteristics.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act introduces a new discretionary category of preschool eligibility: "developmental delay." A recent DEC position paper supports the use of this new category but raises concerns about the transition from the broad category of developmental delay instead of eligibility categories commonly used in elementary school. Investigators at UCLA have been following two cohorts of young children with developmental delays and their families since 1979. Findings from these longitudinal studies relate directly to the concerns raised in the DEC document and support the introduction of the new category of eligibility.The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the 1991 amendments (P.L 102-119) expand services to young children with disabilities through the addition of required services, by broadening eligibility criteria, and by extending rights afforded to school age children to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The idea that services should be provided in the least restrictive environment is central to the Act As the states prepare to make the leap from policy to practice, a number of concerns have emerged regarding the population to be served and about the most appropriate types of services. In this paper, we discuss issues raised by the expanded eligibility criteria and provide empirical support to a recent DEC position paper that has addressed those issues (McLean, Smith, McCormick, Shakel, & McEvoy, 1991).The IDEA Amendments introduce a new discretionary category of preschool eligibility.The category, developmental delay, is intended to include children from 3 to 5 years of age with significant delays in one or more domains of physical, cognitive, communication, social and emotional, and adaptive development who, as a result of their delays, need special education and related services. In essence, the introduction of this new eligibility option allows states to serve preschool children without assigning them a categorical disability label.The introduction of a new category for services raises a number of issues, however. The DEC position paper (McLean et al., 1991), although supporting the new eligibility option, identifies several of these issues, including concerns about the transition from a broad category of developmental delay to eligibility categories commonly used in elementary schools.

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