The development of a comprehensible special education prior notice/due process form in compliance with Public Law 94-142

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a field-tested prior notice/due process form that would be comprehensible by parents. An ancillary purpose was to determine the comprehensibility of a prior notice form that is currently used in southwest Virginia school divisions. A research and development model was employed to develop the field-tested form. A form and an application test were written in the predesign and design stage. In the initial review stage, a panel of experts reviewed the test and revised the form, and parents read the form and took the application test. Based on expert comments and an analysis of parent responses, revisions were made to the test and form. Another form and test revision was made following a main field test of parents. The final cycle of the. study was an operational field test of 65 parents in 11 school divisions in southwest Virginia. In a secondary mail survey, 80 special education administrators indicated their preference for the two forms on various dimensions. Data from the operational field test were used to test the hypotheses. Item analyses, using both standard and educational discrimination indices, were conducted to suggest areas for improvement on the revised form. It was concluded from the findings of the study that: (1) the hypothesis that a significant difference would exist in comprehension between parents reading the revised form and those reading the standard form was not supported; (2) on the application test, parents can obtain an acceptable mean score of 80% by reading either form; (3) specific problem areas on the form still exist, and should be corrected; (4) special education administrators prefer the revised form for use with parents; and (5) the use of jargon and complex terms seem to particularly discriminate parents of lower educational levels. Recommendations were made for form development and form use.