ABSTRACT A Study of Virginia Administrators with Responsibility for Division Special Education Services and Knowledge of Special Education School Law

This study investigated the knowledge of special education directors or division designees in school divisions across the Commonwealth of Virginia. One-hundred-twenty-nine Virginia special education directors or division designees were sent an on-line assessment describing 22 hypothetical scenarios representing current legal issues in the area of special education law as prescribed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The instrument used in this study was adapted from the Power (2007) study with a revision of response choices to provide more definitive results. A demographic questionnaire was adapted to determine individual and school division characteristics pertinent to the study. A total of 87 division special education administrators responded, a 67 % response rate. After initial analysis, 84 assessments were usable. The statistical package JMP-Software for Univariate and Multivariate Statistics (2005) was used to tabulate the responses and to examine the relationships between demographic variables and respondents ’ knowledge of special education law. Descriptive statistics were applied to identify deficiencies in the respondents ’ knowledge base. Results of this study yielded a mean total score of 80.3 % on the online assessment. Respondents scored below the mean in th