Education for the Handicapped

PARENT INVOLVEMENT in preschool programs for handicapped children is a current trend. Not only is there a research base for such a strategy (Bronfenbrenner, 1962), but a substantial degree of parent involvement in decision making is mandated by law (PL 94-142). The current and future direction for expanding parent involvement activities at the preschool level is unclear. While some educa-tors in the field are promoting the idea of individually matching services to the values and needs of parents (Karnes & Zehrbach, 1975), a recent study by Hocutt (1980) indi-cated that individual parent programs are not a top priority for experts in the field. In this study a panel of 20 nationally known experts in education policy and/or early childhood The preparation of this article was supported in part b