In 1990, the Illinois State Board of Education established an initiative to develop community-based services for students with emotional and behavioral disorders and to reduce out-of-community placements. Several model projects were established throughout the state. Interagency collaboration was identified as a key component of each project. The purposes of this study were to examine how direct-service providers across the various childcare agencies (e.g., mental health, children and family services, juvenile probation, local education) perceived current collaborative processes in general and to determine whether the different agencies' specific opinions regarding collaboration converged or diverged. Findings support a consensus of opinion regarding collaboration across the various service-provider groups. Implications for current practice and future training are discussed.
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