The authors of this article describe a rural education project in which school personnel from a tri-school district participated in developing school based prereferral teams. Project staff provided in service and ongoing support to team members to assist in establishing prereferral assessment and intervention activities. Regular and special education teachers and support staff comprised the teams. Data were collected throughout a 5-year span to identify the number of students: being referred to prereferral teams, referred for special education assessment, and qualified for special education services. Data were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of prereferral activities
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