Data-Based Consultation Case Study

resource specialists of the San Juan Unified School District in Carmichael, CA. The movement to reduce the &dquo;pull-out&dquo; approach in meeting the needs of special education youngsters has received national attention. It has come to be known as the Regular Education Initiative (REI), perhaps started with Maynard Reynolds and Margaret Wang’s paper in 1981. Madeline Will (1986) popularized the concept and called for a &dquo;shared responsibility&dquo; approach to the educational difficulties of special education students, a partnership between general and special education. The January, 1988, issue of the Jornal of Learning Disabilities devoted 90% or more of the articles to the REI. As if to provide an answer to this debate (decreasing &dquo;pull-out&dquo; programs, increasing successful mainstreaming), the consulting teacher model for special education service delivery has developed tremendous momentum (Huefner, 1988; Idol, ~’aolucci-Whitcomb, & Nevin, 1986; IdolMaestas, 1983; Lilly & Givens-Ogle, 1981; West & Idol, 1987). One model (West & Idol, 1987) that appears to be a strong service delivery system that will meet the current demands of the mildly handicapped as well as at-risk students in general education is collaborative consultation. This model describes the relationship among colleagues as equals, with each bearing a portion of the team’s responsibility to effect student change. (A team is