The Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of
Education funded the IDEA Partnerships in October of 1998 to build
capacity and develop leadership potential in their primary partner organizations and constituencies by modeling collaboration at all levels of partnership, creating and disseminating quality products that are user friendly,
and creating national and public access to information in an audiencefocused streamlined way (www.IDEAINFO.org). The IDEA Partnerships
include families, advocates, teachers, local service providers and administrators, and state and national policymakers.
One significant outcome that the IDEA Partnerships achieved provides
direction for current and future research in special education. Through collaborative needs assessments, the IDEA Partnerships identified five highpriority domains in which action was needed if educational opportunities
and services for students with disabilities were to be improved. The
domains are: Standards-Based Reforms, Personnel Development,
Overidentification, Family Involvement, and School Climate and
Discipline. The domains are described in a series of framing papers that
may be accessed at http://www.ideainfo.org/summit.htm.