2003 Report Process Used to Review State Policies

In general, procedures used for this analysis of states' written participation and accommodation policies were similar to the procedures that had been used in the past. As was the case in previous years, the information for this report was gathered through the examination and analysis of publicly available written documents. This is in contrast to other approaches that survey informed respondents and that may use a restricted list of accommodations.

Initially, participation and accommodation policies for all 50 states were obtained from states' Web sites as of December 31, 2003. Then, all 50 states were given the opportunity to verify that we had identified the most up-to-date and complete policy documents. The initial compilation of data for each state was placed in a single document, referred to as a state profile. The profiles were mailed to states in April, 2004. States were then asked to verify the information in their profiles by indicating: (1) if the information was accurate, (2) if they needed additional information in order to decide whether the information contained in their profiles was accurate, or (3) if the profiles contained inaccurate information and that changes needed to be made to the profile. If a state requested changes to the profile, we required written documentation as to the source of those changes before accepting the changes. State officials were asked to return their edited profiles to us via mail, e-mail, or fax. The information from the verified state profiles was then placed in the tables contained in this report. A complete list of state documents used to compile information for this report is in Appendix A.

This analysis did not attempt to determine the degree to which state policies complied with federal requirements under IDEA or NCLB. Those determinations would need to be made by the appropriate federal authorities and should not be inferred from this report.