Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress International Special Education Conference Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity? 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland

home about the conference programme registration accommodation contact

Bringing Information Home:
A Case Study in Grassroots Information Systems for Families in Rural Areas

Katharin A. Kelker
Montana State University, Billings, Montana
kkelker@msubillings.edu

Abstract

Information is a high-priority need for families of children with disabilities.   For those living in rural, remote areas, access to information is perhaps even more critical because their local resources for support may be extremely limited and access to resources in larger communities may be expensive and logistically difficult to access.   This paper discusses the historical evolution of information dissemination to parents of children with disabilities in Montana, the fourth largest state with a population of 917,621 located in one of the most rural, remote parts of the United States.   The study traces the evolution in information dissemination from person-to-person contact to use of sophisticated communication technology and explores the advantages and disadvantages of these changes.

Bringing Information Home:

A Case Study in Grassroots Information Systems for Families in Rural Areas

            Information is a high-priority need for families of children with disabilities (Bailey, Blasco, & Simoeonsson, 1992; Hadadian & Merbler, 1995).   According to Turnbull and Turnbull (1997), families say that their greatest needs for information related to (1) future services, (2) present services, (3) how to teach their child, (4) the nature of their child’s disability, (5) experiences other parents who have a child with a similar disability, (6) handling the emotional and time demands of parenthood, (7) community resources, and (8) legal rights (Cooper & Allread, 1992; Gowen, Christy, & Sparling, 1993).   Families need information that is accessible, relevant, and time-efficient.   They need to be “in the know.”

            For families who live in rural, remote areas, access to information is perhaps even more critical because their local resources for support and inclusion may be extremely limited and access to resources in larger communities may be expensive and logistically difficult to access.   This paper discusses the historical evolution of the dissemination of information to parents of children with disabilities living in Montana, the fourth largest state with a population of just over 900,000 located in one of the most rural, remote parts of the United States (U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts).

Characteristics of Montana

With 917,621 residents scattered over 147,046 square miles, the Montana is wide

enough to stretch from New York City to Detroit but has the population density of 6.2 persons per square mile (World Almanac).   The largest city in Montana is Billings with a population of 116,400 (State of Montana-Biz).   The closest larger cities are Denver, Colorado; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Spokane, Washington.   Per capita income in Montana is 45 th to 47th in the nation (U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts).   Among the poorest people in Montana are families with children who live in rural, remote areas (Howley & Bickel, 2002).  

Eastern Montana is a land of high, arid prairies where ranchers raise cattle and grow wheat, and petroleum companies extract oil and gas. The Rocky Mountains dominate Western Montana which has a long history of mining and lumber industries.   The beautiful scenery attracts tourists to Yellowstone and Glacier Parks, skiers to the ski resorts in the winter, and campers and hikers to the wilderness areas in the summer (Carpenter & Provorse, 1998).   Overall, Montana has a resource- and service-based economy with little manufacturing or technical industry, making it similar to many less-developed countries throughout the world (World Almanac).

            Looking at a map of Montana, one notices that there are several major highways running east and west, but few roads going north and south.   In other words, the road system is developed for speedy travel through Montana, but not within its borders (World Almanac).   Montana is served internally by small computer airlines with 6-18 passenger airplanes.   An airline ticket from Billings to Helena, the state capital, can cost as much as $300, so because of the expense, air travel is not a common means of travel for the average family.

            Montana has over 450 school districts, many of them with only one small school.   These small schools were born of geographic necessity.   Because of mountainous terrain and far-flung communities, it has not made sense to consolidate schools (Office of Public Instruction).   Many small school districts remain because it would be more expensive to transport the students over long distances than to maintain the community schools.   So today Montana still has over 100 active one- and two-room schools serving diverse multi-age, multi-grade populations in rural, remote areas (Office of Public Instruction).   To put this into perspective, from 1980 to 1995, the number of one-room, one-teacher public schools still in use in the United States dropped from 1,200 to 428 (Gulliford, 1996). Today there are fewer than 400 one-room schools and about one quarter of them are in Montana (Boss, 2000).  

            Sophisticated medical services are available in Montana in three major communities, Billings, Missoula and Great Falls, but many rural counties have no resident doctors.   Rural clinics are often staffed by physician assistants and nurses who rely on medical advice from doctors in the larger cities.   There are only about 82 pediatricians in Montana to serve a school age population of 186,130 and most pediatricians practice in the larger towns.   The state supports just two board-certified pediatric neurologists, one each in Billings and Helena (Yudkowsky, Suk-Fongs, & Siston, 2000).

            When a child is born with disabilities in Montana, the birth usually takes place in a hospital in a larger community, but the parents and the child go back home after the birth and deal with their needs and concerns in a context where sophisticated types of information and services are faraway and few local people have any knowledge of how to help the family meet the daily challenges of raising a child with disabilities.

            Montana’s older model for providing services to children with disabilities required that families send their children to live in foster homes in the larger cities or at the institutions, Boulder River School and Hospital in Boulder or the School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls.   But after the deinstitutionalization that occurred in Montana in the 1970s, virtually all children with disabilities now remain with their natural families in their home communities (Kelker, 1981).  

To support families raising a child with disabilities, the state developed a system of nonprofit corporations called Child and Family Service Agencies (CFS) to provide services at no cost to families.   For the purpose of providing universal services, the state was divided into five regions, each with a CFS Agency to offer home-based services to every eligible family in its region.   The home visitors (now called Family Support Specialists) helped families learn how to provide training for their children in the home setting.   They also connected families with local services and, in some cases, arrange for respite care (Kelker, 1981).

            This de-centralized system of services has provided many advantages, not the least of which is the ability of families to keep their children at home.   However, the full responsibility for care of the children rests with the families, who often express feelings of being isolated or overwhelmed (Kelker, 1981).   It is in this context of family need that the first statewide program for parents of children with disabilities in Montana developed as a parent to parent movement, initially without government support but with the energy and knowledge of more experienced parents reaching out to new parents.

Parents, Let’s Unite for Kids

            Parents, Let’s Unite for Kids (PLUK) was founded in May, 1984, by two parents of children with disabilities, Kathy Kelker and Rusty Koch, with a manifesto written at Rusty’s kitchen table.   In part this manifesto said:

            PLUK was founded by parents who felt strongly that parents of children

with disabilities need to band together to give each other information and

support.   It seemed foolish for each new parent to try to learn all over again

what other parents already know and would willingly share.   It also seemed important for parents to lend each other support because of the healing that

takes place when people who share a common problem can work together to

find solutions (PLUK).

Funding for the organization began with private donations and charitable fund-raising events.   Eventually, PLUK supported itself financially from a variety of sources including federal, state and private grants, fees for some services, and charitable gifts (PLUK).

Newsletter

Kelker and Koch, the founding mothers, initially placed their highest priority on getting information out to parents of children with disabilities who did not have good sources of information where they lived.   From a small office offered rent free on the campus of Montana State University-Billings, volunteers Kelker and Koch disseminated their first parent information, a newsletter called PLUK News, which set the tone for all future efforts.   The initial newsletter contained summaries of research findings from medical and other professional publications as well as announcements of upcoming events of interest to parents of children with disabilities and an advice column called “Ask PLUK.”    The Ask PLUK column was an immediate “hit.” Every Ask PLUK answer was carefully researched so parents would get the best quality information in response to their questions.   Keeping up the column on a monthly basis meant that the PLUK volunteer staff had continually to research questions that parents were asking.   Staff responded to legal, educational and medical questions, sometimes of a complex nature.   As the ASK PLUK answers appeared in print and the parents responded to what they were reading, PLUK established itself as a credible source of up-to-date, accurate information (R. Runkel, personal communication, April 18, 2004).     

The first edition of PLUK News was circulated as free copies from parent to parent; the initial run was 200 copies and it took some months before all copies were distributed.   After that the publication appeared monthly throughout the school year with one edition in the summer.   The largest circulation of the print version was 2500 with subscription rates rising from $10 to a current rate of $25 per year (PLUK).

No Cost Distribution Locations

            In order to reach more parents with information targeted to their needs, PLUK staff developed a series of three-fold pamphlets designed to give basic information about disabilities and resources for family support.   These materials were distributed at no cost to the recipients in places or at events where parents were likely to gather.   Table 1 below shows the top 15 locations for distribution during the four years from 1988 to 1992 (PLUK Archives).

Table 1

Distribution Site List for 1988-1992 Arranged by Percentage of Materials Distributed

Library

            The need for information for the newsletter and informational pamphlets led naturally to establishing a PLUK library (J. Sands, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   From the outset, Parents, Let’s Unite for Kids had a central library in its Billings office.   At first there were few materials, but every item was “carefully chosen with a view to its accessibility to parents and the currency and quality of its information” (J. Sands, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   Initially, the organization’s director managed the library and knew all of the volumes by heart, but gradually the library grew too big for an amateur librarian to manage.   In 1990, PLUK hired a full time librarian who regularized the cataloguing system and streamlined processes for acquisition and circulation of materials, now expanded to include not just books, but videos, audiocassettes, software, specialized curricula and materials for patrons who were blind or hearing impaired (R. Holt, personal communication, April 16, 2004).

            The PLUK library circulates materials via the postal system since most of its patrons live in rural areas far from Billings.   The materials are sent out to families with postage paid by PLUK; the families then return the materials at their own cost.   There are no fines for overdue materials (PLUK).   If materials are lost, they must be replaced by the patron.   Remarkably over more than 20 years of using this system, few materials—even expensive ones--have been lost (J. Sands, personal communication, May 6, 2004).

Publications

            An outgrowth of the popularity of the PLUK newsletter and library was a demand from parents for publications authored and published by the PLUK organization “with a parent audience in mind” (J. Duffy, July 21, 2004).   In 1990 PLUK purchased its own printing press and began to publish monographs on topics of interest to parents:   inclusion, parents’ rights, transition, early intervention services, how to advocate for your child.   These publications were provided to parents for the cost of printing and mailing.   Again, much effort went into making sure that the content of these publications was current and accurate, but that “the language was jargon-free and accessible to parents without professional background in special education” (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

Parent and Professional Collaboration

            During the 1990s about one third of the patrons of the PLUK library and the subscribers to the newsletter identified themselves as professionals in medical, social service or educational fields.   Professionals like the State Director of Special Education Robert Runkel (personal communication, April 18, 2004) contacted PLUK for copies of its publications and sometimes even paid for “extra runs” of materials that they disseminated to their professional organizations (e.g., Montana Association of School Psychologists, Council for Exceptional Children).   Instead of offering a separate parent conference, PLUK partnered with the Montana Council on Exceptional Children (CEC) and developed a parent strand for the annual CEC Conference (S. Bailey-Anderson, personal communication, April 18, 2004).   CEC provided scholarships for parents to attend the conference so this partnership became an opportunity for parents and professionals to hear the same speakers and learn the same information at the same time.

Parent-to-Parent Information

            In 1986 PLUK received a federal, three-year grant to run a Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) to inform parents about their rights and responsibilities under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).   Having this modest amount of grant money allowed PLUK to hire its first paid staff, a fulltime director and four Family Support Consultants.   All of the staff members were themselves parents of children with disabilities, a tradition that continued until 2000 (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   Each of the paid staff was responsible for covering one of the five regions of the state that had been designated for the Child and Family Service Agencies.   The Family Support Consultants responded to telephone calls from parents and provided training workshops related to federal and state special education laws.

            There was really no model for the Family Support Consultant role, so the first people in these positions developed their job descriptions as they worked directly with parents (N. Staigmiller, personal communication, August 4, 2004).   Each of the five regions evolved slightly differently, but the main focus of the Consultants was “to provide accurate information to parents and to do so in a way that that was clear, correct and supportive” (V. DeLand, personal communication, August 4, 2004).   The Consultants operated autonomously in their regions and made most decisions on their own.   They each worked out of their homes and were supplied with a business telephone and toll free telephone number and office supplies.   Twice per year, the Consultants received training from the central office in Billings so that they were kept apprised of new information to be shared with the parents they served (N. Staigmiller, personal communication, August 4, 2004).

            The Parent Consultants “theoretically” worked 12 hours per week, but most put in many more hours than this (V. DeLand, personal communication, August 4, 2004).   Their typical work week extended through the weekends and often involved spending many hours on the telephone with parents who were going through some crisis with their child with a disability.   The Consultants served as “counselors, mentors, and friends”; their effectiveness was based on their own personal experiences with disability in the family and their knowledge of resources and supports that other parents could use (N. Staigmiller, August 5, 2004).

            The Parent Consultants gave at least one free training workshop for parents in their regions each month during the school year from September through May.   Topics covered in these workshops were parent needs and emotional reactions, special education law, the disability services system, the nature of particular disabilities (e.g., autism, learning disabilities, cognitive delays), life planning, family adaptation and many more.   Workshops were often sponsored by local parent support groups and were delivered in all sorts of locations, including libraries, schools, clinics, parents’ homes and businesses, parks, and recreation facilities (PLUK).   Consultants usually traveled in their own cars as much as 300 miles one way to deliver a workshop and returned home for a round trip in one day of 600 miles.   Though Consultants received modest salaries, their salaries barely covered their expenses.   But their enthusiasm for working with parents was based, “not on financial benefits, but upon a commitment to sharing information with others” (V. DeLand, personal communication, August 4, 2004).

Expanded Parent-to-Parent Services

            By 1995 the PLUK parent-to-parent services provided by four part time staff members and the Director were overwhelmed by demand, so the organization changed its model and began a program to train volunteer parents in each region to take on some of the support roles that Consultants had been doing alone.   An Americorps volunteer organized the original statewide parent-to-parent system.   Over one year’s time, she recruited and trained over 100 volunteers, with 20 to 25 people assigned to each region.   The volunteers were issued phone cards to pay for calls related to their PLUK activities.   These volunteers had enough training and support to be able to answer parent calls and provide basic information.   In more serious or involved situations, the volunteers could refer parents to the paid regional consultants (E. Popp, personal communication February 27, 2005).

            This volunteer system invigorated the organization and expanded parent involvement significantly.   Parent calls were answered more promptly and information was disseminated much more quickly.   However, the system was difficult to maintain. Turnover of volunteers was high (up to 80% in one year), and the need to train new volunteers became time-consuming for paid staff (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

Organizational Change

            The attempt to use volunteers to expand PLUK’s ability to serve was an effort to find a “quick fix” to the larger problem of adjusting to the growth of the organization (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   PLUK was experiencing greater demand for its services, but could not respond personally to every parent that asked for information and support.   When the PLUK organization reached this stage in its development, it was moving through a new phase in its organizational life-cycle.   As Johannsen (2004) points out, because organizations go through different phases of growth, the challenge is to recognize the changes in the organization and respond to them in such a way that the organization continues to thrive.

            For PLUK as an organization, the dilemma was how to continue to be an effective source of information for families of children with disabilities while maintaining its identity as a grassroots, self-help organization rather than a service agency (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).

            As Daft (1992) suggests, organizations can be said to go through life stages like birth, youth, midlife and maturity.   PLUK was moving from a the midlife stage to becoming a more mature organization with more bureaucracy and structure, while at the same time it was struggling to maintain the energy, intensity and sense of mission that it once had in its youth as a smaller organization.

Table 2

Organizational Life Cycles and Corresponding Typical Features

Source:   Adapted from Daft, R.L. (1992).   Organizational theory and design.   St. Paul, MN:   West Publishing.

Organizational Crisis

            One of the values of a self-help organization like PLUK is the personal connections made between parents.   Unfortunately, providing person-to-person contact in a rural, remote area is expensive and labor intensive.   In the mid-1990s the PLUK staff and board recognized that the organization had reached a critical period in its history (W. O’Connor, personal communication, January 8, 2005).   In some ways the organization was suffering from doing its job too well.   More and more families, as well as professionals, were demanding service, but the sources of funding were not expanding fast enough to meet the demand.   In an effort to be personal and provide most services at no cost to families, PLUK had created expectations that could not be honored if the client base became too large (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   Travel costs were too high.   It was no longer cost effective to provide training workshops for small audiences of fewer than 10 people.   Volunteers were not a reliable source of service to new parents.   So the organization faced some difficult questions:   Should families be charged fees for each service they used?   Should some services be eliminated because they were too costly? Or was there a more cost effective way to deliver services to growing number of families wanting service (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004)?

            The PLUK staff and Board met on several occasions to plan strategically for the next step in the organization’s life cycle.   The collective decision was to move away from person-to-person contact and use technology as a cheaper, more efficient way of providing information to families living in remote locations (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   The staff and board members viewed this change as necessary, but one which would cause a loss of the personal nature of the services that had been a hallmark of PLUK’s grassroots efforts from its inception.   But ultimately the tradeoff of personal service for more comprehensive service was considered the only way to keep the nonprofit organization viable and responsive (W. O’Connor, personal communication, January 18, 2005).

            Another organizational realization that came at this time was that parents were different and wanted different things from a parent support organization.    Fewer and fewer parents were willing to spend time in training workshops; their family and work schedules did not allow them the free time to attend workshops in the evenings or on weekends (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   Also, parents overall reported being less committed to “activism” or to influencing public policy regarding disability issues.   Their interests were in “bread and butter” issues—how to raise their child, where to find good services, and how to pay for medical bills.   Very few parents described themselves as having the time or the interest in volunteering to help other parents, even though they recognized that parent-to-parent support had been valuable to them (N. Staigmiller, August 5, 2004).

Communication Technology

            In 1988 PLUK became a member of the Alliance for Technology Access (ATA).   With this membership and the training it provided for staff, PLUK became a center for disseminating information to parents about assistive technology, particularly computer access, that might be helpful to children with disabilities (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004).   At the central office in Billings, PLUK established an assistive technology lab where parents and children could come to try out software and computer access devices.  

This positive experience with computers made PLUK a computer-friendly organization.             The library holdings were catalogued online.   The office became computer networked.   The regional staff members were issued computers and did much of their work and record-keeping using computers.   By 1996, PLUK was internally a high tech organization heavily immersed in computer technology for its own operations (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

With the decision of the board and staff to move away from costly person-to-person services, PLUK began to explore information dissemination using technology as a vehicle.   The first effort was a series of locally produced videos that came to replace the in person workshops that PLUK had given for many years.   The videos used parents and professionals to convey the same information that used to be provided in workshops.   The scripts were based on the content of the workshops and had the advantage of having several presenters instead of just one person providing information in a lecture format. The presenters in the videos were volunteers, not paid for their participation.   The production, however, was done professionally at a cost of between $10,000 and $15,000 for 15 to 30 minute videos (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004). The videos were available for loan from the PLUK library and quickly became popular for use by individual families or for support groups in rural communities (J. Sands, May 6, 2004).

Database

            For years, the PLUK staff in the main office and regional locations had answered the same questions over and over again about the service system in Montana and the United States.   They had available to them various paper directories, most of which were quickly out-of-date.   In the mid-1990s PLUK replaced this paper system with a custom-made service system database containing information about all of the local and state disability services, and much information about regional and national services as well.   The creation of this database was an enormous undertaking, requiring customized software and months of data entry.   Maintaining the database is a constant effort since over 80% of the entries change in some way each year, but the effort involved has proved to be worthwhile (R. Holt, personal communication, April 17, 2004).   The effect of having the database is a reduction in the amount of staff time necessary to answer routine question.   Secretarial staff in the main office can answer most service questions in a minute or two by referring to the database, thus freeing up the time of other paid staff to do other tasks (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).

Website

            Probably the most useful technology for disseminating information is PLUK’s website which came online in 1998 (R. Holt, personal communication, April 18, 2004).   The website has the following features:   announcements of upcoming training and other events, electronic newsletter, archives of electronic and paper newsletters going back to the 1980s, information about library resources, contact information for PLUK staff, facts about PLUK, and links to state and national disability information sources.   The website is actively maintained and updated on a regular basis.   For families who have computers and internet service, the PLUK website is an effective way to receive information without having to leave home or pay a fee (PLUK).

Interactive Television

The face-to-face training workshops that PLUK used to offer are now completely replaced by interactive television training sessions put on by PLUK staff or professionals who reside in various parts of Montana (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).   Montana has an extensive instate, interactive television system that links most major cities and is available on cable television.   Broadcasts can originate from any community in the network and participants can be present in the studio in their area or watch from home.   During the broadcast, parents can call in with questions for the speakers and participants in the various studio locations can also ask questions.   The workshops last from 1 ½ to 2 hours and cover topics identified by parents as being of interest to them (PLUK).   Professionals donate their time, so the only cost for these workshops is the cost of broadcasting through the system.   The audience for these workshops is extensive and growing and includes both parents and professionals (D. Moore, personal communication, May 6, 2004).

Video Streaming

            When PLUK workshops are offered on television, they are simultaneously streamed so that parents can view the workshop using their computers.   All of the PLUK workshops that are presented on ITV are also taped and rebroadcast via video streaming.   An archive of past workshops is located on the PLUK website, so anyone with computer access can view the workshops at their leisure (R. Holt, personal communication, April 18, 2004).   Families from throughout the United States and the world are accessing the PLUK training using their computers so the audience for training has increased 100 fold (PLUK).  

Summary

            Since its inception in 1984, Parents, Let’s Unite for Kids has remained focused on its mission of providing information and support to families of children with disabilities. At the beginning of the program, most of the methods for distributing information involved personal contact, either face-to-face or over the telephone, between an experienced parent and a less experienced parent seeking information.   As the organization grew, its ability to continue a high level of personal contact diminished.   Eventually, personal contact was largely replaced by various technological ways for communicating.   Table 3 below summarizes the various methods of information dissemination that have been used successfully by the PLUK organization.

Table 3

Grassroots to High Tech Methods of Distributing Information to Parents

• Cost:   Rather than identify specific costs, the chart uses relative terms along a spectrum from No Cost to Low Cost to Medium Cost to High Cost.
• Effectiveness:   Comments on effectiveness rely on answers to questionnaires filled out by parents in the PLUK Annual Survey and by staff during strategic planning for the organization.

Research Questions

            The evolution of information dissemination mechanisms used by a grassroots organization like Parent, Let’s Unite for Kids (PLUK) illustrates what can be done by a committed, though small, group of parents who begin their work without resources but with a strong desire to share information for the good of others.   In this particular case, the organization moved from paper-based methodologies to paperless techniques in the course of a 20 year period.   Changing its methods of information dissemination was not only a response to the availability of new ways of delivering information, but also a matter of organizational survival.   With greater demands for information from more people, the cost of personal interaction with people in rural, remote areas became less financially possible.   Technology became a solution to meeting higher demands more efficiently and at less cost.

            This case study illustrates organizational adaptation to changes in information demands and methods of delivery, but it also raises questions requiring further consideration and research.

• What is lost by a self-help organization when it becomes high-tech at the

                  expense of high touch?

• Are there segments of the population in Montana who are not well-served by a

information dissemination system that is technology-based instead of a parent-to-parent personal approach?   How available is computer technology to those who are most in need of the information?

• Are there cultural minorities whose needs are not met my technology (e.g., Native Americans living on reservations)?
• Is the progression from paper-based to paperless information dissemination

      a process that can be (or should be) emulated in other rural, remote parts of

      the world?

• Is there any applicability of the Montana parent organization experience to

      parent groups in countries with less technology access?

In the United States and other parts of the world, parent organizations have exerted profound influences on public policy and on the nature of services for persons with disabilities (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1990, p.6).   Parents of children with disabilities also have had a rich history of supporting each other and each other’s families.   How support and information will be shared by parents in the future depends upon a number of factors, including the needs of parents themselves, the availability of financial support, and access to effective methods for information dissemination.

References

Bailey, D.G., Blasco, P.M., & Simeonsson, R.J. (1992).   Needs expressed by others and fathers of young children with disabilities.   American Journal on Mental Rehabilitation, 97(1), 1-10.

Boss, S. (Winter 2000).   Big Sky legacy.   Northwest Education Magazine, 6(2), from http://www.nwrel.org/nwedu/winter_00/6.html

Carpenter, A. & Provorse, C. (1998).   World almanac of the U.S.A.   New York:   St. Martin’s Press.

Cooper, C.S. & Allred, K.W. (1992).   A comparison of Mothers’ versus fathers’ needs for support in caring for a young child with special needs.   Infant-Toddler Intervention, 2(2), 205-221.

Daft, R.L. (1992).   Organizational theory and design.   St. Paul, MN:   West Publishing

Gowen, J. W., Christy, D. S., & Sparling, J. (1993). Informational needs of parents of young children with special needs. Journal of Early Intervention, 17, 194-210.

Gulliford, A. (1996).   America’s country schools.   Boulder, CO:   University Press of Colorado.

Hadadian, A., & Merbler, J. (1995).   Parents of infants and toddlers with special needs: Sharing views of desired services.   Infant-Toddler Intervention , 5(2), 141-152.

Howley, C. & Bickel, R. (2002).   The influence of scale:   Small schools make a big             difference for children from poor families.   American School Board Journal,             189(3), 28-30.

Johannsen, M. Five phases of the organizational life cycle.   Retrieved March 20, 2004,   from http://www.legacee.com/FastGrowth/OrgLifeCycle.html

Kelker, K. (1981).   Parent reaction:   You are not alone.   Billings, Montana.   Montana             Center for Handicapped Children.

Parents, Let’ Unite for Kids (PLUK).   Retrieved March 25, 2004, from http://www.pluk.org/

State of Montana.   Children’s services.   Retrieved April 5, 2004, from   http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/dsd/index.htm

State of Montana. Montana facts.   Retrieved March 24, 2004, from http://www.montana-state.biz/index.html

State of Montana.   Office of Public Instruction.   Retrieved April 5, 2004, from http://www.opi.state.mt.us/

Turnbull, A.; Patterson, J.; Behr, S.; Murphy D.; Marquis, J.; and Blue-Banning, M.   (1993).   Cognitive coping, families, and disability. Baltimore, MD:   Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Turnbull, A. & Turnbull, H.R. (1997).   Families, professionals, and exceptionality:   A special partnership (3 rd ed.).   Upper Saddle River, NJ:   Prentice Hall.

U.S. Census Bureau American FactFinder.    Retrieved March 25, 2004, from http://www.factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_DP1&-geo_id=04000US30&-qrname=D&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_lang=en&-_sse=on

U.S. Census Bureau.   Quick facts.   Retrieved March 24, 2004, from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/30000.html

World Almanac.   Retrieved March 25, 2004, from http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com//explore/states/montana.html#fw..mo138200.a20

Yudkowsky, B., Suk-Fongs, T., & Siston, A.   (2000). Pediatrician participation in Medicaid/SCHIP:   Survey of fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics,    from http://www.aap.org/statelegislation/med-schip/pcp/mt.pdf

home . about the conference . programme . registration . accommodation . contact