Supports and Barriers to Writing an Interagency Agreement on the Preschool Transition

The purpose of this study was to examine how interagency agreements are developed that focus on the transition of children with special needs from early intervention programs to early childhood special education. Particularly, this study used elements of the conceptual models of collaboration proposed by Harbin and McNulty (1990) and Gray (1985) to study the conditions that might facilitate or impede the writing of these agreements and the possible changes of these conditions over time. Participants from four teams attempting to write an interagency agreement on the preschool transition were interviewed at three points in time spanning 5 months. Results of the interviews suggested that writing an interagency transition agreement was a complex, multidimensional, and sequential process.