Perspectives of Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services Secretaries and Office of Special Education Programs Directors: The Challenges and Opportunities of Political Governance

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: The Politics of Federal Initiatives and Policies

Abstract

This paper provides a case study based on interviews with persons who served as Assistant Secretaries in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and Directors of the Office of Special Education Programs since the inception of the HEW - Bureau of Education for the Handicapped in 1967. A phenomenological approach to interpreting the findings revealed similarities in perceived reasons for participants’ Presidential appointments, their visions for what they hoped to accomplish, challenges and opportunities posed by the political contexts in which they served, their theories of change, and hopes for the future of the federal role in special education.

Authors

• Jeannie Kleinhammer-Tramill, University of South Florida

• Zorka Karanxha, University of South Florida

• William L. Geiger, The University of Texas - Tyler