Managing Scarce Resources for Students with Learning Disabilities: Factors Affecting Resource Allocation in Wyoming

Abstract

Wyoming has often been described as a small town with very long streets. With a sparse population scattered across vast geographical distances, special education teachers in Wyoming have a unique challenge for providing an appropriate education to students with disabilities. This survey study was designed to establish a perspective about how decisions regarding the allocation of resources for special education are made in Wyoming's rural school districts. Several interesting implications can be drawn from the findings, most notably that the type of service delivery model selected by Wyoming school district administrators appears to have the greatest impact on resource allocation decisions.