The manual focuses on the development of a school-level home/school information system to improve communication and understanding of special education programs. A step-by-step plan for developing such a system is addressed in terms of five major topics (sample subtopics in parentheses): basic information gathering (surveys and needs assessment), developing community awareness (news releases, local community contacts), recruiting parent/teacher teams (sample memos to aid in recruiting), training the parent/teacher teams (agenda of 3-day session, training methods, evaluation and feedback), and post training support of parent/teacher teams (followup with principals and teams, local schools' parent surveys). Appendixes contain results of a 1981 parent survey, public relations information, a listing of organizations serving handicapped youth, a bibliography, and a home/school information specialist job description. (CL)