To study aspects of P.L. 94-142 (Education for All Handicapped Children Act) that prove both most and least problematic for rural special education cooperatives, which is the most prevalent type of cooperative arrangement, a sample was selected that included the 2 Federal Education Regions (from a total of 10) determined to contain the nation's most rural areas: Region IV (8 Southern States) and Region V (6 Midwestern States). Only those states containing special education cooperatives were used. After much refinement, a questionnaire was sent to 157 rural cooperative directors--135 (86%) responded. The joint agreement cooperative arrangement was most frequently used (38%), however the cooperative arrangement did not appear to effect compliance with P.L. 94-142 mandates. Area size and distances hampered service provision, however. The least difficult aspects to comply with were parental rights, assessment issues, and the Individual Education Plan (IEP). The most difficult were issues relating to personnel knowledge regarding special education, specified timelines, and parental attendance at IEP meetings. It was recommended that teacher training institutions alter their educator preparation programs, teacher certification boards examine their license requirements, state legislatures change their funding formulas to provide equity of funding nationwide, and further study be done to see if these results are representative of the entire country. Eleven references and 8 tables are appended. (JMM)