A program, Team Approach to Assessment and Programming (TAPP), to provide services to deaf blind and otherwise severely handicapped students in rural areas, is described. The project was designed to increase the number of severely handicapped students being served in integrated, age-appropriate local settings by expanding the capacity of local service providers to cooperatively assess and develop educational intervention strategies. Project premises (e.g. the importance of continuous student assessment) are identified and distinctions among "multidisciplinary,""interdisciplinary," and "transdisciplinary" are drawn. The program's assessment component involves three levels: diagnostic, educational, and daily performance assessment. TAAP transdisciplinary teams are comprised of service providers from three different levels: the local school district team, the special education coop team, and the regional team. An "arena" approach to assessment provides input from many professionals while minimizing the number of professionals handling the child. Student program objectives are organized by functional domain: community functioning, domestic living (including self-care skills), vocational, and recreation/leisure. Among conclusions of the pilot TAAP implementation was the importance of preassessment preparation and postassessment analysis by team members. (DB)