The purpose of this study was to identify: (a) elementary physical educators' beliefs regarding which adapted physical education (APE) competencies were emphasized within their physical education teacher education (PETE) programs, (b) elementary physical educators' beliefs regarding which APE competencies should be emphasized within PETE programs, and (c) whether a discrepancy exists between the two. Of the elementary physical educators solicited, 181 returned completed two-part surveys regarding APE competencies with 93 meeting criteria for inclusion in the study. While the return rate was low, the total sample represents over 8% of Virginia's total population of public school elementary physical educators (N = 1100). The elementary physical educators believed selected APE competencies were treated more importantly than others within their PETE programs Χ2 (46, N = 70) = 543.88, p <.001. More specifically, seven APE competencies were identified as those most importantly addressed within their PETE programs. While these seven competencies were most heavily emphasized by PETE programs, they were presented in a manner that indicated that the competencies were only desirable for, rather than essential to, the provision of physical education services to students with disabilities. In addition, the elementary physical educators believed selected APE competencies to be more important than others to the provision of physical education services to students with disabilities and believed that the competencies should be presented as such within PETE programs, Χ2 (46, N = 70) = 370.24, p <.001. They believed that all 47 competencies presented in the survey were either essential or desirable with regard to the provision of APE services. The elementary physical educators believed 23 of the APE competencies were essential and reported that they should be most important to PETE program preparation regarding APE. Furthermore, for every APE competency, a significant discrepancy was found to exist between the level of importance desired by the elementary physical educators and the level of importance received within their PETE program preparation. The effect sizes (ES), or magnitude of the difference between each group's beliefs regarding the competencies, calculated represent small to moderate effects (.233 < ES < .694). Overall, the elementary physical educators indicated that the APE competencies were more important to the provision of physical education services to students with disabilities than their professional preparation indicated; and that they did not feel adequately prepared to address the educational needs of their students with disabilities.Keyword(s): adapted physical activity, professional preparation