The report of the National Longitudinal Transition Study presents initial findings on individual characteristics which relate to postsecondary education participation since 1985-86 among more than 8,000 youth (ages 13 to 23) with disabilities. A series of logistic regression models examines such factors as youth's background characteristics, abilities and disabilities, students' secondary school achievement and behavior, and community characteristics. The first section briefly describes the postsecondary education participation rates of youth with disabilities. Next, the methods used in the multivariate analyses and the findings from these analyses are presented. The final section discusses the policy implications of the findings. Overall, 15% of youth with disabilities who exited secondary school participated in postsecondary education during the year prior to the interview. Youths with visual or hearing impairments had the highest rates of participation while youths with multiple handicaps or mental retardation had the lowest rates of participation. Background characteristics related to participation included head of household's educational level IQ, graduation from high school, participation in groups, and length of time since high school. Individual characteristics were associated with participation in two-year and four-year institutions but not to participation in vocational institutions. Tables provide detailed statistical data and the appendix gives an overview of the study. (DB)