Vocational education is an important component of the bridge leading from school to employment for special needs youth. Studies indicate that special needs youth are not being adequately prepared for work. Unemployment and underemployment of special needs youth seem to stem from three causes: lack of interpersonal skills, lack of job-related…

The career development program for students with mental disabilities should be integrated into the total special education curriculum, should provide training of specific skills needed in particular jobs as well as a general orientation to the world of work, and should relate academics to activities of daily living. The program should begin at the…

This study investigated the post-school adjustment of mildly handicapped twelfth-grade students 2 years after they graduated or left high school. Two types of handicapped individuals were interviewed: 65 students in self-contained, vocational education programs and 46 students in resource programs. Students in both groups had unemployment rates…

This study investigated the adult adjustment one year after leaving school of 130 individuals with behavioral disorders who graduated from Iowa special education programs in 1985 and 1986; the adult adjustment of 70 dropouts was also investigated. Adjustment areas examined included: living arrangements, leisure activities, mechanisms used to cope…

This study investigated the adult adjustment of students with mental disabilities in high-school graduating classes of 1984 and 1985, 1 and 3 years after they exited high school. Two hundred sixty students from the class of 1984 were interviewed 1 year out of high school; 166 from this same class were interviewed 3 years out of school. Three…