593708 C UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1938 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price 15 cents greatest development in the day schools has taken place. during the past 20 years. Established in the beginning exclusively in the elementary grades, they have now found their way into junior and even senior high schools. It is conceded that handicapped adolescents are as much a responsibility of the school as are physically and mentally normal adolescents. Hence the conception of their education in the secondary years is coming to include all the elements which characterize secondary education in general. One of the important items to be considered is their vocational preparation. This bulletin is a report of what is being done in a selected group of cities for the provision of occupational experiences for handicapped adolescents in preparation for a more satisfactory vocational adjustment in later years. It is hoped that the analysis of present practices may prove a basis for the improvement and further development of the program. To all who have cooperated in this study through the contribution of data concerning their own city programs the Office of Education expresses its grateful acknowledgment. Also the photographs which have been sent to us in connection with the project are deeply appreciated. For those which are used in this bulletin we owe our thanks to the following cities: Los Angeles, Detroit, and Milwaukee. BESS GOODYKOONTZ, Assistant Commissioner of Education. III IV · I · INTRODUCTION THE occupational adjustment of handicapped adults is a matter that vitally concerns the schools in which handicapped children are taught. It is not a problem that can be ignored until the child becomes of employable age or until he is ready to leave school to go to work. The years which he spends in the classroom must at least furnish the foundation upon which he can build a specific occupational training. They must bring to him an intelligent guidance for making a wise occupational choice. They must give to him a basis for making that choice through self-analysis. They must teach him to compensate for his limitations through service well rendered in a field from which his handicap does not exclude him. And in some cases they should furnish the actual vocational preparation which shall equip him for wageearning responsibilities. The first step in encouraging the further development of any type of program is to find out what is being done about it. Accordingly, the present study represents an investigation of what day schools are doing in the occupational preparation of mentally and physically handicapped adolescents. It is not an exhaustive survey of all school systems, but a preliminary study of a group of representative cities in which progressive practices are under way in the education of one or more groups of handicapped children. The cities included in the study and the number responding to the inquiry for each type of handicap under consideration are given in table 1. 1 1 It should be remembered that this list represents only a small percentage of the total number of cities making some provision for handicapped children. No attempt was made to secure information from all of them. The purpose was rather to discover progressive trends from a study of a fair sampling. 2 |