The impact of work/study programs on employment of the mentally retarded: some findings from two sources

There were two purposes of this study. The primary goal was to examine the employment success of both graduates and early terminators from high school work/study programs for educable retarded young adults (16--21 years old). A second goal was to study the employment levels of these same mentally retarded persons. Data sources included the vocational placement results of students who terminated from work/study programs in 14 Oregon school districts, along with analogous information about work/study terminators from 43 Federally funded work/study projects conducted in the United States between 1955 and 1972. Both the Oregon and the Federal program participants demonstrated that mentally retarded persons who finished their work/study programs had substantially higher employment levels than did similar retarded persons not completing or only partially served by their programs. Also, work/study program completors had comparable employment levels with same age non-white adults in the general population.