Graduation: What Happens to the Retarded Child When He Grows Up?

Abstract

Interviews were held with parents or guardians of 120 graduates of classes for the moderately (trainable) retarded in a large southern California metropolitan school district in the years 1968, 1969, and 1970. Information was gathered to assess the quality of community life experienced by these moderately retarded adults after graduation from school. Recommendation is made for (a) new criteria for evaluation of community adjustment of the moderately retarded which emphasizes comprehensive postschool programing to meet the recreational and social needs of the retarded as well as to provide occupational and vocational training and (b) community based residential facilities to provide such programing as an alternative to the parent care model and the permanent parent-child relationship it reinforces.

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