Alternative Administrative Strategies for Young Handicapped Children: A Policy Analysis

One of the major and puzzling omissions from the legislative blizzard for the handicapped in the 1960’s and 1970’s has been the preschool handicapped child, aged 0-3. The present policy analysis explores the preferences of three groups of interested persons in 10 program options that would provide services for young children. A group of educators, mental retardation specialists, and advocates all chose public education as the preferred agency to administer services for young handicapped children. Public education was identified as long standing and public funded and more likely to provide continued program support..During the last two decades there has been a major move, through legislative action and court decisions, to provide comprehensive educational services to handicapped children (Martin, 1976). Public Law 94-142, the Educa-tion for All Handicapped Children Act, man-dates educational opportunities for all handi-capped children between the ages of 3 and 18 and requires local school districts to demon-strate that they are fulfilling that responsibil-ity. However, handicapped children aged 0 to 3 are exempted from the provisions of that Act. Such an omission is puzzling, to say the least, when one considers that the profes-sional literature over the past quarter cen-tury has emphasized the importance of early experience to later development, particularly for the handicapped (Kirk & Gallagher, 1979). Nor have organized groups been silent on the importance of this issue. A number of official bodies have commented as follows: o Presidevt’s Committee on Mental Retarda-tiora-I978 Report: The first months and years of life are crucial to the development of the mentally retarded person. Services to infants and very young children should be given top priority.. White House Conference on Handicapped Jndiuidua~s―J977: A strong emphasis must be placed on the importance of early inter-vention in education, and we further rec-ommend that early intervention must in-clude the 0-5 age bracket.. United Cerebral Palsy Legislative Priori-ties-1976: To develop a comprehensive continuum of educational services for se-verely disabled individuals beginning at birth