The project examines the impact of the implementation of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 on the familis of severely and profoundly retarded children. Such children, at grave risk for institutionalization, had previously been excluded from school, but are now provided an individualized education with doorstep busing, auxiliary services, and parent involvment, free of cost to the family. The program has potential for enhancing family life and postponing or preventing the placement out of the natural home of many children. This study has three foci: 1) impact of having such a child on the family, with the help of the school and the respite that school provides, marital integrity and other intrafamilial adjustment; 2) extent of parental response to school's mandated overtures for participation in assessment and program planning; and 3) extent of use and benefit derived from services and support provided through extra-school agencies and social networks. Subjects will be 70 severely impaired children, initially 4-8 years old, and their families. Observations and structured interviews will be conducted in two sessions at each of two annual visits, with phone contacts between. Data collected will include attachment and parenting skills seen in structured observation of mother-child interaction, family and marital adjustmemt, parent attitude toward this child and parenthood in general, comtemplation of placement, use of respite and other services, social network support, and attitude about and participation with the school. Up to half the families for this age group will seriously consider placement of the child outside the natural home during the study, providing a study of antecedent status and precipitating events. It is expected that the educational program will assist half or more of parents of severely impaired children to benefit both in family life and in parenting quality, and to postpone or preclude placement of the child out of the home. Various other findings about school-family relations and family problems, particularly as they relate to the family's attachment to and treatment of the severely handicapped child, will be of benefit to both the school and to the family counselors.