State of Illinois 
THE 
EDUCABLE 
MENTALLY 
HANDICAPPED 
CHILD 
IN 
ILLINOIS 
(THIRD EDITION) 
COMMISSION FOR HANDICAPPED 
CHILDREN 
1949 THE 
EDUCABLE 
MENTALLY HANDICAPPED 
CHILD 
IN 
ILLINOIS 
(Third Edition) 
State of Illinois 
COMMISSION For HANDICAPPED CHILDREN STATE OF ILLINOIS 
Adlai E. Stevenson, Governor 
COMMISSION FOR 
HANDICAPPED CHILDREN 
Mrs. Henry C. Dormitzer, Chairman, Chicago 
Gerard M. Ungaro, Vice-Chairman, Winnetka 
Frank Annunzio, Chicago 
Robert Bell Browne, Ph.D., Urbana 
Roland R. Cross, M.D., Springfield 
Fred K. Hoehler, Springfield 
Mrs. Margaret Pope Hovey, Chicago 
Vernon L. Nickell, Springfield 
Frank A. Norris, M.D., Jacksonville 
Irving F. Pearson, Springfield 
Edward H. Stullken, Chicago 
Henry C. Warner, Dixon 
Jane Bull, Executive Director TABLE OF CONTENTS 
PAGE 
Definition of the Problem 7 
Social and Economic Implications 9 
Extent of the Problem 12 
A State Program for Educable Mentally Handi- 
capped Children 17 
Facilities for the Mentally Retarded in Illinois. . . 34 
Unmet Needs in Illinois 42 
Recommendations . : 47 
Bibliography 56 (74499) FOREWORD 
The increasing interest in the problems of the edu- 
cable mentally handicapped has been made evident by 
the demand for the preceding edition of this pamphlet. 
Request for copies have consistently increased. 
The distribution has been varied, and the interest in 
this group of children on the part of educators, legisla- 
tors, welfare agencies, and the public in general has 
been very gratifying. 
The Commission for Handicapped Children, 
charged with the responsibility of developing a more 
adequate program for all types of handicapped chil- 
dren, is considerably heartened by this response. 
The progress in the Illinois program for excep- 
tional children has been continuous. The trend towards 
more special classes in the public schools for the men- 
tally handicapped and the increasing concern for ade- 
quate statewide diagnostic service are the result of 
constant study and public enlightment. The ultimate 
goal, however, has not yet been reached. There still is 
a crying need for increased facilities for care and for a 
greater public awareness and acceptance of the handi- 
capped child. Of primary importance, is the great need 
for personnel of all kinds, specifically trained for this 
type of work. 
This, the third edition, has been revised to conform 
with the latest data available. The progress both in 
the Illinois state program and in the thinking in this 
field, has made this revision necessary. 
5 Acknowledgment was made in the first edition of 
the work of Miss Eveline Blumenthal and Mr. Warren 
Kingsbury and of the advice of Mr. Edward Stullken. 
The revisions incorporated in this edition are the work 
of Mrs. Willie Scarborough and the staff of the Com- 
mission for Handicapped Children. Grateful acknowl- 
edgment is hereby made to them for their fine service. 
Helen W. Dormitzer 
Chairman 
6 Definition of the Problem 
No longer do we consider the problem of mental 
deficiency as associated almost wholly with pauperism, 
immorality, alcoholism, delinquency, and criminality. 
There is another group formerly not recognized. 
This group was judged to be indifferent, lazy, or lack- 
ing in will power. It was not until the introduction and 
extensive application of more accurate mental tests and 
refinement of interpretive techniques that it was recog- 
nized that this group is instead inherently limited in 
mental endowment and incapable of meeting all the 
demands which society makes of them. As children, 
those in this group benefit but little by the traditional 
formalized education. Yet these mentally handicapped 
children are educable in the sense that the large ma- 
jority can, with special training and education, be en- 
abled to live happily and participate successfully in 
community life. 
Defining what is meant by the educable mentally 
handicapped child is difficult, since diagnosis of mental 
deficiency has implications in many fields—psychology, 
education, medicine, neuro-pathology, biology, gen- 
etics, psychiatry, and the social sciences. Thus, a satis- 
factory definition for one field would not always meet 
the needs of others. There has been much confusion 
and lack of agreement as to what group should be 
designated as feebleminded. In the past a single in- 
telligence test measure was the primary source of 
identification and differentiation, but, at present, mul- 
tifocal measures of intelligence are believed necessary 
7 in making proper diagnosis. Although classification on 
the basis of intelligence level offers a convenient start- 
ing point, it must be recognized that any boundaries 
which are established should remain flexible to permit 
the inclusion or exclusion of those whose intelligence 
scores would be affected by extenuating circumstances 
of physical, psychiatric, or social nature.1 A relatively 
simple rural situation, for instance, makes much less 
demand upon the adaptability of a person than does 
a highly complex urban environment. Thus, while 
mental deficiency might not prevent a happy and 
adequate adjustment in the former case, it would be a 
serious handicap in the latter. It is this variation of 
social competence with the situation that justifies 
opposition to classification of mental defectives in 
hard-and-fast groups. 
In Illinois the following definition of the educable 
mentally handicapped child is offered: 
An educable mentally handicapped child is any 
child whose rate of mental development, as measured 
by individual psychological examination, has been re- 
tarded from birth or early age, but who requires and 
“may be expected to benefit from special educational 
facilities designed to make him economically useful 
and socially adjusted.”2 
1 Intelligence measurements are generally stated in terms of the I.Q., 
or intelligence quotient, representing the relationship between the mental 
age and chronological age. An I.Q. of 100 is the mid-point of the normal 
group measuring from 90-110; 80-90 is dull normal; 70-80, borderline; and 
50-70, feeble-minded. The idiot and imbecile, low-grade mental defectives, 
are not considered educable in terms of independent community life. 
2 The last phrase of the definition has been taken from an Act 
authorizing school boards to establish and maintain special educational 
facilities for educable mentally handicapped children. 111. Rev. Stat. 1945; 
Chap. 122 12-20, 3. 
8 Social and Economic Implications 
The social and economic implications of mental 
deficiency affect the entire structure of our national 
life, sometimes in ways that are obvious and measur- 
able, but more frequently in long-range effects which 
cannot be detected and isolated in causal relationship 
to mental defect. 
The increase in industrialization and urbanization 
of social life, while not increasing the number of the 
mentally deficient, has decreased the number of situa- 
tions in which they can make satisfactory adjustments. 
As we become more industrialized and urbanized it 
becomes increasingly difficult for the unskilled group, 
which contains most of the mental defectives, to find 
employment. It should be noted in this connection 
that this unskilled group is reproducing itself two to 
three times faster than the professional population,1 
and that the proportion of feeble-minded among de- 
pendent families is much in excess of that found in the 
general population.2 Thus, the marginal and sub- 
standard living conditions characterizing the large 
majority of the mentally deficient tend to be per- 
petuated. 
1 See Warren S. Thompson, “Some Factors Influencing the Ratios of 
Children to Women in American Cities, 1930,” Amer. J. Sociology, 45 
(September, 1939), 183-99; Lorimer and Osborn, Dynamics of Population 
(New York; MacMillan Co., 1934); and Frank W. Notestein, “The Differ- 
ential Rate of Increase Among the Social Classes of the American Popu- 
lation,” J. Social Forces, 12 (October, 1933), 21. 
2 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, Section IV, 
The Handicapped; Prevention, Maintenance, Protection, (New York: Cen- 
tury Co., 1933), p. 344. 
9 The emotional solidarity of the family may also 
of a retarded child in the home. After making due 
allowance for possible inherited tendencies, a child’s 
behavior patterns and personality makeup are the 
result of his association with others. In the case of the 
mentally deficient child, all such associations, whether 
in home, school, or community, are highly colored by 
the degree of his acceptance. In the home, mentally 
deficient children are often rejected; frequently their 
mental defect is willfully ignored or unaccepted, and 
the children are faced with the emotional hazards of 
enforced competition with those of superior endow- 
ment. In school, these children experience repeated 
failures, lose self-confidence, become habituated to 
failure, and frequently suffer further rejection from 
teachers who are resentful because of the trouble 
caused by their inefficient academic work and the re- 
flection their failures bring upon the teacher’s record. 
Extending the age of compulsory school attendance has 
accentuated this problem. Constant frustration through 
failure to meet social demands frequently leads to emo- 
tional instability, development of defense mechanisms, 
and negativistic attitudes, in rebellion against situations 
beyond the child’s control. In mentally deficient 
adolescents, the problem is made more acute by the 
fact that they differ physically, socially, and emotional- 
ly from the younger pupils with whom they, because 
of their mental level, are grouped. 
A special personality difficulty is presented by the 
mentally handicapped delinquent. Because the men- 
tally deficient cannot conform to group standards of 
attainment, they tend to develop over-reaction in the 
form of submissiveness or aggressiveness to compensate 
for this failure. Such over-compliance or over-defiance 
may lead to delinquency. The problem of the defective 
10 delinquent is of major concern since the educational 
be disrupted by the conflicts created by the presence 
therapy planned for the non-delinquent defective is not 
adapted to the needs of this group. 
The mentally deficient child who also is crippled, 
blind, or defective in speech or hearing presents a 
doubly serious problem. Speech and hearing defects 
rank high among the physical stigmata associated with 
mental deficiency. In one study, only 37 per cent of 
the mental defectives possessed normal speech.1 In 
another, it was noted that the incidence of defective 
hearing increased to a certain extent with decreased 
intelligence level.2 Children with sensory defects are 
easily mistaken for mental defectives and complicate 
the problem of accurate diagnosis. Physically handi- 
capped children such as the blind, the deaf, and the 
hard-of-hearing are so deprived of the social and sen- 
sory stimuli which provide food for mental growth that 
they are frequently and erroniously classified as feeble- 
minded. Occasionally they are so retarded as a result 
of their handicap that they require special educational 
facilities such as are planned for the mentally deficient. 
Certainly, such children deserve special consideration. 
1 Jacob Sirkin and William Lyons, “A Study of Speech Defects in 
Mental Deficiency,” Amer. J. Merit. Deficiency, 46 (July, 1941), 77-80. 
3 Grover A. Kempf and Selwyn D. Collins, A Study of the Relation 
Between Mental and Physical Status of Children in Two Counties of Illi- 
nois, Reprint No. 1301 from Public Health Reports, U.S. Public Health 
Service, Vol. 44, No. 29, (Washington; Gov’t. Printing Office, 1929), pp. 
1743-84. 
11 Extent of the Problem 
Studies Outside of Illinois. Estimates of the 
extent of the problem of mental deficiency are many 
and varied. They present little that is comparable, 
since the types of tests on which they are based, the 
conditions under which they are administered, and the 
differences in methods used all tend to result in widely 
varying estimates. These differences, plus the lack of 
any universally accepted definition of mental defi- 
ciency, make accurate estimates difficult. As Doll 
states: 
The precise amount or kind of intelligence re- 
quired for self-sufficiency has never been determined. 
There is a futile tendency to fix these intellectual limits 
for social adequacy at a definite limen such as I.Q. 70. 
or mental age 10. As a matter of fact, social success 
being contingent on many factors in addition to intelli- 
gence, the intellectual limits for social adequacy are 
represented in a border zone rather than a borderline. 
Use of the Stanford-Binet measures alone is of doubtful 
value for distinguishing the socially inadequate of bor- 
derline intelligence from the socially adequate.1 
Personality, emotional, and situational factors 
play so important a part in an individual’s social com- 
petence that no sharp line can be drawn between the 
mentally deficient and the so-called “normal” group. 
This should be kept in mind in considering the follow- 
ing estimates of the extent of mental deficiency. 
1 Edgar A. Doll, “Criteria of Mental Deficiency,” Psych. Exchange. 
Ill, No. 6 (1935). 
12 Of major importance in calling attention to the 
problem of mental handicap throughout the United 
States was the report of the Committee on Mental 
Deficiency to the White House Conference on Child 
Health and Protection, held in 1930. “Mental defi- 
ciency” was defined to include not only the lower 
grades of feeble-mindedness but also those of border- 
line intelligence, and the intellectually subnormal 
(commonly termed morons). The committee con- 
cluded that 1 per cent of the total population is 
definitely feeble-minded and that another 14 per cent 
are to some degree mentally deficient, that is, possessed 
of an intelligence below a mental age of twelve years,2 
It is with this latter group that this study is concerned. 
On the basis of the 1940 Federal census, this group 
would include approximately 18,500,000 persons. Since 
36.3 per cent are under twenty-one years of age, there 
would be 6,715,000 children so handicapped in the 
United States. Many of these are more or less ade- 
quately meeting the demands placed upon them in 
community life. It is estimated, however, that 35 per 
cent, or 2,350,000 are socially maladjusted as well as 
mentally subnormal. 
A second source which can be used as a basis for 
national estimates is the report on special education 
issued by the Office of Education of the Federal Se- 
curity Agency. Special education is usually found only 
2 The White House Conference report states: “This level is variously 
stated in terms of intelligence quotient, I.Q.; scales based upon an upper 
development limit of sixteen years state it as 75 I.Q.; those having an 
upper limit of fourteen years state it as 85 plus I.Q. In either case, the 
mental age, twelve years, is identical. At present some states use the 
fourteen year upper limit, but many states, for example, Massachusetts, use 
the sixteen year upper limit. I.Q.’s throughout this report are on a four- 
teen year basis . . .; the 60 to 85 I.Q. limits to which reference is most 
frequently made are approximately 50 to 75 I.Q. on the sixteen year basis, 
all Stanford-Binet.” White House Conference, op. cit., p. 331. 
13 in cities; therefore, this estimate is from an urban point 
of view. In 1940 the Biennial Survey of Education 
reported the number of mentally deficient in special 
schools and classes in city school systems to be 98,416, 
less than one-fifth of the estimated 500,000 mentally 
retarded children in the United States who are in need 
of special educational adjustment.1 According to Elise 
Martens, Chief, Exceptional Children and Youth, Office 
of Education, incapacity for academic achievement to 
some extent characterizes about 25 per cent of ele- 
mentary school children, while 5 per cent have an I.Q. 
of 78 or less.2 
Studies in Illinois. There has been no sys- 
tematic effort to determine the number of mentally 
handicapped children in Illinois. Estimates as to the 
extent of the problem in this state must therefore be 
arrived at by applying the percentages presented for 
the United States as a whole, checking these against the 
information obtained by the limited surveys which 
have been made within the state. 
The Federal census of 1940 listed 2,515,657 chil- 
dren under the age of twenty-one in Illinois, or 31.9 
per cent of the total population of the state. If 14 per 
cent of these may be classified as intellectually sub- 
normal but not of low-grade mental deficiency, there 
are approximately 350,000 children so handicapped in 
Illinois. If we omit the preschool age group, there 
remain 275,000 children between the ages of five and 
1 Elisfe H. Martens and Emery M. Foster, Statistics of Special Schools 
and Classes for Exceptional Children, U.S. Office of Education, Federal 
Security Agency (Washington: Gov’t. Printing Office, 1942), pp. 6, 7. 
2 Elise H. Martens, A Guide to Curriculum Adjustment for Mentally 
Retarted Children, Bull. 1936, U.S. Office of Education (Washington: 
Gov’t. Printing Office, 1936), p. 8. 
14 twenty-one who are in need of special education and 
training. 
Two limited surveys have been made within the 
state which lend themselves to interpretation in draw- 
ing a picture of the extent of the problem in the state 
as a whole. A joint investigation, carefully and ac- 
curately carried out, was made by the United States 
Public Health Service and the Illinois State Depart- 
ment of Public Welfare in 1928. Approximately 5,000 
elementary school children were given physical and 
mental examinations in two widely separated counties 
in Illinois. Group mental tests were administered to 
all the children, followed by individual tests for those 
making low scores on the group test. All psychological 
examinations were given by the Institute for Juvenile 
Research. The results of the mental tests indicated 
that 11.7 per cent of the children were mentally re- 
tarded, having I.Q.’s below 80.1 Applied to the total 
school population of Illinois, this would yield an esti- 
mate of 230,295 mentally handicapped children be-> 
tween the ages of five and twenty-one. If, as seems 
probable, 35 per cent of these are socially incompetent 
as well as mentally deficient, their number would total 
more than 80,000. It must be noted that the intellec- 
tually subnormal group with I.Q.’s between 80 and 90 
are not included. The estimate would be considerably 
higher if they were. 
A second study in Illinois was the survey of Chi- 
cago Public Schools conducted in 1932 under the 
direction of Dr. George D. Strayer, Institute of Educa- 
tional Research, Teachers College of Columbia Uni- 
versity. The Strayer survey indicated that 4.7 per 
1 Kempf and Collins, op. cit., p. 7. 
15 cent of school-age children were mentally retarded.1 
Applied to the 1940 Federal census of Illinois, this 
would mean that some 90,000 children in Illinois are 
so handicapped. 
Summary and Evaluation. In summary, al- 
though surveys of the extent of mental deficiency vary 
greatly because of differing definitions of type and 
degree, the midpoint between the lowest and highest 
estimates indicates that there are at least 160,000 chil- 
dren of school age in Illinois in need of an educational 
program especially planned for the mentally handi- 
capped. Actually, when estimated results of studies 
vary this widely the only valid conclusion is that no 
accurate information is available and that no one 
knows the exact number of such children. 
1 George D. Strayer, Report of the Survey of the Schools of Chicago 
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), II, 94. 
16 A State Program for Educable 
Mentally Handicapped Children 
The development of a state program for educable 
mentally handicapped children requires careful con- 
sideration. It should include: 
1) Adequate facilities for early recognition and diag- 
nosis. 
2) Provision for opportunities for education and train- 
ing, both through state schools and special classes 
in the regular schools. 
3) Adequate institutional facilities, including colony 
care. 
4) Supervision of all mentally deficient children who 
cannot be admitted to institutions, children who 
after training in an institution are released on 
home or work placement in a community, or chil- 
dren for whom institutional care is undesirable, 
including guidance and assistance to parents of 
those children who are cared for in their own 
homes. 
5) Vocational guidance, training, and placement. 
6) Adequate teacher-training. 
7) Recruitment of personnel. 
8) Education of the public so that the mentally 
handicapped will be understood and accepted in a 
community. 
9) Continuing research to determine more adequately 
the nature of the problem of mental deficiency, 
methods of prevention, and the needs, capacities, 
and welfare of the mentally deficient child. 
Identification and Diagnosis♦ A state wide 
program of case-finding is of first importance, not only 
to determine the extent of the problem so that an ade- 
17 quate program may be planned and organized, but also 
to make available to the handicapped child proper edu- 
cational and training facilities at an early age when 
they will be most beneficial. Early recognition and 
treatment help to prevent development of personality 
disorders and undesirable behavior patterns, and 
afford a maximum amount of time to foster develop- 
ment of desirable traits, habits, and attitudes. In 
addition, much costly waste of time and effort in 
attempts to educate the child in the standard school 
program is eliminated. 
Compulsory education laws assure a contact with 
all children at the age of six or seven. A careful social, 
medical, educational, psychiatric, and psychological 
study should be made of each child who presents a 
special problem. Competent staffs should be provided 
to conduct such examinations on a state-wide basis. 
This step will prevent confusing mentally deficient 
children with those who are psychotic, who present 
behavior difficulties, or whose retardation is caused by 
sensory defects or other physical disorders. Periodic 
re-examinations of those originally classified as edu- 
cable defectives, further diagnoses, and continual read- 
justments are necessary to assure proper placement 
and adequate training. 
In every community having a school population of 
5,000 or more, there should be a permanent full-time 
child guidance clinic staffed by a psychiatrist, a psy- 
chologist, and the necessary social workers. For thinly 
populated and rural areas, the traveling clinic is a solu- 
tion to the problem. This should operate full-time, 
making every possible use of existing facilities and local 
resources such as state schools, hospitals, teachers col- 
leges, and universities. The traveling clinic plan has 
been eminently successful in Massachusetts, where a 
18 staff made up of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and in 
some instances a social worker, operates from each of 
fourteen state mental institutions. Every city and 
town is covered periodically. Each case is studied with 
respect to physical condition, mental status, family 
history, personality adjustment, developmental history, 
and school progress. 
Provision for such diagnostic services should be 
accompanied by a state-wide registration and continu- 
ing census of all mental defectives. This is necessary 
to provide accurate information as to the extent and 
nature of the need. According to latest data available, 
Massachusetts, South Dakota, Minnesota, New Jersey, 
New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are states 
having such a capital registry and a continuing state 
census.1 
Special Classes. Having determined the num- 
ber of children needing such care, provisions should be 
made for education and training with a flexible, indi- 
vidualized course of study adapted to the needs, capa- 
cities, limitations, and interests of the individual. 
Although the conventional “three R’s” are an integral 
part of the training, such education should emphasize 
good work habits and desirable social responses as well 
as health and useful forms of manual and industrial 
skills. In the large communities, special classes with 
a maximum enrollment of fifteen, in charge of well- 
trained teachers, are a partial answer to the problem. 
Or there may be classes which the mentally retarded 
attend for special training and drill, while taking the 
remainder of their work in regular classes. In other 
1 Letter from Elise H. Martens, Chief, Exceptional Children and 
Youth, Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D.C., 
to the Illinois Commission for Handicapped Children, August, 1948. 
19 cases provision of “slow sections” in regular grades 
using a modified curriculum is a practical solution 
when there are only a few children so handicapped. 
Whatever type of provision is made, facilities for the 
education and training of the mentally handicapped 
should include all age groups from elementary through 
senior high school levels. 
In thickly populated areas, special schools or cen- 
ters may be established with highly trained personnel, 
special equipment, and a curriculum designed to help 
the pupil to adjust himself satisfactorily in the com- 
munity and to prepare him for some unskilled vocation. 
Special vocational schools have been established in 
many communities. Care must be exercised in plan- 
ning the activities of such centers, however, to avoid 
giving the pupils a feeling of isolation and exclusion. 
Segregation of mentally handicapped children into 
special classes does not relieve the regular teachers of 
all responsibility for these children. These special 
classes are offered as a special service and must be con- 
sidered as a part of and not apart from the regular 
school program. Other services that are provided for 
regular children should also be extended to those in 
special classes. The environment must not be con- 
trolled to such an extent that the pupils do not ex- 
perience the type of social situations which they must 
meet in the community. 
Rural areas are faced with a very real problem in 
providing special education for the mentally handi- 
capped. School terms are shorter, distances between 
schools are greater, transportation is difficult, a large 
percentage of teachers are inexperienced, school staff 
turns over rapidly, and intelligent supervision and ex- 
perience in utilizing special education facilities are 
usually lacking. 
20 To meet these problems, adaptations must be 
made of several types of plans, according to the com- 
munity to be served. Regular teachers may be given 
special training for individualized instruction of handi- 
capped children in country schools and, where feasible, 
special classes may be formed for counties or districts, 
with transportation provided for the children attend- 
ing. The necessary supervision of this work can be 
provided by traveling teachers, traveling clinics, and by 
appointment of county supervisors, as is the practice 
in Pennsylvania. A further possibility is provision of 
boarding care at state expense for non-resident pupils 
at large centers. 
In 1945, the Wisconsin legislation enacted new 
laws which permit qualified special teachers to be re- 
leased on part-time schedule for the purpose of study- 
ing, instructing, and assisting in the arrangement of a 
program for mentally handicapped children in near-by 
areas. Some specific duties performed by these teach- 
ers include testing and appraising of children, suggest- 
ing and demonstrating special methods and materials, 
working in an advisory capacity with parents and 
teachers, and assisting in planning for special class 
attendance. Reimbursement in full by the state for 
teachers’ time and expense is made on approval by the 
Bureau of Handicapped Children.1 Similar plans could 
be extended advantageously to offer special services to 
mentally handicapped children where school systems 
are too small to justify organization of special classes. 
By 1942 schools and classes for educable mentally 
handicapped children had been instituted in forty-two 
1 H. M. Williams and H. A. Stevens, A Public School Program for Re- 
tarded Children, Department of Public Instruction, Madison, Wisconsin 
(1947), 28. 
21 states." Thirty-two states, in addition to Hawaii and 
the District of Columbia, now have supervisory pro- 
grams of special education operating on a state-wide 
basis.3 
Service to rural areas was extended in 1942 by the 
appointment of county supervisors of special education 
in Pennsylvania, the first state in the Union to advance 
the program this far. These county supervisors are 
required to have state certificates as elementary or 
secondary school teachers, or as public school psychol- 
ogists. Counties having more than 550 teachers have 
full-time supervisors, while those with fewer are served 
jointly with others. Activities of the supervisors are 
confined to special education and do not encroach upon 
the administration or supervision of the schools. 
A major concern throughout the establishing any 
such program should be its interpretation to the com- 
munity, instruction of parents as to the needs and 
problems of defective children, and interpretation of 
the special-class program to the regular teachers and 
pupils. Such interpretation would be conducive to the 
more effective carrying out of the aims of special classes 
and would prevent the placing in them of children other 
than those for whom they are organized. 
Teacher Training♦ The need for highly 
trained personnel in conducting special education pro- 
cedures cannot be over-emphasized, since a major fac- 
tor in success or failure of the program is competence 
of personnel. A teacher conducting classes for the 
mentally deficient should possess a state elementary or 
Martens and Foster, op. cit., p. 7. 
3 Special Education Staffs in State Education Departments, January, 
1948, U. S. Office of Education, Federal Security Agency (Washington, 
D.C.). 
22 secondary school certificate; must be well qualified by 
reason of health, personality, adaptability, and interest 
in the welfare of the children to be served: and should 
have successfully completed a special curriculum in 
teaching and handling mentally deficient children. 
This type of curriculum should include training in 
the psychology and education of exceptional children, 
diagnostic and remedial teaching, mental or educa- 
tional hygiene, special class arts and crafts, class 
methods, corrective physical education, educational 
and vocational guidance, and in addition, teaching ex- 
perience or successful experience in social service, public 
health work or psychiatric clinic service, special class 
methods, student teaching in special classes, clinical or 
abnormal psychology, mental testing, and speech cor- 
rection. 
Various plans have been promoted to provide con- 
tinuous in-service training for the improvement of 
teachers. Individual and group conferences between 
supervisors and teachers, general and group meetings, 
workshops, research committees, demonstrations, ex- 
hibits, conferences, lectures, professional books and 
magazines, courses, and evening and summer classes in 
special education are methods of preparing teachers to 
instruct the mentally deficient. 
Institutional Training. Adequate institu- 
tional facilities should be provided for the mentally 
deficient who are so severely handicapped that they 
need full-time care, for those whose educational needs 
cannot be met by the community, or those for whom 
placement is desirable because of complicating person- 
ality or behavior problems or unfavorable home en- 
vironment. The educational programs of such institu- 
tions should be made an integral part of the educational 
23 system of the state and should be differentiated from 
the custodial programs. As Elise Martens has observed: 
When a child has been committed by order of the 
court to a State institution for the “feeble-minded” it is 
popularly supposed that his intellectual condition is 
hopeless. In the eyes of the community he is ostra- 
cized—relegated to institutional life for the rest of his 
days—unsuited to live among normal people. The 
door of community interest in closed upon him and he 
becomes a “forgotten man.”1 
Safeguards against the assumption by state 
schools of a purely custodial aspect would include: 
(1) making the schools an integral part of the educa- 
tional system of the state by placing the educational 
phases of their programs under the assistant superin- 
tendent in charge of the education of exceptional chil- 
dren, whose responsibility it is to plan and supervise 
that program under the direction of the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction; (2) establishment of 
high personnel standards to insure staffing the institu- 
tions with highly trained and competent teachers; and 
(3) segregation of low-grade mental defectives from 
the educable mental defectives, with expanded facili- 
ties to include the colony system, and with a program 
of education, recreation, and vocational training de- 
signed to return the pupil to the community where he 
may live and work with a minimum of supervision or 
no supervision. 
To fulfill its twofold purpose of custody for pro- 
tection of the individual and society and for rehabilita- 
tion of the educable defective, therefore, the state insti- 
tutional program should consist of the following: 
1 Elise H. Martens, Residential Schools for Handicapped Children, 
Bull. 1939, No. 19, U. S. Office of Education (Washington: Gov’t. Printing 
Office, 1939), p. 83. 
24 1) Separate training institutions with adequate 
academic, vocational, and social programs supple- 
mented by cottage and colony systems for educable 
mentally defectives who can be trained to return to 
the community as self-supporting individuals, even 
though they may require some supervision. Admission 
to these institutions for some children should be pos- 
sible by means other than court commitment. 
2) Special facilities for mentally defective delin- 
quents. 
In 1945, Minnesota established an experimental 
program of academic and vocational training for those 
educable mentally handicapped under twenty-one years 
of age, who may be released to the community on 
wholly or partially self-sustaining basis. Encouraged 
with results of the experiment, funds were appropri- 
ated by legislative action in 1947 for a separate and 
permanent institution at Owatonna for the training of 
high grade defectives.1 
Such schools as the Syracuse State School in New 
York and the Wayne County Training School in 
Michigan, established on the cottage system, have 
proved quite successful. Social and medical studies, in- 
telligence and educational tests, and vocational train- 
ing are an integral part of the program. Such schools 
offer training for boys in farm and factory work, 
mechanics, and various types of unskilled labor; and 
for girls in personal and domestic service, laundry and 
restaurant work, and certain types of factory work. 
Certificates of completion are granted by the county 
school authorities to .pupils of the Syracuse State 
School who have made satisfactory progress. 
It is especially desirable that a colony system be 
established to care for high-grade mentally deficient 
1 Carl H. Swanson, “Minnesota State Institutions,” American Journal 
of Mental Deficiency, LII, (January, 1948), pps. 290-293. 
25 children for whom outside supervision is inadequate 
but institutional care too confining and regimented. 
The colony may be a mobile or permanent unit set up 
away from the parent institution, providing practical 
vocational experiences. 
Twenty-seven years ago, Rome State School in 
New York began the colony system as an experimental 
farm unit and now has nine farm colonies for boys 
with a population of approximately 215 children. The 
boys are trained in industrial, farming, and dairy pro- 
cedures. Since the farm colonies are in close proximity 
to the institution proper, the boys are closely super- 
vised and returned to the institution for recreational 
activities. 
Approximately 200 girls, out of 2,050 under care, 
are selected for special training on domestic colonies 
located at Rome, Hamilton, and Gloversville. There is 
also one girls’ residential colony for the older children 
who can benefit from living away from the institution 
and enjoy the freedom and more pleasant surroundings 
afforded in colony living. 
Reports show that children who have made the 
most outstanding community adjustment have been 
those who have had colony training. During the fiscal 
year ending March 31, 1947, 103 children were placed 
in the community from colony care. Colony care is 
closely supervised and conducted under regulations set 
up by the New York State Department of Mental 
Hygiene.1 
The colony system relieves overcrowded condi- 
tions in institutions, provides practical experience in a 
working situation, stimulates the more promising chil- 
1 Letter from James P. Kelleher, M.D., Senior Director, Rome State 
School, Rome, New York, to the Illinois Commission for Handicapped 
Children, August 4, 1948. 
26 dren, and permits economy of organization and main- 
tenance. It also provides a transitional state of expe- 
rience between the institution and community life, and 
a good background for later family care or boarding- 
out care. One of the chief obstacles to successful opera- 
tion of industrial colonies is opposition of labor groups 
and outside industry, a problem which would have to 
be met by compromise and understanding. 
Family Care. Only a small portion of mental 
defectives are confined to state schools. Few states 
make extensive use of supervision for those who are not 
institutionalized. Most of those who are out in the 
community comprise the high-grade intellectually sub- 
normal, who are making a more or less satisfactory ad- 
justment to community life, but whose assets have 
remained unrealized for lack of any comprehensive 
effort to develop their capabilities. It is neither possible 
nor desirable to expand institutional facilities to care 
for them. Thus, if they are to be properly guided and 
helped, a plan for extra-institutional supervision must 
be established, not only to care for those who have not 
had and do not need institutional care, but also those 
who have benefited from years of training in institu- 
tions. 
Massachusetts began to experiment in 1915 with a 
parole program, through which boys and girls con- 
sidered fitted for community life are placed in positions 
for which they receive pay, and are supervised by field 
workers from the parent institution. In August 1948, 
there were eighty-seven boys and 313 girls on parole 
from the three state schools of Fernald, Wrentham, and 
Belchertown. In addition to maintaining a degree of 
economic independence boys and girls on parole from 
Belchertown State School, during the year of July 1, 
27 1947 to June 30; 1948, were able to deposit $13,528.74 
in savings.1 
With the creation of a Division of Mental Defi- 
ciency within the Department of Mental Health in 
1924, a highly specialized family-care program was de- 
veloped in Massachusetts. It provides: (1) super- 
visory home training and teaching service for preschool 
defectives and those who have been refused admission 
to the public schools or are on the waiting list of the 
state schools; (2) social supervision of special-class 
pupils in attendance at or released from special classes, 
with regard to personality problems, recreational plans, 
and vocational guidance; (3) placements in training 
homes providing boarding-care and training for poten- 
tial wage-earners, under the supervision of an under- 
standing foster mother who gives them special training 
in child care, cooking, and general housework; (4) 
placement of wage-earners in wage homes for room, 
board, and wages; (5) boarding-out or family care for 
potential wage-earners as well as for low-grade mental 
defectives who are not suitable for wage placements 
but who have benefited from years of training in insti- 
tutions; and (6) general supervision and consultation 
for cases usually cared for in their own homes but need- 
ing guidance and assistance in social adjustment. “In 
several cases, children previously excluded from school 
have shown great progress. After one or two years of 
home-training lessons . . . some of these children have 
improved so much that they have been able to return 
to special classes and remain in school indefinitely.”2 
1 Letter from Richard H. Cooke, M.D., Director, Division of Mental 
Deficiency, Department of Mental Health, Boston, Massachusetts, to the 
Illinois Commission for Handicapped Children, August 23, 1948. 
2 Neil A. Dayton and Marion A. Nugent, “Community Supervision of 
Mental Defectives in Massachusetts.” New England Journal of Medicine, 
Vol. 225 (December 11, 1941), p. 942. 
28 Cost of boarding care for mentally defectives is 
about equal to that of institutional care, according to 
Massachusetts experience. Kuhlmann believes that 
boarding home and wage placements tend auto- 
matically to adjust themselves to fluctuating economic 
conditions, since, during depressions there would be a 
demand for them because of the added income to the 
home, and, during good times, mental defectives are 
more easily employable because of the demand for 
labor.1 
Mentally deficient persons in Minnesota are com- 
mitted by the court to the guardianship of the Director 
of Public Institutions, a life guardianship unless dis- 
charged by court action. This places responsibility 
upon the state not only to give institutional training 
where needed but also supervision in the community. 
Unlike many state programs where extra-institutional 
placement and supervision of the feebleminded2 are 
under the direction of social workers who are employed 
by the state, responsibility for supervision in Minne- 
sota is shared by both state and county. Such a plan 
for the feebleminded is one of decentralization of super- 
vision but integration within a county into a central- 
ized county welfare program. Social workers em- 
ployed by the county welfare boards are delegated by 
the state and under the direction of the state to actually 
give the supervision which includes making certain 
that there are satisfactory living conditions, work 
placements, and recreation.3 
1F. Kuhlmann, “One Hundred Years of Special Care and Training,” 
Amer. J. Merit. Deficiency, 45 (July, 1940), 22. 
2 1947 Legislature substituted the name “mentally deficient” for 
“feebleminded.” 
3 Mildred Thomson, “Guidance, Placement, and Follow-up: The Min- 
nesota Program,” Amer. J. Ment. DeRc., LI (January, 1947), 435-440. 
29 Vocational Quidance and Placement. 
Even the most elaborate training program will be futile 
without adequate provisions for vocational guidance, 
placement, and adjustment. A well integrated academic 
and vocational program with emphasis on occupational 
information and social adaptability should be available 
both for the institutionally trained and the special class 
pupil who is mentally capable of such training and who 
is socially mature to the extent that he may be expected 
to achieve adequate adjustment in the community. 
Community surveys of opportunities for placement of 
retarded children should be made, and a program of 
community education and organization should be con- 
ducted to secure public support, cooperation of em- 
ployers, and the interest of labor groups. 
Adaptation of the training program to permit the 
child to spend one-half of his time during the last year 
in school in industry and the other half in school, has 
advantages in that studying the child on the job is 
probably the most effective way to discover his capabili- 
ties and occupational shortcomings, and it affords an 
opportunity for the employer to evaluate the child’s 
ability to carry out the job.1 The training program 
should be based upon an analysis of job opportunities 
available, for if graduates are not enabled to find useful 
occupations in the community, the program is futile, 
however wide may be the range of manual and voca- 
tional activities offered during the training period. This 
would involve a more adequate program of vocational 
guidance and placement at the local level for all chil- 
dren. Although a beginning has been made by a few 
cities, including New York and Detroit, it is believed 
1J. E. Wallace Wallin, “The Classroom Teacher and Child Guidance 
Particularly with Respect to Handicapped Children,” J. of Ed. Res., 
(January, 1943), 321-334. 
30 that no community, at present, has a comprehensive 
and realistic program of occupational education, guid- 
ance, and placement for the mentally handicap who 
may be trained and gainfully employed as unskilled 
and semi-skilled worker. In addition The New York 
City Bureau for Children with Retarded Mental De- 
velopment provides specialized guidance, placement 
and follow-up services. Duties of guidance counselors 
employed by the Bureau are to work individually with 
all mentally handicapped pupils leaving schools in their 
area; visiting of schools, homes and places of employ- 
ment; and working cooperatively with special place- 
ment counsellors in the Office of New York State Em- 
ployment Service.1 
Organization and Administration• Imple- 
mentation of a state plan should be through a well 
organized and integrated inter-departmental program 
with supervisory service for local districts. The func- 
tions of this program should include: (1) establish- 
ment of standards of special-class organization and 
teacher training in both institutions and day classes; 
(2) settingup methods and procedures; (3) co-ordinat- 
ing clinical and educational services in city day schools 
and institutions; (4) providing facilities for vocational 
guidance, education, and adjustment; (5) parent edu- 
cation and social service; and (6) maintaining a central 
record bureau. 
Although leadership should come from the state, 
responsibility for the local program should be in the 
local community. Such local participation is essential 
since no program for the mentally retarded is adequate 
1 Chris J. De Prospo, Louis E. Rosenzweig, and Leo Shainman, “A 
Follow-Up Program for the Mentally Retarded,” Amer. Journ. of Mental 
Deficiency, LIU (October, 1948). Pps. 353-362. 
31 without the support and collaboration of all agencies 
concerned—school, home, institution, social welfare 
organization, and the general public. As Elise Martens 
has stated: 
No person or group of persons, however skilled, 
can superimpose a curriculum upon classroom teachers 
working in a thousand different situations. Specialists 
can only point out the way in which a curriculum can 
be developed locally. They must leave to the state and 
to the community the task of applying the principles 
evolved to the situation at hand. Community condi- 
tions must be recognized, geographic factors considered, 
and social interests observed. All of this can be done 
only by persons who are familiar with state and com- 
munity situations.1 
Costs and Financing♦ For a centrally planned, 
organized, and administered state-wide program, the 
financing of special education for the mentally handi- 
capped child presents a problem of joint state and com- 
munity financing. Assumption by the state of re- 
sponsibility for excess cost for small towns and rural 
areas is essential. 
The General Assembly of Illinois recognized this 
fact when it appropriated funds for the 1945-47 bien- 
nium to reimburse local school districts for the excess 
costs of the education of mentally handicapped chil- 
dren up to $100 per child. This amount was increased 
for the 1947-49 biennium to $250 per child. Reimburse- 
ments for excess costs, varying with individual states, 
are generally appropriated on per capita, per teacher, or 
teaching unit basis. 
Prevention♦ Preventive methods in the field of 
mental deficiency resolve largely into matters of public 
1 Martens, A Guide to Curriculum Adjustment . . . , p. 3. 
32 health, education, and medical research. There are 
many positive steps which can be taken in promotion 
of maternal and child health which would be effective 
in prevention of certain types of mental deficiency. 
Among these are adequate pre-natal and post-natal 
care to prevent mental deficiency caused by endocrine 
disturbances, malnutrition, injuries, and syphilis; pub- 
lic health methods to prevent incidence and spread of 
infectious diseases which damage the brain (encepha- 
litis, meningitis, measles, syphilis, etc.); and better ob- 
stetrical care, to reduce the number of birth injuries. 
Social services in marriage consultation offer a further 
resource. Two negative control measures of doubtful 
value have been suggested: (1) segregation of all 
mentally handicapped in institutions, which is neither 
desirable nor possible, and (2) sterilization, the efficacy 
and feasibility of which is widely questioned. 
33 Facilities for the Mentally 
Retarded in Illinois 
Diagnostic Services♦ Diagnostic services for 
mentally handicapped children in Illinois are of two 
types: (1) those providing only diagnostic study of the 
individual child (social, psychiatric, psychological, and 
medical) ; and (2) those providing diagnostic, consulta- 
tive, and advisory services. 
The Institute for Juvenile Research is a state-wide 
child guidance clinic with headquarters in Chicago and 
is a Division of the Department of Public Welfare. 
The Institute was established by state statute to 
conduct scientific studies, diagnose and promote the 
treatment of children who are delinquent, mentally ill, 
mentally defective or socially maladjusted, or who are 
in danger of becoming so. It offers service to parents 
and agencies who are concerned with the progress and 
adjustment of slow children who present behavior 
problems. In addition to the diagnostic study of the 
child, the staff interprets the results of examination and 
consults with parents and schools. 
Approximately 3,000 children up to the age of 
eighteen are examined annually either in the Chicago 
clinic or in the regularly held regional clinics. Requests 
for examination can be made directly to the Chicago 
office or through the regional offices of the Department 
of Public Welfare. 
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion employs two qualified psychologists for the pur- 
pose of certifying slow learners for special classes in 
areas where this service is not available. During the 
34 school year ending June 1947 over 200 children were 
examined; but, in the following year, due to an in- 
creased need for supervision of psychological services 
from the state level approximately 150 children were 
given psychological tests. This supervision included 
the following services: 
1. Discussing the state philosophy re: the men- 
tally handicapped with school teachers, principals, and 
superintendents. 
2. Explaining the philosophy concerning eligi- 
bility of children to the psychologist, who is to examine 
children for this purpose. 
3. Explaining to the psychologist the type of 
service in the way of examination and report which is 
desired by the department. 
At the present time the school districts in Cicero, 
Winnetka, Evanston, Oak Park, Bloomington, and 
Elgin have their own psychologist. However, a number 
of districts, including Rockford, Alton, Moline, Spring- 
field, and Peoria have indicated their interest in hiring 
a qualified psychologist. 
The Bureau of Child Study of the Chicago Board 
of Education, which provides psychological services to 
all school children from preschool through junior col- 
lege, whether enrolled in public school or not, main- 
tains clinics for diagnostic reading, speech, behavior, 
psychiatric study, audiometer testing, vocational guid- 
ance, and examination for admissions to special schools 
and classes. Bureau Clinics are operated daily for ex- 
amination and treatment of children referred from the 
regular elementary and high schools of the city. Other 
children are referred by parents, social agencies, clinics, 
private and parochial schools, and interested private 
persons. Psychological services for each public school 
is provided by a psychologist who has a certain number 
35 of schools for which he or she is responsible. Regular 
visits are made to each school for the purpose of consul- 
tation and examination of children referred by the 
school principal, classroom teacher, or adjustment 
teacher. 
In addition to those services offered by public 
schools and the Institute for Juvenile Research, psy- 
chological services are also rendered by certain teacher 
training institutions, Teachers College of the University 
of Illinois, and state schools for the feebleminded. 
Private clinics have been developed in connection 
with schools, universities and hospitals such as the 
Orthogenic School of the University of Chicago; the 
Loyola University School of Medicine; Northwestern 
University; and various Chicago hospitals. 
Outside of Chicago, child guidance services are of- 
fered by private clinics operated in several of the larger 
cities of the state. 
Institutional Facilities. There are two state 
schools for the mentally defective in Illinois, Dixon 
State Hospital and Lincoln State School and Colony, 
each of which has an approximate capacity of 4,500 
beds. At present there are about 375 educable defec- 
tives1 under sixteen years of age in the latter school 
and 250 in the former.2 Occupational therapy, academic 
school, recreation, and industrial training are included 
in the program for the educable handicapped in these 
institutions. Lincoln also has 230 boys and girls over 
sixteen years of age in attendance at night school. Dur- 
1 Letter from William W. Fox, M.D., Superintendent, Lincoln State 
School and Colony, Lincoln, Illinois, to the Illinois Commission for Han- 
dicapped Children, September 21, 1948. 
2 Letter from W. G. Murray, M.D., Superintendent, Dixon State Hos- 
pital, Dixon, Illinois, to the Illinois Commission for Handicapped Children, 
September 24, 1948. 
36 ing the four years that the continuation school has been 
in existence, use of modern methods of instruction and 
adaptation of the curriculum to the interest and needs 
of pupils are believed to be the reason for an annual 
increase in class attendance.1 
Defective delinquents are committed to Lincoln 
State School and Colony, but may also be sent to the 
state correctional schools. 
In addition to a few, small, private homes with 
limited intake and restricted programs, there are also a 
number of private schools for the educable mentally 
handicapped in operation in Illinois. 
Licensing of Schools, The Division of Alienist, 
Department of Public Welfare, has established require- 
ments for licensing of private institutions, including 
day schools, for the educable mentally handicapped. 
Inspections are made at regular intervals, and failure 
to comply with standards may cause revocation of 
license. 
Family Care♦ A family care program for the 
mentally defective was started in Illinois in 1942. At 
that time in the two state institutions there were many 
employable high-grade defectives who had remained in 
the institutions for years because they had no relatives 
to whom to return. Since this was during the war and 
there was a shortage in the labor market, the first em- 
phasis in the family care program was to find work 
and homes for these children. Since 1942 over 600 such 
children have been placed in the community. 
At the present time, since the number of stable, 
employable high-grade defectives at the institutions 
has diminished, an effort is being made to find homes 
1 W. W. Fox, op. cit. 
37 for the lower-grade defectives who can profit from 
boarding home care. It is this group of children that are 
the largest contributing factor to the overcrowding in 
the institutions. Homes for this type of child are diffi- 
cult to find, and although the rural areas in about eight 
counties have been canvassed for homes, to date only 
one such child has been placed. 
Careful selection of home and work placement can 
do much toward educating the community to the ac- 
ceptance of family care. At least one such example is 
a successful experiment in a rural community where 
satisfactory work adjustments have been made by a 
group of patients. The citizens have a protective atti- 
tude toward them and are proud of their share in the 
rehabilitation of these individuals. 
The Dixon State Hospital and the Lincoln State 
School and Colony maintain a cooperative arrangement 
with the Division of Child Welfare whereby defective 
children under the age of sixteen, whose families cannot 
care for them, are placed and supervised in foster 
homes. During the period July 1, 1947 to June 30, 
1948, nine such children were in foster homes. It is 
hoped that in the future more children in the institu- 
tions will be given the advantage of foster home care. 
However, the expansion of this aspect of the program 
will be dependent upon the development of child wel- 
fare facilities throughout the state. 
Equally important is the need for an increase in 
the number of special classes in the schools. If the de- 
fective child is to be kept in the community, adequate 
educational facilities are as necessary as an understand- 
ing home environment. 
Special Class Facilities♦ Illinois legislation has 
provided for payment up to $250 per capita, as reim- 
38 bursement by the state for the excess costs of special 
schools, classes, or services maintained by local school 
districts for the educable mentally handicapped. Reim- 
bursements for the school year 1947-48 totaled $575,- 
728.13. 
During the school year ending June 20, 1948, the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction reports that 
twenty-nine districts including the Chicago school dis- 
trict, an increase of six over the previous year, had ap- 
proved programs, not only for educable mentally handi- 
capped children in elementary schools, but also for 
those in junior high schools in Decatur, Galesburg, and 
Bloomington. The Superintendent further reports that, 
at present, no district has extended this program into 
the senior high schools. 
In addition to the number of children in special 
classes maintained by local school districts and the 
educable defectives who receive academic training at 
Dixon State Hospital and Lincoln State School and 
Colony, there are also a number of children being edu- 
cated in private schools and institutions. With the re- 
organization of school districts to afford better 
educational facilities, and reimbursements by the state 
for pupil’s transportation costs from districts where no 
special classes are available to districts offering such 
classes, it is believed that the present program is serving 
a larger number of mentally handicapped children than 
ever before. 
The Superintendent of Public Instruction, as re- 
quired by law, has set up standards for special class 
procedures relating to the size of classes, location, ad- 
mission, equipment, and curriculum, as well as stand- 
ards for teacher qualification and approval of psy- 
chological examiners who under the law determine the 
39 eligibility of pupils for special classes. Uniform systems 
of record-keeping are required.1 
Teacher Training Institutions. In recogni- 
tion of the need for well-trained teachers in special 
education, the State Teachers College Board has desig- 
nated Illinois State Normal University as a center for 
training of all types of teachers of exceptional children, 
including teachers of the mentally handicapped. A pro- 
gram of graduate and undergraduate courses leading to 
both bachelors and masters degrees, with a major in 
education, is offered. The School of Education of the 
University of Illinois also has a complete curriculum for 
the training of such teachers. 
Reports indicate that an approved program for 
teacher certification, with the exception of one course, 
is available at Northwestern University. 
Auxiliary Services♦ Finally, as auxiliary serv- 
ices, there are the public and private social agencies 
which are depended upon to perform limited services in 
school adjustment of the mentally retarded. The edu- 
cation of these handicapped children should not be the 
concern of the schools alone, but should involve as 
many community resources as possible. In Chicago 
there are several family welfare agencies which may be 
called upon for services needed. Outside of Chicago 
most of the larger cities have similar resources. 
Occupational adjustment services are offered to a 
limited degree by the Jewish Vocational Bureau of Chi- 
cago, Scholarship and Guidance Association, and the 
work relief program of the United Charities and the 
1 The Illinois Plan for Special Education of Exceptional Children: 
The Educable Mentally Handicapped. Circular Series B, No. 12, issued 
by Vernon L. Nickell, Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
40 Chicago Welfare Administration. The Division of Vo- 
cational Rehabilitation has now extended its facilities 
for guidance and placement to the mentally handi- 
capped under the provisions of the 1943 Federal Re- 
habilitation Act.1 
Of significance in promoting a program of better 
understanding and increased services for the excep- 
tional child is the Illinois Commission for Handicapped 
Children, a state commission created to stimulate pri- 
vate efforts, co-ordinate the services of State depart- 
ments, and promote medical care, education, and 
vocational training and placement for physically and 
mentally handicapped children. The efforts of the Com- 
mission as a fact-finding and co-ordinating agency have 
found fruition in recommendations to the General As- 
sembly regarding important action to be considered 
with respect to administrative organization, the draft- 
ing of bills providing for the greater welfare of the 
handicapped child, and stimulating of public interest 
in the problems of these children. 
1 Public Law 113, (78th Congress) effective July 6, 1943. 
41 Unmet Needs in Illinois 
Although the facilities listed above may seem ex- 
tensive a large proportion of those in need of special 
education are not receiving it; therefore, much remains 
to be done before the program for the educable mentally 
handicapped in Illinois is entirely adequate. 
Illinois now has legislative bases for a comprehen- 
sive well-financed program at the state level. Without 
further delay local communities must take advan- 
tage of these provisions by initiating and carrying out a 
program adapted to local needs. This challenge can no 
longer be ignored by local school authorities. A com- 
plete survey to identify and diagnose those who need 
special help must be followed with an adequate pro- 
gram commensurate with the child’s mental capabili- 
ties and limitations. Provision should include, estab- 
lishing special classes in the local districts, adapting 
available school facilities to the needs of such children, 
providing transportation of pupils to a district where 
special education exists, or planning for special classes 
through reorganization and consolidation with other 
districts. 
No area, even where special education is already 
established, affords suitable facilities at all levels. Since 
the mentally handicapped learns more slowly every ef- 
fort should be made by school authorities to interest 
and retain, as long as possible, those of adolescent ages 
in order to permit a maximum amount of academic, 
vocational, and social training. Attention should also 
be given to a program for young children who because 
of mental immaturity are temporarily excused from 
school attendance. Such a program should include 
42 habit training, development of good emotional be- 
havior, discipline, good manners, and pre-academic ac- 
tivities. 
The mentally handicapped, numerically the largest 
of any of the handicapped groups in the state, are 
widely scattered throughout the population. If their 
diverse problems are to be met adequately, school dis- 
tricts, parents, and interested persons must effectively 
co-ordinate their plans and utilize all services of public 
and private agencies, and institutions at both local and 
state level. 
Staff and social services of the institutions should 
be expanded to provide adequate training, thereby in- 
creasing population turnover which in turn would re- 
lieve over-crowding, and reduce the long waiting lists. 
The educational planning in the state schools should be 
co-ordinated closely with that of special classes in the 
community, and a clearer differentiation drawn between 
those eligible for special-class placement and those re- 
quiring institutionalization. Adequate provision for de- 
fective delinquents is urgently needed. Commitment to 
correctional schools neither meets the needs of such de- 
linquents nor helps to make them socially adjusted or 
socially useful; confinement in state schools for the 
mentally retarded presents equally difficult problems 
because of the delinquent tendencies of this group. 
Methods of record keeping in local and state 
schools need to be standardized to facilitate program 
planning for students who are transferred from one 
school to another. 
Since therapy among the mentally retarded is 
largely educational therapy, there is great need for 
training physicians, social workers* and teachers with 
special aptitudes for working with these children. 
Throughout, the highest of personnel standards are 
43 necessary, since the success of the program depends 
upon the care and intelligence with which it is carried 
out. It is not necessary that each teacher-training insti- 
tution have a full curriculum for training teachers of 
special classes; however, each school should offer to 
teachers in training, courses designed to develop skills 
in recognizing and handling the problems of exceptional 
children, and in the use of available resources. The es- 
tablishment of child-guidance bureaus in each of the 
teacher-training institutions would do much to further 
the general knowledge of resources and techniques 
which every teacher should know. 
There is also a need for expansion of services for 
children in the community, including psychiatric social 
service and psychological service. Among psychologists 
there are wide discrepancies in competence of personnel 
and standards of service, indicating the need for more 
uniformity in standards, procedures, methods, and in- 
tepretive techniques. 
Perhaps, the most urgent need in special education 
is that of trained personnel. It is the belief of people 
who administer the program of special education in Illi- 
nois that in addition to special training in the education 
of the mentally handicapped child, previous successful 
experience in a regular classroom is essential. There- 
fore, the shortage which exists in the regular classroom 
is even more acute in the field of special education. 
A few scholarships are now offered to teachers of 
exceptional children, but there is need for additional 
scholarships and other aids by colleges and private 
organizations to encourage teachers to enter this field. 
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion estimates that fifty to 100 schools would imme- 
diately start programs, and those with present facilities 
44 would greatly expand if teachers with proper training 
were available. 
The county school survey law, passed by the Sixty- 
fourth General Assembly, provides for study and action 
on this problem by authorizing the creation of county 
survey committees and gives them the power and 
makes it their duty to study the school districts of the 
county and their organization for the purpose of recom- 
mending the reorganization of districts where such re- 
organization will afford better educational opportuni- 
ties, better administration, and more equitable distribu- 
tion of public school revenues.1 Since the passage of 
this law there has been a great reduction in the number 
of existing school districts. Although much progress 
has been made in the program of reorganization, there 
is still an urgent need for further consolidation of small 
schools to permit greater economy of operation and 
higher personnel standards, and to facilitate the finan- 
cing of special classes. 
Further expansion of the program of the Division 
of Vocational Rehabilitation and more extensive de- 
velopment of community resources to provide voca- 
tional guidance and adjustment services to the mentally 
handicapped is of utmost importance. This includes 
inquiries into job opportunities and a campaign of en- 
lightenment among employers as to the assets and 
potentialities of this group as employees. 
Utilization of funds available under the National 
Mental Health Act of 1946 in the prevention and elimi- 
nation of emotional and behavioral disturbances in 
mentally deficient children, in order that they may be, 
to a greater degree, socially self-directing and self-sup- 
porting. This could be achieved through training of 
1 House Bill 406, approved June 20, 1945. 
45 personnel, research into the causes of mental illness, 
and the development and improvement of mental 
health facilities in local communities. 
Every program concerning the educable mentally 
handicapped child should carry on research relative to 
the improvement of facilities and services in its respec- 
tive field. 
There is an urgent need for intelligent interpreta- 
tion of the problem to the local service clubs, legisla- 
tors, teachers, public school officials, and physicians, as 
well as the public at large. They must be given an 
understanding of the needs of this group of handi- 
capped, so that backing and support for an adequate 
state-wide program may be secured. There is also a 
need for public information on the facilities that are 
now available and that can be used. 
And, finally, there is a never-ending need for re- 
search into the nature and extent of the problem of 
mental deficiency and means of preventing it. At the 
present time, Illinois is ill-equipped for adequate social 
planning for the mentally handicapped, hampered as it 
is by so great a lack of information. Up to this time 
there has been no systematic effort to discover the 
mentally deficient, only the obvious or behavior prob- 
lem cases generally being the ones identified. There is 
need, therefore, for a continuing annual census of the 
handicapped, with a central registry for cases. The in- 
formation this would provide would greatly facilitate 
intelligent state-wide planning. Without the flexibility 
of a continuous adaptation to research findings, the 
work would become static and progressively less effec- 
tive and valuable in meeting the needs of those for 
whom it is designed. 
46 Recommendations 
In view of the many needs of educable mentally 
handicapped children in Illinois which are not now 
being met, and the loss to the individual and the state 
resulting from failure to develop to the fullest extent 
the assets and capabilities in this group of handicapped, 
certain suggestions may be offered with respect to im- 
provement of services to these children. 
Educational. All educational services to the 
mentally retarded, whether in public school or institu- 
tions, should be co-ordinated under one division or bu- 
reau in the Office of the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction. This responsibility is at present divided with 
the Department of Public Welfare, which is responsible 
for institutions, and the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, which is responsible for public schools. A 
centralized administration would achieve co-ordination 
of efforts of the various state and community agencies, 
and would be the logical point for establishment of a 
central registry of all mental defectives. 
The Sixty-fifth General Assembly appropriated 
the sum of $1,252,655 for the excess cost of education 
of mentally handicapped children in local school dis- 
tricts during the 1947-49 biennium. Such provision for 
state participation is a tremendous step forward, and 
continued appropriations are a necessary part of future 
development of a complete state-wide program. 
Rural areas should be provided with thorough 
supervisory services by traveling teachers, transporta- 
tion of pupils to special-class centers, and the use of 
boarding home care in larger cities. 
47 These administrative provisions and changes will 
require further consolidation of the many remaining 
small school districts in Illinois for purposes of im- 
provement of educational services and better economy. 
Such consolidation would give impetus to the establish- 
ment of special classes to serve the larger districts, 
whereas limited enrollment in many unconsolidated 
districts makes such classes impossible. 
Adaptations of the secondary school curricula 
should be made for the mentally handicapped adoles- 
cent, through provision for individual instruction in 
regular classes or special classes and schools, or by a 
home training and teaching program1 in rural areas 
under the supervision of traveling teachers. A well- 
planned program of habit training and vocational and 
industrial training is needed, with a view toward re- 
turning as many patients as possible to the community. 
Likewise, extension of the program downward to in- 
clude the younger mentally handicapped child should 
be made. This would fill two of the greatest needs in 
the Illinois educational program. 
State-wide standards for teacher training and 
certification which have been established with respect 
to local public schools should be extended to include 
public and private institutions for the mentally re- 
tarded, in order that teachers be trained to recognize 
problems and intelligently guide the training of their 
charges. Organized courses should be instituted for 
training of teachers in service as well as for new teach- 
ers. Such teachers should be selected on the basis of 
their natural aptitudes and their interest in the prob- 
1 See “A Home Training and Teaching Program for Mentally Defective 
Children to Be Taught by Parents in the Home,” by Marion A. Nugent in 
American Journal of Mentally Deficiency, Vol. XLV, No. 1, July 1940, for 
a description of the operation of such a program in Massachusetts. 
48 lem of the educable mentally handicapped child. Every 
means, including additional scholarships to provide 
opportunity for study, and salary differentials for 
teachers of special classes in recognition of additional 
requirements and training, must be employed to en- 
courage qualified people to enter this field. 
The inadequacy of present institutional facilities 
can be remedied by making various changes and addi- 
tions.1 In the first place, the development of a well- 
rounded educational and vocational program and the 
minimizing of the custodial aspects of institutionaliza- 
tion at Lincoln and Dixon require an increase of staff— 
psychologists, social workers, teachers, occupational 
therapists, physicians, and attendants. In this connec- 
tion, it must be stressed that adequate salaries are im- 
perative to attract competent persons and to prevent 
the disorganizing effects of frequent staff turnover. 
Provisions should be made for academic, voca- 
tional, and social training supplemented by cottage and 
colony systems for the educable mental defectives who 
can be trained to return to the community or who need 
more than outside supervision. For these, institutional 
care is often not necessary. Such a program may also 
include mentally retarded pupils who reside in rural or 
scarcely populated areas where special classes are not 
available and who may be admitted, without court 
commitment, to the training institution for a brief 
training period. 
1 Detailed recommendations for improving the institutional services in 
Illinois may be found in the report of the “Sommef Committee on the Re- 
lease and Training Program at Lincoln State School and Colony and Dixon 
State Hospital,” (Chicago: Neuropsychiatric Institute, 1942), and the 
unpublished report of Dr. Samuel W. Hamilton, “A Survey of the Lincoln 
State School and Colony,” made under the auspices of the United States 
Public Health Service, 1941. 
49 The establishment of farm and industrial colonies 
for mental defectives is highly recommended, both to 
relieve pressure on the state schools and to provide 
specialized training for those potential wage-earners 
who are adaptable to community life. A provision 
should also be made for the mentally defective delin- 
quent other than the established custodial institutions 
now in existence. 
Social Service. Throughout the state, auxiliary 
services of visiting teachers and school counsellors 
should be expanded to meet the need for assisting 
parents in handling adjustment problems of preschool 
as well as school age children; to aid in the social 
occupational adjustment of mentally handicapped chil- 
dren; and to interpret the problem to the community. 
Such services should also be provided for the preschool 
mentally retarded child. It is imperative that social 
service be expanded to provide a followup program for 
those children who may need supervision after finishing 
their education. 
The Illinois law provides that mental defectives 
may be committed to the Department of Public Wel- 
fare as wards of the state. This provision has been 
operative only when such persons are committed to the 
state schools. This procedure should be utilized to 
full advantage, encompassing all mentally deficient 
children who need the care and supervision of the state, 
in order that services be provided in the home and com- 
munity for thousands of children now neglected, and 
that there be a continuity of service. In smaller com- 
munities, the extension of school nurse facilities, with 
nurses trained in mental hygiene and psychology, 
would provide an excellent resource. Such care given 
now would avoid the expense to the taxpayers for large 
50 numbers of these children of years of custodial care in 
correctional institutions or support as dependents in 
later life. 
There is some provision made for social service 
study and investigation of cases committed by the 
courts to Lincoln and Dixon, to private institutions, or 
to children released to private guardianship. However, 
additional social service staff is urgently needed so that 
a more adequate and extensive program can be pro- 
vided. Such studies should be made in all cases to 
facilitate suitable placement plans and followup care. 
The social welfare considerations involved entail con- 
siderable expansion of the social work staff of the in- 
stitutions. In this connection, it is recommended that 
parole and discharge, at present a function of the 
courts, be placed under the control of the managing 
officers and that acceptance of voluntary admissions 
be made possible without court procedure. In many 
cases much of the burden on state schools could be re- 
lieved through establishment of a small receiving home 
where mentally deficient children could be received 
for short-time care and observation and direct board- 
ing-home placement without institutionalization. Such 
a receiving home could also serve as a placement 
agency for the state schools and would add to the 
limited diagnostic services existing in Illinois. 
Fullest utilization should be made of child welfare 
services offered under the Federal Social Security 
program. Under the Maternal and Child Health pro- 
gram, identification of defectives is facilitated, and 
counseling service provided for parents in the training 
and treatment of retarded children. Well baby clinics 
and child welfare programs should be alert in the recog- 
nition of needs of handicapped children and should 
51 provide specialized counseling and guidance for their 
parents. 
Private physicians and nurses who are often the 
first to come in contact with the mentally deficient 
children should be aware of the problem and should 
be able to suggest sources where early and adequate 
identification and training may be obtained. Sug- 
gestions should also stress and encourage parental ac- 
ceptance of such children. 
Identification and Diagnosis. Fundamental 
to the establishment of such a program in Illinois is a 
state-wide system of case-finding and registration of 
all mental defectives. A selective central registry 
could be started by collecting data now in the hands 
of schools, courts, correctional institutions, and public 
and private institutions and agencies. A continuing 
official school census should be authorized providing 
for examination of all children retarded three years or 
more in school, with permissive examination of those 
less retarded, and for examination of all entering school 
children. In addition, all children in correctional in- 
stitutions should be examined to determine proper 
placement. Such examinations require the services of 
school psychologists, extension of the work of the In- 
stitute for Juvenile Research, and full-time traveling 
units from each of the state teachers colleges and the 
state schools. 
Vocational♦ Extensive and coordinated plans 
for vocational education, guidance, training, and place- 
ment, with follow-up care and supervision, are urgent. 
This could be accomplished through the services of 
the Division for Vocational Rehabilitation and by ex- 
tending those of the State Employment Service to 
handle the occupational adjustment needs of special 
52 class pupils and institutionally trained defectives, and 
provide a liaison between employable retardates and 
employers. A cataloging by local, state, and federal 
employment agencies of occupations open to the men- 
tally handicapped, and maintenance of employment 
lists for them is essential. 
Education of the Public♦ Since progress will 
depend upon the degree to which the program gains 
public understanding, acceptance, and support, a fun- 
damental aspect of the work consists of promoting 
community understanding of the problems of the edu- 
cable mentally handicapped child, both among lay and 
professional persons. Public enlightenment can be 
promoted through publications, public meetings, ex- 
hibits, conferences, parent-teacher meetings, the radio, 
and demonstrations. A sufficient public demand must 
be created through organizations and the leadership of 
influential persons. Then administrators and legisla- 
tors can move ahead with the knowledge that they are 
doing what the public wants them to do. 
Research♦ Basic in development and mainte- 
nance of a vigorous program is continuing medical, 
social, and educational research with the results prac- 
tically applied to the operation of the program. The 
following surveys should be made on a state-wide 
basis: (1) the number of mentally handicapped chil- 
dren and the nature of their retardation; (2) educa- 
tional facilities available and needed; (3) the mental 
status of children in correctional institutions, to sift 
out those who should not be placed there; (4) occupa- 
tional histories of children trained in special classes and 
institutions, to determine the degree to which the train- 
ing they have received is adaptable to opportunities for 
53 employment in Illinois, whether they have been wisely 
placed, or whether other types of training are indi- 
cated; (5) employment opportunities in Illinois for the 
mentally retarded; (6) follow-up studies of social ad- 
justment of the mentally retarded, with a view to mak- 
ing appropriate curricular changes where needed. 
Although all objectives are not at once attainable, 
there is a definite goal toward which to work: a state- 
wide program based upon development of local re- 
sources and facilities, with participation by the state 
at all points in the program where financial support, 
supervision, and coordinated planning are needed, and 
with a system of institutions for those children who 
cannot profit from education elsewhere. 
Adequate educational provisions for the mentally 
handicapped child are a form of social insurance, since 
the price to be paid for dangerous neglect in ignoring 
the problem and failing to utilize the assets and po- 
tentialities of these children is far in excess of the cost 
of the program. Kuhlmann has said of the mentally 
handicapped child: 
In most other lines of human endeavor progress 
has been less dependent upon the judgment and will of 
the public. It could hardly have been otherwise. We 
are dealing directly with human beings, and not with 
matters that may only indirectly affect their welfare. 
We are dealing with that part of human nature which 
ever since man became self-conscious has been looked 
upon as his most enviable possession—intelligence. . . . 
Unlike the physically crippled, it looks on mental defi- 
ciency as stigma and disgrace rather than as a mis- 
fortune. 
Thus it has come to pass that we deny him the 
right to the kind of rearing and training that he needs, 
and which we could give; the right to fit into a useful 
place in the world, which we could supply; and the 
right to happiness, although we demand all these for 
54 the normal child and adult. And when we have done 
all this, we will speak more of the wrongs he does to 
society than of the wrongs society does to him. Truly, 
his greatest handicap is not the fact that he,has failed 
to grow up mentally, but rather the neglect of an un- 
informed public that holds the key to his welfare but 
refuses to unlock the door.1 
Kuhlman, op. cit., pp. 19, 23-24. 
55 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
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PUBLICATIONS 
Occupational Education—publication of the Association for 
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N, Y. 
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the guidance of the non-academic. 
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N. Y. 
A professional journal with material devoted to study and 
prevention of mental deficiency. 
60