Abstract
Although there is a growing body of research concerned with special education in New Zealand, considerable gaps still exist. Not the least of these gaps is the experiences of mildly retarded students following graduation from residential special education schools. The New Zealand Department of Education operates two national schools for these children. Salisbury School in Nelson is for girls and Campbell Park School in North Otago is for boys. The present study was designed to provide a body of information concerning the post-school experiences of students who have attended these two schools.
The study involved the locating and interviewing of the ex-students who had left their respective schools between December 1977 and November 1978. In addition, interviews were carried out with the adults most responsible for the ex-students (in most cases parents), with the agencies most involved with them, and where they were employed, with the employers. The interview schedules were piloted in the Otago area and the interviewers were trained by the author.
The group of students targetted was regarded as a population, thus the results analysis was limited to frequency calculation.
The results and conclusions are presented in eleven categories. These are: actuarial, personal/social,
marriage/sex, legal, residential, health, travel, employment, financial, agency, and general.
The conclusions indicate that the ex-students are not likely to be involved in community clubs and organisations. In addition they appear to be quite dependent on family and agencies. The employment prospects for the ex-students are such that it was a minority who were employed in open market jobs at the time of interview. This conclusion is accompanied by a poor prognosis for employment for most of the school-leavers. For a large majority of both the boys and the girls, happy memories were reported concerning their school days.
The study is limited by the fragmented nature of its data, however it does provide guides for future programming at the schools and it does provide a descriptive body of information concerning the post-school experiences of mildly retarded students who attend residential education facilities.