Third Year Comprehensive Report of the Pennhurst Longitudinal Study

This summary is intended to restate the major research questions being addressed in the Pennhurst Longitudinal Study and provide executives, decisionmakers, and lay persons, in an extremely abbreviated form some tentative answers based on the analysis of the data collected to date. Such a report is necessary because the documents generated by the Pennhurst Study now extend into the thousands of pages. While these reports are of keen interest to the researcher, they are not as likely to be read by the layman. It is hoped that this report will be widely read, thus providing additional information to decisionmakers weighing the pros and cons of deinstitutionalizing mentally retarded persons. [18 PDF pages]