Factors contributing to the institutionalization of mentally retarded and autistic children versus noninstitutionalization

Of America's 6.5 million retarded people, no more than 3 percent have ever been institutionalized (Press, 1985). As of 1985, only about 100,000 retarded live in large state-run facilities (a 401. drop since 1971), while at the same time this reduction has been offset by gains in the use of other institutional type facilities: group homes, half-way houses, camps, ranches, residential schools and treatment centers, and adolescent units of mental hospitals (Press, 1985; Lerman, 1985).