The National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) examined how the federal law was implemented and federal funds were distributed under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984. This part of the study described the access of handicapped and academically disadvantaged high school students to vocational education and analyzed the quality of the programs in which these students participate. Analyses that address student enrollment patterns were based on the 1987 High School Transcript study. Some of the findings of the study are the following: (1) both handicapped and academically disadvantaged students enrolled in public high schools do have access to vocational education, and, in fact, they earn more credits than other students; (2) handicapped and disadvantaged students took a higher percentage of their course work in area vocational centers than did other students; (3) handicapped and disadvantaged students earned 37 percent of the credits in cooperative education programs as compared to 43 percent for advantaged students; (4) handicapped females earned considerably fewer credits in occupationally specific courses than any other group of students; and (5) students in schools with large concentrations of poor and low-achieving youth took fewer vocational courses than students in other schools. Recommendations were made for improving handicapped and disadvantaged students' access to high quality vocational programs and to cooperative education, for providing placement services, and for targeting funds to schools with high percentages of special needs students. (KC)