A study examined health occupations education (HOE) in secondary public schools in North Carolina. A task force consisting of secondary and postsecondary educators, industry representatives, administrators, and program consultants analyzed preexisting data from 11 sources. These included program standards, student followup, and curriculum materials evaluation surveys; the North Carolina state plan for vocational education; an assessment of the impact of technologies of the eighties on HOE; and a 1982 nurse labor force survey. The task force formulated 23 recommendations pertaining to program administration, curriculum, resources and supportive services, and staff training and certification. Included among these were the following: state and local policy should provide for student transportation to clinical work sites, HOE program managers should take immediate steps to form affiliations with health care delivery sites, deviations from program standards should be assessed systematically to determine their impact on students in HOE, consideration should be given to the idea of offering academically oriented students credit for early exploration of health occupations careers, health industry and HOE teacher salary scales should be monitored regularly to keep the two competitive, and the HOE teacher's certificate renewal process should be relevant to the teaching task and technical area. A three-page bibliography concludes the document. (MN)