This paper reviews the literature related to the role of career and vocational education in retaining at-risk secondary youth and motivating them to return to secondary or postsecondary school. Selected literature from nonvocational but related areas of service is reviewed to provide the reader with an overview of the scope of the problem and the efforts that other members of the community are making to serve at-risk youth. The paper identifies five major areas of interest to career and vocational educators in the literature: (1) the diverse definitions, characteristics, and causes of at-risk status; (2) the implications of the problem of at-risk youth for the U.S. labor force; (3) key vocational and nonvocational strategies for resolving the problems of at-risk youth; (4) exemplary vocational and nonvocational programs for serving at-risk youth; and (5) the role of career and vocational educators in meeting the needs of at-risk youth. Forty-two references are included. (SK)