The at-risk students served by vocational education include academically disadvantaged students, dropouts, students with limited English proficiency (LEP), pregnant teens, single parents, migrants, economically disadvantaged students, handicapped students, and potential dropouts. The claim that the U.S. economy is healthy because unemployment is relatively low hides the radical job market changes of recent years, the dilemma of one-parent families, and the growing number of working poor. Between 1973 and 1986, young families lost over one-quarter of their real income and fared far worse than any other age group. Although all young families earned less, minority and female-headed families fared far worse. Between 1967 and 1986, the poverty rate of young families almost doubled. Among students enrolled in North Carolina vocational programs, 49 percent of disadvantaged students, 56 percent of handicapped students, and 53 percent of LEP students say these programs are a main reason they remained in high school. After graduation, the 1989 unemployment rate of disadvantaged students who completed vocational programs in North Carolina was 8 percent, as compared with a rate of 12.3 percent for youth aged 16-19 statewide. Vocational education in North Carolina offers support services, specialized assessment, special cooperative education and work study programs, job placement services, and programs for pregnant and parenting teenagers. Ideas that work to keep at-risk students in school include incentives (fast food coupons, school supplies, and field trips), tutoring, self-esteem building efforts, role models and mentors, and parental involvement. (CML)