In categorical programs, dollars are designated for specific groups of children, like handicapped youngsters or immigrants, and cannot be used for anything else.

The physically handicapped youngster faces severe problems in finding employment.

There has been a great effort to make Scouting available to handicapped and disadvantaged youngsters, including youngsters in state orphanages.

Instead of having a special school district, the court said, the handicapped youngsters should be educated in the special schools of the surrounding school districts.

"Most of the increase has come among preschool handicapped youngsters, and that's consistent with the increased identification of kids with autism," Dr. Dime said.

He has trained handicapped youngsters at sea and is a lifeboat crew member.

The idea was to compensate for the neglect with which schools had treated handicapped youngsters, children who often were given little or no education and were abandoned to the American periphery.

The judges will not know that the entries were made or raised by handicapped youngsters.

A Little League spokesman, Stephen Keener, said Senator Kerry pointed out the organization's responsibility not to discriminate against handicapped youngsters.

Now 7 years old, she is cared for at Mishkon, a Brooklyn residential center for multiply handicapped youngsters.