This study investigated the adult adjustment one year after leaving school of 130 individuals with behavioral disorders who graduated from Iowa special education programs in 1985 and 1986; the adult adjustment of 70 dropouts was also investigated. Adjustment areas examined included: living arrangements, leisure activities, mechanisms used to cope with personal problems, difficulties with law enforcement agencies, percent employed, location of employment, hours worked, wages, status of job, and fringe benefits. Employed versus unemployed individuals are compared in terms of gender, type of vocational training received in high school, paid employment during high school and individuals' ratings of the usefulness of their high school experiences. Results are reported separately for graduates and dropouts and for students in resource teacher programs versus the more restrictive program models of special class with integration, special class with little integration, and self-contained special class. Among findings was that only about one-third of the graduates and one-quarter of the dropouts were judged to have made a satisfactory adjustment. About one-quarter of the graduates and one-half of the dropouts were neither employed nor a homemaker nor in a training program. Far fewer females than males were employed. Contains 18 references. (DB)