This handbook includes suggestions, guidelines, and techniques for helping a school or school district in planning and managing a system for involving the local community in career education activities for students in grades K-12. Guidelines cover initial planning and organization through implementation and evaluation. A coordinated, systematic approach is offered for identifying and recruiting community resources, organizing this information into local directories, providing orientation and information to local resource people, and providing teachers with easy mechanisms for using these resources in their subject areas. Topics included in the discussion of the role of community resources in career education are goals of career education in Washington State, bringing students and their community together, special considerations such as promoting career education in the community, and roles and responsibilities of educators. The handbook provides coordinators with specific guidelines on developing and maintaining a local community resource system, which involves identifying potential community resources, recruiting volunteer resources from the local community, building and maintaining an information system, providing orientation for community resource people, providing training for teachers, providing for teachers' requests for use of resources, developing follow-through communications, and evaluating the system. The framework for effective school/community relations is also discussed. Reproducible forms and sample materials mentioned in the guide are included in a related document (CE 014 259). (TA)