The project report provides information relevant to the status, function, and effect of currently used definitions of handicapped children and the diagnostic methods used. An initial section serves as both an introduction to and summary of the process used during the project, and includes project conclusions. Section II contains analyses of policies in the following areas: mentally retarded, deaf and hard of hearing, speech impaired, visually handicapped, seriously emotionally disturbed, orthopedically and other health impaired, multihandicapped, deaf-blind, identification, evaluation, placement, age of eligibility, and severity. A third section consists of chapters that review the literature and focus on each category of disabiliy mentioned in P.L. 94-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act (except learning disabilities) and on the processes of identification, evaluation, and placement. The final section is the project bibloography. Appended are state-by-state policy charts. (SBH)