Prepared for State University of New York/Buffalo researchers participating in a state-sponsored educational financing project, this background paper focuses on the vocational education "program effects" of changing financial aid formulas and/or the rationale for organizing school districts and regional services. It scrutinizes the role of Boards of Cooperative Educational Services and school district organizations which prepare students for specific occupations through traditional vocational education. The first of nine sections examines occupational education in New York and the transition from vocational to career education. Section 2 traces vocational education's historical development (1917 to the present) and the emergence of career education. The third section reviews the New York State Regent's (1971, Position Paper #11) citing of needs for educational system reorganization, developmental continuum adoption, and design flexibility. Section 4 discusses problems in traditional vocational education. Section 5 interprets and evaluates the influences, goals, and activities of New York's occupational education plan. The sixth section examines implementation of three occupational education projects, and section 7 identifies issues involved in implementing occupational/career education programs. Section 8 discusses strategies of individualization versus standardized program expansion. The final section presents an occupational education planning paradigm. (CSS)