The final report describes the accomplishments of the Carolina Institute for Research on Early Education for the Handicapped, a center sponsoring ecological research on families of young handicapped children. An introductory section outlines the institute's mission and administration. Eight research projects are detailed in as many chapters. Research focused on the following topics: characteristics of successful parents of moderately/severely handicapped children, families at risk, family networks and the development of adaptive behavior, parent involvement for programs of handicapped children, parental perspectives of preschool mainstreaming, child assessment, curriculum development, related research for moderately/severely/multiply handicapped infants, and Project CARE (a study comparing center- and home-based early intervention). Project dissemination and training activities are summarized, and its impact on the field of early education for the handicapped is anayzed for each of the research projects. (CL)