The project explored the assessment of vocational decision-making capacities of handicapped students within the educational system, specifically the Decision-Making Interview (DMI) instrument. The adaptability, reliability, validity, and utility of the DMI with handicapped secondary students were investigated. Under an instrument adaptation phase and three separate studies, the DMI was modified and then its test-retest reliability and discriminant validity were investigated. A further study investigated the characteritics of the students within these settings, and then determined whether any of these characteristics of the students were related to particular strengths or weaknesses in DMI scores. The results suggested that the DMI is an appropriate instrument for use with special education students. The instrument was reliable in term of correlations between test and retest, utilizing intervals ranging from 2 weeks to 1 full school year. Furthermore, the DMI clearly distinguished between handicapped and non-handicapped special education students, and demonstrated that non-handicapped students scored significantly higher on the DMI scales than handicapped students. A second study demonstrated the criterion-related validity. Significant consistent correlations were found between scores on the DMI and parallel but independent judgements of student on the same dimensions of the DMI provided by evaluators working with the students. Lastly, a study identified a number of salient personal and demographic characteristics of the students significantly correlated with high or low scores on the vocational decision-making dimensions. The appendixes provide the Vocational Decision-Making Interview form and the Evaluator/Counselor form. (Author/CL)