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Certainly it will not be easy within our varying state structures with their complicated, already none-too-well balanced tax base, to think concretely about local communities assuming responsibility for services to the retarded. Nor should we be too eager to suggest that systems of state services, as they have slowly grown and expanded by adding here an outpatient clinic, there a foster home service working out of the institution, and somewhere else pre-commitment counseling to the families involved, supplemented by some steps in the direction of vocational rehabilitation, be exchanged for what could become a general hodgepodge of some excellent hit and some horrible miss services on the community level.

Must we not first concern ourselves with the complex problems of setting up state-wide standards and their enforcement; with supervisory and consultative services from the state to the local government administering these community services; with effective formulas for matching state and local funds; and last but not least with the appropriate choices among the state agencies for administering these functions in any one of the many new areas in which the President's program calls for the development of new services. Again let me say that I am well aware of the phenomenal progress that has been made in a few of our States during the past several years in widening out limited institutional services into the beginnings of needed community services. Still, we are concerned here with the nationwide picture and furthermore even in those progressive states leadership has come usually from just one department, resulting in incomplete and often lopsided planning and programming.

A special word needs to be said about public school services to the retarded. Here too we can and must acknowledge examples of outstanding progress, such as for instance the establishment by some outstanding school systems of special classes on the secondary school level for youngsters which in many other states are still considered totally incapable of profiting from any type of elementary schooling. Nationwide statistics will show that during the past decade the number of pupils in special classes for the retarded has more than doubled. But particularly in our context these figures can be very misleading. We are concerned here with consideration of ways and means to implement the President's program on mental retardation across the country and from that point of view the striking variations in this rate of progress are of crucial importance. There are states where special classes for retarded pupils have been initiated mainly by the larger cities, with but little activity elsewhere, whereas there are other States where the exact opposite is true - the smaller school systems have been responsive to the needs of the retarded while the larger cities hardly pay even lipservice. Equally striking differences are reflected in the attitudes of the various state education departments towards educational services to the retarded.

Obviously we cannot move into broad scale, nationwide implementation of the President's program without full participation of the public schools and with regard to them the delicate balance between home rule and state leadership constitutes a particular problem.

All of this serves to underline why at this stage of development in our services to the retarded our attention must first be directed to a thoughtful consideration of broad strategies in state-wide planning.

The provisions of the President's Program with regard to this problem of state-wide planning and of effective coordination of services is expressed in House Bill 3386, introduced by Representative Mills and presently before the ways and Means Committee, and in Senate Bill 1072 introduced by Mr. Ribicoff and now before the Committee on Finance. These bills which are identical in text propose in Section 5 that there be added to the Social Security Act a Title XVII, Grants for Planning Comprehensive Action to Combat Mental Retardation. The President's intent is clearly expressed in his message from which I quote:

"The key to the development of this comprehensive new approach toward services for the mentally retarded is twofold. First, there must be public understanding and community planning to meet all problems. Second, there must be made available a continuum of services covering the entire range of needs. States and communities need to appraise their needs and resources, review current programs, and undertake preliminary actions leading to comprehensive State and community approaches to these objectives. To stimulate public awareness and the development of comprehensive plans, I recommend legislation to establish a program of special project grants to the States for financing state reviews of needs and programs in the field of mental retardation.

"A total of $2 million is recommended for this purpose. Grants will be awarded on a selective basis to State agencies presenting acceptable proposals for this broad interdisciplinary planning activity. The purpose of these grants is to provide for every State an opportunity to begin to develop a comprehensive, integrated program to meet all the needs of the retarded."