Variability among state Crippled Children's Service programs: pluralism thrives.

The authors review the history of the Crippled Children's Service (CCS) program and report results of a survey of state CCS programs conducted in 1981. The results of the survey document extensive variability among state programs in respect to several indices, including numbers of children served, conditions covered, and services provided. With few exceptions, selected organizational, economic and demographic variables fail to correlate significantly with the variation of these indices. The strongest correlation, .40 (p less than .02) is between percentage of children served and program per capita expenditures, suggesting that relatively wealthier programs tend to serve more children. Furthermore, analyses of the survey results show that mean coverage by CCS programs of surgical disorders is significantly greater than mean coverage of medical disorders or behavioral disorders (p less than .001). The findings of this study underscore the considerable influence of historical and leadership variables on the functioning of state CCS programs.