The Fifty-eighth World Health Assembly, having considered the report on disability, provides for “the need to invest in health and rehabilitation services necessary to ensure equality of opportunity and a good quality of life for people with disabilities.” The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Law on Education of the Russian Federation include the possibility of obtaining education, vocational guidance and vocational training for persons with disabilities. Objective is to assess the medical and social problems of adaptation of children with intellectual disabilities in educational institutions, vocational guidance for choosing the appropriate profession, training and employment. Review of current data on the problems of education and health care of children with mental retardation, their professional orientation, vocational training. Assessment of the modern regulatory framework for teaching children and adolescents with disabilities. The search for information was carried out using the eLibrary information portals.RU, PUBMED, Web of Science and Scopus. It is shown that there are problems of attracting adolescents with mental retardation in the management of vocational education, where the number of students remains minimal. New regulatory documents are presented, which define the conditions and training loads for persons with disabilities in educational institutions. The necessity of improving the quality of medical, psychological and pedagogical support of students with disabilities with the involvement of doctors of the appropriate profile has been established. The development of the material and technical base for the upbringing, training and rehabilitation of children with mental retardation is shown. The problems with the readiness of teachers to work with children with disabilities in the implementation of the State program “Accessible Environment” are noted. The “Concept of the development of education of children with disabilities”, developed by teachers-defectologists, is considered. The modern regulatory framework for vocational training and employment of persons with disabilities is presented. Conclusion. The results of the review are aimed at identifying problems with professional orientation and training of adolescents with mental retardation. They can be useful for specialists dealing with such children and adolescents.