Mission/Goals

To successfully educate all students with disabilities to reach their fullest intellectual, academic, social, emotional, and physical potential. The goals of the project are to (a) evaluate, expand, and improve existing services that help students with disabilities prepare for adulthood; (b) develop an inter-organizational community action plan; and (c) create an interagency collaboration of local partnerships among service providers to provide quality services to students and their families.

Organization/Program Context

This is a comprehensive, collaborative model that addresses the needs of all students with disabilities. These include a need for vocational assessment, behavior management, modified general education curriculum, community networks, and medical services. These needs are addressed cooperatively by teachers, parents, and community service providers in several ways, including yearly Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), transition activities, and vocational assessment.

Community Setting

Kenosha is a large city with a population of 84,000. Kenosha has two major high schools, an alternative high school, and three institutions of post-secondary education.

Population Served

The model serves a total of 2,436 students with disabilities from the elementary to high school grade levels. The majority of the students have specific learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, or mental retardation. Other areas of primary diagnosis include hearing, visual or speech impairment, traumatic brain injury, autism, or orthopedic disabilities.

Model/Practice/Strategy Description

All students from the elementary to high school grade levels are exposed to a career education curriculum which involves career awareness, exploration, preparation, and specialization.

During the elementary grades (pre-kindergarten to sixth grade), students are exposed to activities related to career awareness, such as developing self awareness and learning occupational vocabulary.

In grades seven to nine (junior high school), students focus on career exploration. For example, during eighth grade, students assess their interests and develop a career plan with the assistance of their guidance counselors. In addition, students use the Student Transition Planner to document their transition activities. During the ninth grade, students continue to explore possible careers as they enroll in a variety of career/vocational courses and continue to document data in their transition planners.

During grades ten to twelve, students begin their career preparation. Prior to entering the tenth grade, students travel to local high schools with their special education teachers to choose the courses that meet their interests and educational needs. Students choose from the following course options: vocational courses, employability curriculum, and career/vocational education training experiences. Vocational courses include business, family and consumer education, marketing, and technology. The employability curriculum includes classes in leadership, pre-employability skills, and cooperative work experience. Career/vocational education training experiences include job shadowing, work experience, pre-apprenticeship, and apprenticeship programs. Students continue to document their activities in their Student Transition Planners. During the final two years of high school, students start to finalize their career plans and develop a portfolio.

Multidisciplinary teams, including the student, parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and community liaisons document transition needs yearly for in-school, post-school, and future education/employment training. Interagency coordination of services are started as a result of collaborative relationships facilitated by the Transition Steering Committee. The interagency collaboration is monitored to ensure that upon a student's exit, all links to the community will be made. Connecting students to the community as well as follow-up is conducted by surveying students, documenting the services that are provided by community agencies, and attendance at IEP/transition meetings by community liaisons.

Exemplary School-to-Work Components

Collaboration - Connecting Activity

Collaboration between the school and the community provides students with opportunities for leadership training and familiarization with their community. This collaboration is achieved by inviting community agency liaisons to attend parent/educator conferences and organizing field trips to local colleges, technical training programs, and businesses.

What Makes it Work?

The Student Driven Collaborative Transitioning model is successful because of the following elements:

• Clearly defined mission.
• Quality leadership and staff.
• Foundation on published research, including Dr. Richard Lombard's collaborative transition model and Dr. Andy Halpern's research on transition.
• Focus on the individual needs of students.
• Student/parent/community involvement.
• Academic and vocational education, vocational assessment, supported employment, on-the-job training and career training opportunities.
• Collaborative relationships between school, work, local colleges, community service agencies, and local business employers through a dedicated and diverse steering committee.

Staff

Transition/Work Experience Instructor

3 full-time

• Supervises students on the job
• Provides students and parents with information about community agency applications and procedures
• Secures new job sites
• Collaborates with School-to-Work Coordinators
• Provides in-service training and collaboration with community agencies

   

  Transition Consultant

  1 part-time

  • Manages project activities
  • Edits bimonthly newsletter
  • Acts as community liaison
    

Sam's Story

Sam is a student with multiple disabilities who by the age of 16 had failed to develop a great vision for his future. Circumstances surrounding his life, including an extremely unstable home environment and inaccessibility issues, were barriers he encountered. With the support of his special education teacher at Kenosha, Sam began to address his need for accessible housing and independent living skills training, as well as establishing personal and professional goals. This process helped Sam to build confidence and motivation to seek out and build collaborative relationships with those in the community who could assist him in becoming an independent and successful adult. He began networking with Society's Assets, a local organization that assists persons with disabilities in achieving independence by providing natural supports and other activities in the community. As a result, Society's Assets and other agencies provided Sam with adaptive home equipment and a wheelchair which greatly enhanced his independence. Sam now lives independently in an accessible adult family home with other men who have similar interests and accommodation requirements. Through his improved self-esteem and increased independence, Sam is advocating for his needs, passing his classes, working toward getting his driver's license, working a part-time job, and establishing new friendships with his peers. He has completed his high school diploma by taking general education classes at Gateway Technical College. He plans to start college in the near future.

With the support of his special education teacher at Kenosha, Sam began to address his need for accessible housing and independent living skills training, as well as establishing personal and professional goals.

This profile was generated by the School-to-Work Outreach Project at the Institute on Community Integration (UAP), University of Minnesota. The development and dissemination of these profiles was supported in part by grant #H029B30142 from the U.S. Department of Education.

For further information, contact the School-to-Work Outreach Project, Institute on Community Integration (UAP), University of Minnesota, 110B Pattee Hall, 150 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

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