The Places You'll Go
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May 29, 2012 By: Cheryl Steele Oakes
May
28
Written by:
5/28/2012 6:21 PM
The Places You’ll Go!
In
the land of special education once a student turns 14-16 a significant
part of Individual Education Planning focuses on something called a
transition plan, where the team including parents, students, teachers
and others’ who work with the student help direct the student through a
series of activities designed to end up with the student making a
choice about what they may want to do post high school and beyond!
While
we used to believe that post secondary college options were not for our
Intellectually Disabled, today we know differently, and now we move on
to promote this to others.
A paragraph from the Community for Inclusion lays the groundwork for this journey, “Of
all students with disabilities, those with intellectual disabilities
have the poorest post-school outcomes. Until recently, the option of
attending college, especially the opportunity to participate in typical
coursework, has not been available to high school students with
intellectual disabilities. The usual options for these students,
especially those past the age of 18, have been limited to segregated
life skills or community-based transition programs. Inclusive PSE (post
secondary education) options are beginning to replace such programs and
have great potential to improve student outcomes.“
If
you are familiar with planning transitions it should be easy to add
college to your list of options and turn them into activities for your
students. If you are unfamiliar with college as an option for your
students with intellectual disabilities please check out the information
from Thinkcollege.net where you will be introduced to planning
documents, webinars, research and journal articles. The best part of
this informative website includes student videos about why they want to
go to college.
As
an educator building transition plans for my students, I have a vision
that all my students will take a college class at our local community
college while they are still in high school, dual enrollment. What I
have learned since becoming familiar with Thinkcollege.net is that all
of my students can continue with a customized college experience once
they graduate from high school and are no longer considered as a dual
enrollment student. Dual enrollment will help them get their foot in
the door and a customized college program will keep them there. The
benefits of our students with ID continuing in a college program
include: “...
that students with intellectual disabilities who had some type of PSE
experience were much more likely to obtain competitive employment,
required fewer supports, and earned higher wages. Additionally, students
had increased self-esteem and expanded social networks that included
students without disabilities, and all involved had overall higher
expectations for these students.”
Planning
for our special education students will keep them on the road towards
being a lifelong learner. It is exciting to be involved with new options
for our students and their families.
Resources:
For Families: http://www.thinkcollege.net/for-families/for-families
For Students: http://www.thinkcollege.net/for-students/for-students
For Professionals: http://www.thinkcollege.net/for-professionals/for-professionals
Includes articles, videos, and procedures ,past webinars http://www.thinkcollege.net/trainings-past