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What happens during high school is
sort of a precursor to what's going to happen after high school
and so some of the things that I think students and families can expect
and should expect and ask for during high school
are having coordination of transition services for students,
having classes and extracurricular activities that are inclusive
where people get a chance to spend time with peers who don't have disabilities
and do the things that they enjoy doing and are interested in doing,
having career goals that are very individualized and as
Wendi and others mentioned tonight, those will change over time
for students but they should definitely be individualized as people are planning
and the PTP is a part of helping make that happen too now.
Having community work experiences is one of the most critical things
for outcomes.
We know that
if students have paid work experiences prior to high school they're much more likely to
work in integrated settings at competitive wages after high school. And
then lastly, what the last hour or so - hour and a half - has been all about is
collaboration between all these agencies that
do wonderful things for students across a period of time but they all have
to kind of talk to each other in order to make wonderful things happen.
So, in terms of coordination, that would be overseeing plans, establishing those
individualized objectives,
monitoring progress.
I know one of the questions from a parent tonight was, "how do I know how things
are going?" That's something that you know, hopefully, schools
most of the time that doesn't fall through the cracks and students and families get a
chance to hear about how students are doing with their goals related to transition.
And then connecting,
you know somebody just has to be paying attention to connecting with DVR,
and DPI, other school staff,
and long-term services with students and helping families navigate
those systems.
Having those inclusive classes and extracurricular activities,
get to know peers,
future co-workers,
Um, and just
figure out - I mean that's a great way for all of us - that's how we sort of learn
to develop relationships and soft skills is by participating in things and
getting to know other people. One of the things we talk about in the Let's Get to Work grant
is Opportunity Mapping, which is
where schools will look at all the things that are available
and try to match those with student's interests.
So, in addition to career goals and spending time in the community,
figuring out what's going on in schools that students can get involved in?
Uh... having and developing individualized career goals based on interests and
experiences that evolve over time with students
and then having those community work experiences
and then the collaboration.
That it really does - it takes a village. It takes a number of people doing a
number of different kinds of jobs
to come together
and work with students. And it has to - I keep saying - keep using the word evolve
but it has to evolve over time with students from the time you're
fourteen to sixteen to eighteen
in some cases, many cases, for your youth, twenty-one,
things change and you have different experiences and your goals change.
So, all of those things are important components we know that they impact what
happens after high school
and we hope that
through some of the work that all of the agencies are doing - Let's Get
to Work grant, DPI initiatives, DVR initiatives and
DHS initiatives that
more and more schools will be able to
generate
the knowledge to
use these practices and
and help people to graduate - exit school - with jobs in place and
ready to
live their adult lives doing things that they like to do and
earning money.