Key points:
There is more than 140,000 special education students (SPED) in Washington state. Often, these students do not have access to the same level of resources that are available to general education students. While we have made great strides in how we support students who receive special education services, equity gaps still exist in areas such as college and career planning.
Special education students may be perceived as unable to succeed in general and advanced high school classes, participate in challenging job training, or be successful in postsecondary education. Often, these low expectations are fostered by prior educational experiences that teachers, school counselors, and parents had during their own K-12 education. Special education students must have their ambitions, interests, and talents recognized and encouraged, while taking into consideration the learning supports necessary for them to be successful.
Regardless of ability, all students have the right to access resources to help them develop a successful and satisfying postsecondary plan.
Here are three ways to help special education students engage in the college and career planning process:
Identify objectives
Setting goals is a critical first step for all students in the postsecondary planning process, as this provides a clear vision of what they want to achieve and begins to create a roadmap for how to get there.
School staff and families must work together to help special education students set goals that reflect and embrace the realities of their academic challenges without lowering expectations that could limit their options. These goals should be achievable, ambitious, and, most importantly, personalized to include the student's capabilities, strengths, and aspirations, while pushing them to maximize achievement based on their strengths.
Coursework can offer valuable information, in addition to reviewing the goals students have set in high school, to help develop a clear and complete inventory of their skills. This will allow the college and career readiness team to have a solid understanding of what tools and supports these students need to be successful.
It is important to have positive, strengths-focused, goal-setting conversations, especially for students, staff, and families, who may have difficulty seeing the possibilities for their future.
Provide personalized experiences and instruction.
As with all students, college and career readiness skills can be developed in a variety of settings, with support from both school staff and the broader community.
Creative opportunities for skill development and workforce training can be found in many schools. For example, in our school district, we have special education students who work as teacher aides delivering mail to offices and classrooms. Additionally, both hard and soft skills are learned and cultivated outside of the classroom in experiential settings such as: community service projects, extracurricular activities, job shadowing, career mentoring, informational interviews, internships, internships, and after-school programs.
Assess what skills and talents your special education students have and create multiple opportunities both inside and outside the classroom to help students take advantage of them and prepare them for postsecondary life.
Group participation
Special education students often work with many different professionals within the school system, so it is important that everyone involved have a shared understanding of their interests, strengths, and future goals to help them succeed.
Successful collaboration can help facilitate positive and realistic conversations among the entire team, ensuring that all stakeholders are working to help the student achieve their postsecondary goals. College and Career Preparation Software It's a valuable tool that keeps everyone on the same page, allowing multiple people to easily track and monitor student progress. For Special Education students, the transition from high school to college or a career can be an important step, so the involvement of parents or guardians is especially critical as they continue to offer support and guidance after graduation.
Everyone on the student team (administrators, teachers, counselors, paraeducators, and parents) must embrace a culture and belief system that special education students are capable of high-level work, can be successful in post-secondary education and can undertake. about meaningful careers. Special education students deserve the same opportunities as their general education peers, including the individualized support their path may require along the way.
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