You can help your students achieve gainful employment.
"In support of the South Carolina Employment First Initiative, the South Carolina Department of Education promotes employment outcomes in integrated work settings where people with disabilities interact to the same extent as those without disabilities in comparable positions with earnings at or above minimum wage. Ultimately, competitive and integrated employment should be the goal for all South Carolina students, including those with disabilities."
- Rebecca C. Davis
Director of Office of Special Education Services, South Carolina Department of Education
So in March and April 2019, the Transition to Careers Committee sent out a survey to professionals to gain a better understanding of the level of collaboration between SPED and CTE programs, information about students with disabilities accessing CTE programs, and the barriers students may face. We received 337 responses and analyzed the data, writing a brief and report with the findings, including recommendations to improve CTE outcomes for students with disabilities in South Carolina.
Data collection is an important way to measure and monitor the progress, barriers, and successes of a transition team. Many data points can be collected; however, best practices in transition continually point to work-based experiences, connection to adult agencies, and involvement in Career and Technical Education (CTE) as predictors of post-high school success for students with disabilities. To that end, the SC Employment First Initiative’s pilot teams developed a data collection tool to track these measures of success for individual students and created a guide to share this resource with other transition teams.
Swofford Career Center at Spartanburg School Districts 1 and 2 is successfully incorporating students with disabilities into their CTE program. Watch all of the of the 3-part video series below to learn how!