What is PSE?
Post Secondary Education
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Why are PSE opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities expected to continue expanding?
Students with developmental disabilities have made significant progress in education due to the impact of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). No one knows the education potential of people that are labeled as “cognitively disabled.” Educators have learned a better way to teach people and are finding when students are taught with appropriate methods, great growth results. Today’s students received early intervention services that were not available for previous generations. This is a remarkable change, knowing that a generation ago, many children with intellectual disabilities were not even allowed to attend school.
The students themselves are ready to raise the bar and move on to post-secondary schools and colleges. They want to go down the same paths as their brothers, sisters and high school friends. In fact, over 70% of high school students surveyed in the Ohio Longitudinal Transition Study stated their goal was to attend some type of Post-secondary Education. The findings of the report included “the concept of transition will need to rapidly adapt to the skyrocketing post-secondary education goals of students with disabilities.”
At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, the Ohio Department of Education will require special education teachers to significantly increase the discussion of post-secondary outcomes on special education Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).
Also, the Congress has reauthorized the Higher Education Act and included provisions that will support funding for initiatives to increase the participation of students with intellectual disabilities in higher education. The state and federal government has recognized that post-secondary education is an important piece in transition planning for individuals with disabilities.
Currently, there are well over 100 programs listed on www.thinkcollege.net, the web site funded by the U. S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the National Center for the Study of Post-secondary Educational Supports.
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Why Do We Need PSE?
Individuals who experience cognitive delays, who need support to learn, live, grow, and become productive members of our communities are often systematically denied access to the power and privileges afforded by higher education. They are left out of the conversation around equality and access to learning at the post-secondary level.
Yet, research supports the need for greater access to college-level learning to improve the adult living outcomes of individuals with disabilities. Nearly any type of PSE significantly improves the chances of individuals to secure meaningful employment. The data suggests that even one course leads to a job with more hours and better pay compared with the people who did not participate in PSE. The independence and confidence gained through the college experience is immeasurable. People who attend college may find that the fact that they attend college subtly changes the perceptions of peers, parents and community and they are more likely to be treated as equals in the adult world. The college experience also helps shape people’s lifelong attitudes and values.
Lastly, transition for individuals with intellectual disabilities often does not include experiences on a college campus. For individuals with intellectual disabilities, the college campus is the perfect venue to gain new skills toward social and academic independence, while simultaneously acquiring knowledge that could bolster future career prospects and aid in learning the skills necessary for success as adults.
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Why do school districts like PSE?
High schools are recognizing that helping kids attend college while maintaining a dual enrollment makes sense for them. The schools don’t have to come up with a new “program” or dedicate additional space to those students aged 18-22 and the students that are deferring graduation go to college with their peer group. IDEA funds can help pay for college courses as long as college is in the student’s IEP.
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What Does PSE Look Like?
The colleges listed on thinkcollege.net vary greatly in supports, classes, services and philosophy.
Some colleges have set up substantially separate programs. Students with intellectual disabilities attend special classes that teach social, vocational, remedial academics, and/or other skills. Frequently, these colleges use education, rehabilitation or social workers majors to assist with skill development.
Some colleges have chosen to use the “inclusive individual support model” in which the student chooses classes to attend just like anyone else and receives individualized supports or “accommodations” to help them succeed. This philosophy maintains that removing students from mainstreamed college courses to their own special classes would be like returning to the pre-inclusive days before IDEA.
Some colleges allow for a mixture of both ideas. Students take one or two classes on campus and then return to their special classes for some subjects.
Then there are students who are attending college without any program support at all!
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Do Students Graduate with a Degree?
A few students have the goal to graduate with a four year bachelors or two year associates degree. Many students choose to audit classes that interest them. Most students take 1-2 classes per semester.
Some students chose to attend community college and they graduate with a certificate in carpentry technology, computer and networking technician, culinary arts, customer service technology, environmental horticultural science, child care, office skills, veterinarian assistant or fashion merchandising to name a few.
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Do students get accommodations in college courses?
Most students will need accommodations to help them be successful in the college world.
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What Are Some Examples of Accommodations?
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Self determination training
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Tutoring for selected academic courses
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Note takers
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Permission to tape record lectures
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Study skills classes
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Group study lessons
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Reduced course load
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Un-timed testing
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Alternative setting for testing
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Equipping school computers with adaptive software such as screen-reading, or voice recognition
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Test readers
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Career counseling
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Personal counseling
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Books on tape
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Time management strategies
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Who Pays for All of This?
Students have had to creatively fund their post-secondary education through a variety of avenues: parents, contributions from the students themselves, tuition waivers, scholarships from social service agencies, Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Labor, Department of Education, Individual Training Accounts through One-Stop Career Centers, Ticket-to-Work and Plans for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) through SSI or SSDI.
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What Are Colleges Mandated to Provide?
Post-secondary schools must comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the American with Disabilities Act which prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. There is also a Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act from 1988 that has set some mandates for services.
But colleges are not mandated to follow IDEA regulations and are not required to provide Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).
In order to receive accommodations, students have to identify themselves to the Office of Disability Supports as having a disability - it’s not up to the school to assess or seek the student out. Once the student self-identifies, he/she requests an “academic adjustment”. Adjustments must be determined based on disability and individual needs.
The school is not required to lower or waive essential requirements, make changes that would substantially modify the nature of program, or incur undue financial or administrative burdens.
Some schools provide basic accommodations but charge the student for any accommodations above and beyond what they are mandated to offer.
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What Type of Student is Successful in PSE?
The students who are self-motivated and willing to speak up for themselves are the most successful. Students who are tired of academics or have other plans for themselves usually don’t choose to go to college. While parent support is crucial for any college student, colleges requires a different type. Colleges aren’t used to working with mom and dad but look to the student to take the lead.
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What are Some of the Myths about People with ID Going to College?
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What are the Benefits to Colleges?
College campuses often reflect the communities of which they are a part, and they have become increasingly diverse and global as our contemporary world becomes smaller and more accessible across races, cultures and economic status. Without representation on campus of individuals who learn differently, campus communities are missing opportunities to enhance the diversity of the college environments, ignoring chances to model the very practices often outlined in institutional vision and mission statements.
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What Can Colleges Offer to Help Ensure Success?
Colleges that build on the individual needs and preferences of the students, not a “one size fits all” program, seem to be most successful. Use of inclusive options and settings that reflect a natural proportion of non-disabled students with disabled students offer the most opportunity for independence and growth. Some people suggest that a hands on, less abstract course of study is beneficial to people with cognitive disabilities.
Another popular option is a peer mentor/peer support team/advocate/education coach. These are all different names describing the same basic support- to provide a person to help the new student find their way academically and socially.
The mentor might eat lunch with the student, walk with them to class, review what was learned in class, join the student in study groups or hang out with them at school events. The support may fade over time after the student has been acclimated to their new college experience and starts making their own connections.
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How do colleges find mentors?
Colleges have recruited student volunteers in a variety of ways including offering a learning service option, pay peers a stipend, or even use full time staff to act as mentors.
Successful students also have an effective collaboration of student, family, school, college, adult service agencies, and funding sources. Early transition planning in the areas of funding, work, social network/recreation, living and transportation arrangements is imperative to help the student succeed.
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What are the differences between college and high school legally?
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Self-advocacy is expected. No one follows you around to make sure you are getting your needs met.
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Independent problem solving is expected.
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Time management skills are needed and free time in unmonitored.
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Self-regulation related to assignments and due dates is expected. Add link –Scott Lissner
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What technology/computer software can help students succeed?
Add links -- Jenn
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What colleges are currently supporting Post-secondary Education in this region?
Searching for a College
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