ROUGHLY EDITED COPY JUNE 12, 2006 1:00 P.M. CST VCU WEBCAST ****** Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 (800) 825-5234 This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ****** >> DARLENE UNGER: I’d like to also welcome everyone to the webcast and I appreciate your interest in the topic: Breaking Down Barriers to Implementing Community-Based Vocational Training for Youth with Disabilities. During the next 45 minutes or so, I hope to provide you with some information that would be useful to you all, in addressing some of the challenges that you will encounter in developing and implementing community based vocational training sites, in an increasing standards based education curriculum. The goals for the webcast include: identifying the benefits of community based vocational training for transition youth, primarily with more significant disabilities. And then also, recommending strategies for addressing potential implementation issues and concerns that you may encounter from school administrators and also from parents of young adults with disabilities. And then lastly, I wanted to present some of the regulations and guidelines for providing community-based training. Most of you probably are familiar with many of these guidelines, but I think they are important part of delivering community-based vocational training and thought they were necessary. Prior to addressing some of the benefits of community-based vocational training, and the issues and challenges that many educators and practitioners face in implementing vocational training programs for youth with disabilities, I want to talk about what I have in mind, or what I refer to as the student population who would be served by community-based vocational training. And essentially, community-based vocational training is for students with more significant disabilities, who are 14 years of age or older. It affords them an opportunity to participate in a variety of vocational training and education experiences, including work for pay within typical work settings in their local community. And in these work settings, the number of individuals without disabilities by and large outnumber the number of students with disabilities or people with disabilities at these training or worksites. We have come to know many of these activities as vocational exploration, vocational assessment, job shadowing, mentoring, job site tours and visits to learn more about the opportunities that might be available in different types of businesses in their community. But it encompasses community-based vocational training, encompasses a variety of work experiences and work for pay in use for people with disabilities. There are other school-based learning experiences or work-based learning programs that students, all students participate in, such as cooperative Ed, apprenticeships, internships, service learning and pool-based enterprises. These are some examples. As the programs have evolved over the years, I think by and large, the student population that I have in mind has not generally benefited from or enjoyed assets to participation in these programs despite progressive legislation such as the School to Work Opportunities Act. Students with more significant disabilities are often underrepresented in many of these programs. What has evolved, unfortunately, are two separate programs, and oftentimes there is programs for students who do not have disabilities, and then the community-based vocational training experiences are targeted to students who have more significant support means in a work setting. The goals and benefits of student participation in community- based vocational training sites. There are many benefits for students who participate in any type of work-based learning. For students with severe disabilities, participation is extremely beneficial, as it exposes students to a variety of work studies that they might have limited familiarity with. They are able to see jobs, observe jobs, perform jobs that they have no idea existed in their communities. Within these work settings, students can learn firsthand what skills are necessary for students to participate in these jobs, and through these careers, the types of environment that they will have to work in, if this is of a career interest. Many times students with disabilities may express an interest in a certain type of job or occupation, but really have limited knowledge of what that job entails. For example, a gentleman who expressed an interest in being a landscaper or pursuing landscaping work was very adamant about being able to work outside, and run the machinery to mow lawns and trim hedges. Once the individual was given an opportunity to work in a community-based training site in which they were required to do these tasks, they quickly realized they would have to work under extreme variations in weather. The student does not like to perspire or sweat. So that would not have been a good career match for the individual in the long run. So participation in these training sites helps students validate in their mind what activities and knowledges and skills might be most needed for those types of jobs, that they might have limited familiarity with. Another benefit of the community-based (ringing) training is that students, by participating in these sites, it allows the special educator to collect a variety of assessment and authentic information that should help drive the student's IEP goals or the student's curriculum. Certainly, we can gather a lot of information by conducting interest inventories and pen and paper type vocational assessments. But the information that we gather from students' participation in community-based training certainly can provide evidence as to the student's future career goals and it will validate the information that is gathered from the pen and paper vocational assessments or interests inventories that are done. It's much more authentic information. Participation in community-based vocational training experiences also allows the special educator to identify important employment support needs and accommodations in the workplace for students. This is closely related to the point about collection of authentic vocational assessment information versus diffusing the interest inventories, some of the other pen and paper type vocational assessments. When students are at different work sites, it allows the teacher or trainer to identify areas of supports or accommodation needs, related to tasks or problems that they encounter in the work site. This information can be very helpful in terms of future employment, as well as contributing to one's ability to self- advocate for workplace accommodations. Whether it involves some type of memory strategy training process, or an assistive technology device as a form of accommodation, knowing this information should help facilitate future successful employment outcomes for students in terms of pursuing careers or jobs or bridging the gap between one's ability and the requirements of a desired job or position. Some of the most important benefits for some of our students is that when they participate in a community-based vocational training site, they begin to observe or experience what employers and coworkers expect for them. Oftentimes their expectations are different than what the students encounter in the school-based environment. For some students, they will quickly recognize that what is required of them in the employment setting is much different than what is required at the home or school setting. They will learn the responsibilities of showing up for work, being part of a team, being able to communicate with coworkers, when something doesn't go their way, being able to self-initiate and pursue other work, when they don't have anything else to do at that job site. Oftentimes teaching students with disabilities how to keep busy at work when there is nothing else to do, and they have an hour or so left of work, these are very important tasks that you can't simulate in a classroom-based work setting or classroom environment. One of the most critical features of a community-based vocational training site is that students should obtain paid employment prior to leaving the school goals or prior to exiting school. Many students who participate, my experience is that many students who participate in community-based vocational training while in school oftentimes, students with more significant disabilities, they will transition into a sheltered workshop setting, and for the student to have been successful in their community-based training site and then to have to work in a sheltered employment is, I fail to understand how this happens. But if we can do a better job in placing them into employment prior to exiting school, we should see much greater employment or better employment outcomes for students with disabilities. Similarly, through participation in community-based vocational training, students begin to develop a work history, and gain valuable work experience that can help build a resume. In a national study of employers' experiences with workers with disabilities, one of the main barriers to work for job seekers with disabilities that was identified by the employment representatives who all had experience with hiring and supporting people with disabilities in the work force, was an individual's lack of job experience. Participation in a variety of community-based vocational training experiences should help to address this barrier. Oftentimes, we will be faced with questions from our school administration why we should provide community-based vocational training for students with severe disabilities. One can use the many benefits or the goals of student participation in these programs as a way to convince administrators and also parents as to the reasons or justifications for a community-based vocational training activity. In addition, the following factors should help strengthen your case or support your cause for developing a variety of community-based vocational training sites. The first justification would be to improve the transition outcomes of students with disabilities. Many students with disabilities continue to struggle to successfully make the transition from school to employment. Despite advances in employment rates for students with disabilities who have exited school, the research indicates they are, the finding of some of the research indicates the employment rates still lag significantly behind that you are nondisabled peers. For decades, there has been a connection to a stable outcome for youth with disabilities. Findings have indicated students who participate in some type of work-based learning experience are also less likely to drop out of school. These findings will be especially relevant given several of the indicators required for part B on many of the state performance plans, and the annual performance report indicators. Specifically, indicator number 2, which addresses the dropout rate of students with disabilities in comparison to their nondisabled peers, indicator number 13, and that has to do with a percentage of youth age 16 and above with an IEP that include coordinated measurable annual IEP goals and transition services that the student would be reasonably expected to meet. And then 14 is actually information that will come from a follow-up study of special education exiters. And that is what is happening to the youth with disabilities after, one year after they exit school, whether they are competitively employed or are they enrolled in some type of post-secondary education program, or both. They are working and both going to school. These performance indicators will have to be tracked for students with disabilities. They should provide compelling evidence for your school administrators to want to include the transition outcomes of, vocational transition outcomes of many students with disabilities. Another important benefit for participation in community-based vocational training is that we use the emphasis on authentic context URL learning for all students. There is a push in the regular education environment for contextual learning and bringing the individual's content areas of math, science and English so that students can learn to apply the knowledge that they learn in the classroom to problem-solve and switch the knowledge in the classroom that they learn in the classroom to authentic real-life situations. Community-based vocational training can help our students with more significant disabilities. One of the primary emphasis or factors for the development of community-based training for students with disabilities has always been their limited ability to generalize knowledge and tasks across different settings. Thus, we wanted to provide experiences in the community, and at vocational training sites, so that they would learn the skills that they would need to be successful employees in the business, in the environment where they would have to perform those skills. Oftentimes, community-based vocational training, students can link what they learn in the classroom with the skills and the knowledge that they will need in the community-based vocational training sites. A job coach or a transition specialist, special educator, will have to take the experiences or the knowledge that the students learn in the classroom, and reinforce and extend those concepts in these work-based learning opportunities. Oftentimes in the school-based environment, students will participate, students that are inclusive settings anyway, will participate in academic context classes where they will strictly learn math or they will strictly learn science or they will strictly learn English. In the real world, they are not asked to compartmentalize that knowledge in the community settings. You have to bridge and integrate the knowledge across the subject areas to problem- solve and make those applications to real-life situations. Participation in community-based training can certainly help facilitate this. Another important justification for the use of community-based vocational training is that it does provide an opportunity for the educators to link the safe academic standards with the real- world application. You can certainly teach math concepts or science skills in a work-based learning or vocational training site. It will be an extension of the work, these skills that are identified or standards that are identified whether state academic standards, would certainly be linked to the activities or the knowledge gains in the community-based vocational training sites. Another justification for participation or the development of the community-based vocational training program within the school has to do with the differences between school facilitated services, and the adult service world. In many locales across the country, there are long waiting lists for adult services. Oftentimes the student will participate in a community-based vocational training experience while in school, and if they are not linked to employment prior to exiting school, they will transition onto a waiting list, sometimes six months, sometimes six years. But it's a waiting list for employment services. So all the skills and knowledge and abilities that they have made, they may have acquired through community-based training, they will begin to lose those skills as they sit home and wait for an opportunity for employment services. This is why it's critically important again to have students employed prior to exiting school so they don't transition on to a six-year waiting list. Another point that highlights differences between school facilitated services and the adult service world is the whole issue of the eligibilities versus entitlement programs. Special education is an entitlement program, essentially meaning all students who qualify for special education services, they will indeed be provided with a free and appropriate public education, at no cost to the student or the family. However, the adult service world doesn't necessarily function that way. They have to be found eligible for these programs, even though they have a documented disability. That is oftentimes a hard or difficult concept for a parent to understand about the adult service world. The other, another important factor under the differences between school facilitated services and the adult services world has to do with the need for students to be stronger advocates, once they leave school, in terms of acquiring accommodations and support, advocating for services. Students have to oftentimes reveal their disabilities, and then request the accommodation. So all the information that we gather through the students' participation in the community-based vocational training sites should be very helpful to the student in moving into the different post school environments. In schools, oftentimes in our school settings, with the best of intentions in mind, we tend to enable our students, and certainly there is a big push for promoting self-determination and choice-making. But the more that we can emphasize those skills while they are in school, the much greater likelihood that they will be successful in adult life, in advocating for the services and support that the student needs. With all the goals and benefits that have been identified, and the justifications for providing community-based vocational training, we certainly have ample enough evidence to justify participation in these programs. But why don't more students participate in community-based vocational training? There are several programmatic reasons, or barriers, that have been identified or you may have encountered as you developed and implemented these community-based vocational training programs. There have also been valid concerns that have been expressed by parents of young adults with disabilities. Let's start with the programmatic barriers. Probably, I would say by and large, one of the most challenging barriers to the provision of community- based vocational training is the, oftentimes the philosophy of school administrators towards students with disabilities, or how they view the employment potential of students who need special education services and certainly students with more significant support needs. In school districts where there is an inclusive culture, where students with disabilities are included in academic classes at the secondary level, where there is evidence of co-teaching and involvement of students with disabilities in virtually all aspects of school programming, there is a much greater likelihood that students with disabilities will have access to community-based vocational training, or that the school offers these programs to our students. It's also safe to say that in a vast majority of secondary schools in this country, there are some type of learning programs or opportunities that exist. However, as I think I indicated earlier, the question remains whether students with more significant support needs can access these programs. Despite the federal laws which include requirements or language that indicate the students with disabilities, all students should have access to these programs, we know that that doesn't always happen. To the greatest extent possible, some of these other programs such as the school-based enterprises, tech prep, we should try to integrate these programs with the community-based vocational training experience. There shouldn't be two separate programs. However, if students with severe disabilities are not participating, or their involvement is somehow limited, then there certainly is a need for two separate programs. Some of the other barriers, transportation, staffing and scheduling, liability and funding. I'm going to talk about those in a little greater detail after we hear from Miss Rabuck about some of her experiences with implement continuing community-based vocational training for students with disabilities. The parental concerns. Through my experience with providing employment services for transition, parents raised a number of valid concerns about their son or daughter participating in community-based vocational training. Some of them include missing part of the school day and activities that go on within the school, working within the community, and issues such as transportation, liability, scheduling around different activities, and of course working for pay, the impact of work for pay on government benefits. Again, we will talk about some of these concerns after we hear from Miss Rabuck. I want to take some time now to ask -- to give you background on our involvement with Deb and Hanover County public schools, which is 30 to 45 minutes north of Richmond, back in 1994. VCU had a model demonstration grant that was funded by the Office of Special Education program to design and develop and implement school-based supportive, implement services using community and workplace into the model. We had to identify school systems that would be willing to do this. Again, this is 19, I think the grant started in 1992. This is prior to many programs being implemented to deliver community- based vocational training. And especially the emphasis was not on students with more significant disabilities. Hanover County public schools was one of the school systems that we were working with. At that time, Miss Rabuck worked for a community service board, and was director of employment services at the community service board. She has extensive experiences in those, providing services to people with mental retardation and developmental disability and people with severe mental illness, and other disabilities. So when she came on board in Hanover County schools, three years I believe after our program was up and running in their school, and she can certainly address some of the barriers that the school system encountered in implementing community-based vocational training for students with disabilities. So I would like to turn this over to Deb. I'm going to ask her some questions, and she can briefly describe how the community-based vocational training program at Hanover County schools was started, and some of the characteristics of the students who you serve, the types of activities that the students engage in and how they come to your attention. >> DEBRA RABUCK: Okay. As Darlene was saying, we were working with VCU at the time in the mid '90s. I had been working for 15 years on the adult side and my position was created in 1997 to look at the beginning and developing transition program that would be suitable for our special education population. We serve about a little short of 3,000 students in special education in Hanover County public schools. At the time of my position being brought on, I felt it was important that we sit down together, both as a special education department as well as general education and determine what our vision was for the program. That is important to look at when you are starting a program in terms of where you need to start, who is the population you will be serving, and where do you see yourself expanding to over the course of five years, ten years, and what that would look like. One of the things we agreed initially from the get-go is that we would look at paid competitive employment, using the employment model for all the students participating in our transition program. That was based on the philosophy that I had previous experience in working with the CSD, and inheriting students who came out of public schools and went directly into our services at the CSB, or private home waiting for many years and many of those students had participated in, what schools called internships within the community that were not paid, and one of the things we noticed with that was that a lot of times when an employer is not paying a student, they don't always have the same expectations and demands on a student. The students take longer breaks. They are like, if there is behavior in the work site, the employer is not treating it as, they are paying them, so they don't feel like they have latitude to say as much. That in turn gives a false impression to students of what the demands are for work. That was one of the things we looked at and agreed upon as a system that we would try to incorporate into our program. The next thing was, who were the students who were in (inaudible) there were students like Dr. Unger has been referencing, with the most significant disabilities. Our program is geared towards students who are primarily on an IEP or what is called special diploma, students not verifying credits or working towards a standard or advanced diploma. Again, with that population being targeted, those students have accessibility, you can blend the community-based program into the functional academics and vice versa, whereas students who are on a standard diploma or advanced diploma are locked into the curriculum of what they need to be participating in, in order to get their diploma. That is not to say we don't serve those students. It's just that we are in a difficult situation in terms of the services need to be evenings and weekends or attached to vocational education where we can release students early for co-ops. The next thing we needed to look at was how do we develop the resources that we need. I think in looking at developing the transition plan or service delivery program, you need to look at your adult agency and how you can bring them into your program so they are an integral part and they are involved with students before, not waiting until the student graduates. We looked at the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, our local services board, our check programs within the community for vocational technical education, we looked at programs called resources for independent living that offer supplemental classes to students who are Special Ed., and tie into the (inaudible) taking supplemental classes after school, in cooking, learning to drive, those types of things. We developed a comprehensive transition advisory council. It involved business leaders within the community that we thought would be willing to tie into us for letting us apply for jobs in their businesses, adult agencies, and parents, general educators, vocational educators, central education and that was a vital piece in looking at how to develop our program. Nine years have passed. We are now a program of six transition teachers or job coaches, and we have people that work at each school, and work collaboratively as a team. That is the history of where we came from and the types of services we offer. >> DARLENE UNGER: When you started, I believe you said you have nine Special Ed. teachers involved in the program? >> DEBRA RABUCK: Six. >> DARLENE UNGER: I'm sorry, six teachers. Is it safe to say that, do they have classroom responsibilities? Or they are out in the community providing support for students? >> DEBRA RABUCK: Part of what we needed to look at, if we were going to place students in the community and in paid work and we were going to support them, let's give those transition teachers or job coaches that need to be available, whatever time they are working, if they are working evenings, weekends, holidays, during the daytime, those teachers need to be available. So there are no classroom responsibilities. However, the transition teachers collaborate strongly with the classroom teachers in terms of what should that functional academic curriculum look like to support a student in work. It's funny, you can talk about functional math skills, but until a kid actually learns, I'm working from noon to 6:00 every day and being paid $6.50 an hour, what does that mean in terms of what do I earn from noon to 1:00? From 1:00 to 2:00? What is that called in terms of gross pay versus net pay? Incorporating those functional aspects they are learning into the classroom, so that it makes those experiences very real, so we do a lot of collaboration with the school-based teachers. In terms of looking at resources, we need the students to say, in order to get to work, if it's during a school day, our school division provides transportation to work for that student. The school bus comes or county car comes to the school and picks the kid up and takes them to work. If the kid is working noon to 6:00, the responsibility is on us for the noon, but the parent after school closes, it's on the parent. And that is good, because most don't have a system in place for transportation for students, specialized transportation. That is something the parents need to take ownership of, as well as networking with neighbors, maybe church folk, that type of thing, in order to make it work and looking at the big picture. We also work with student, from 16 to age 22, school-based activities from 14 to 16. At 16 we have situational assessment. That is where we sit down and say, what are you interested in doing? What types of experiences have you had up to this point, whether it be baby-sitting or home chores? How does that relate to work activities? We take the main things they are interested in, and it usually parallels what they have been exposed to in their life. If mom is a schoolteacher, they will say I want to work in a school. If they are dad is a truck driver, they say I want to be a truck driver. That is a good place to start. We also want them to try things they have not expressed an interest in. Like your example of the man who wanted to do landscaping, he had in his mind what that meant. But when he got out there and it was 100 degrees and humid, he is like, that is not for me. We discovered kids will oftentimes not end up liking what they thought they were going to like, and liking things they said, but I don't want to do that! So we try to spread this across a wide variety of experiences, indoor work, outdoor work, standing versus sitting, being with the public or isolated in a quiet environment, from heavy work to light work, and to provide our students a wide variety of exposure, to provide understanding the personal traits about themselves and what they like and have an aptitude. We have county cars for the purpose of taking the kids out on assessment. Assessments usually last one day, no less than four hours. No employee is going to hire a student less than four hours. If it's something we are not sure about, we can extend that assessment two days, three days, or a week or whatever, until the student has a full understanding. You need to be cautious of labor laws when you are going on paid experiences. You can work up to 90 hours and hopefully, you are (inaudible) you need to pay attention to labor laws. When students go on assessments, we take them in the county cars and do it, once they are hired onto a job, the county transportation picks them up. We don't provide transportation for holidays, spring breaks. Some of that incorporates what the real world will be like in working with that family to get the program up and running. >> DARLENE UNGER: That is great. Those are excellent examples. The county, to my knowledge, I haven't been in the area for a while, but the county does not have a public transportation system. There are no cabs, I believe. So transportation is on the parent, the school system, and the supports that are in that student or family's life. The program essentially has evolved from a person, with when we started in early 1992, the program has evolved from one Special Ed. consultant, employed by the school system who would report that about 10 percent of her job involved transition, to a person, Miss Rabuck who is responsible for the transition services within the school and then six teachers who aren't classroom-based, and they are out in the field, and who work collaboratively with a regular Ed teacher in developing and implementing the student's IEP in which community-based vocational training is a component of the student's IEP. Those are great examples. A couple other questions I have for you. If you can think back to when you first started in Hanover County, what are some of the concerns that, and you may still hear them, concerns expressed by parents about their children's participation in community-based vocational training? How did you address these concerns? How did the school system address these concerns? >> DEBRA RABUCK: Some of the barriers are what all programs struggle with, and that is SSI and Medicaid benefits and the concern that parents have in terms of losing benefits. In your study, I'm sure you have become aware that there are many work incentives out there, so students can keep that benefit, but particularly the Medicaid is a big concern. One of the other barriers, that if you can educate the family to recognize that paid work in the community for their student is not a program, you can get past other obstacles that come up as you go along. Parents are so used to their student being part of a program, and paid work is not that. We want students to advocate for themselves. We want students to learn what the components are of work and be an integral part of the workplace. That means being a worker and not a recipients of a program. As we have evolved over time, some of the barriers have been, parents forget that all students at 16 get a first job and if you think back to what your first job was, other family members in your household, their first job, we do workshops with parents, they will say I cut grass. I worked at McDonald's, I worked at Target as a stocker, those types of things. What you are today is not what you were at age 16. But I think parents in their desire to see their students meet their potential, they sometimes want to lead them to the first job being a career. That is a struggle sometimes, to get parents to understand we need to focus on learning what their traits, showing up to work on time, how to navigate the system when you all of a sudden a friend calls on a Saturday morning and you want to be with your friends instead of going to work. How do you work out problems with a coworkers who you perceive as picking on you or a supervisor you think is being unfair, learning those types of traits. You want to learn that in a first job of bagging groceries or working in a warehouse or day care facility or something at an entry level position. I think that was a struggle in terms of a barrier for the program, another one being with school administration recognizing that a transition program is not an alternative Ed program. Many schools have kids who don't seem to fit in anywhere. They are your so-called troublemakers and if there aren't some basic work readiness skills in terms of willingness to stay on task, be part of the team, showing up to work on time and stuff, placing a student out in a paid job is not necessarily the answer. That sometimes can be a barrier of some of the supports changes between a transition program and school administrators. But overall, I think we have come a long ways in pushing the barriers in terms of parents not being as concerned about safety for their child. Again, that is establishing a track record with the program and getting parents to understand that they can trust you, that they can trust that you are going to place their child some place safe and that you are going to stay in touch with what is going on at that work site. >> DARLENE UNGER: Thank you. That is very helpful information. It certainly reinforces some of the ideas that we have in our next series of slides. We want to talk about some of the strategies to address these programmatic concerns. Certainly, education and advocacy will be a very important component of it. But along those lines as well, a professional development for our school personnel, we have to increase the collaboration between the regular Ed, educators and the special educators. We have to do a better job of linking our standards, our state academic standards, with alternative standards, to the activities that take place, learning activities that take place in the community-based vocational training sites. Also, I want to emphasize, we are talking about individual placement here. To the greatest extent possible, we want to avoid large group placements at a single work site. I know it's convenient, it helps address some of the staffing and logistical arrangements. But oftentimes, those are not realistic situations when the student actually enters paid employment. He is not going to be at a job site with ten or 12 of his or her best friends. We want to focus on the individual placement. The other important point to keep in mind is that how we will evaluate the attendance, participation in these programs, what type of academic credits the student will receive through these activities and experiences. So many of our students who won't graduate with a regular high school diploma, this may not be a concern. But it's something that our programs have to look at. Lastly, and I know Miss Rabuck would talk about her experiences in being able to hire six teachers, one of the things that grows her program is that she early on, when she started with Hanover County, began to implement all the studies. We helped her in this manner. She was able to provide evidence to the school board and school administration about the successes of the students with disabilities who participated in her program. Thus, as the outcomes grows the development of her program, she was able to not immediately hire six Special Ed. teachers to help her, but one by one, she was able to bring additional people on board, and she could expand the program an hire more individuals and also helps her with her transportation that the school provides, so that the follow-up studies that talks about the successes or provides evidence of the successes of your program are very very useful. The other thing that we need to keep in mind is that there are other resources out in the community beyond the disability service providers that can help us implement these programs. Certainly liability may come into play here. But we have to start looking at other resources in the community, whether it's college students to provide job site training for students with disabilities. I know with a program when I was at Kent State that I was involved in, we brought students with disabilities onto campus, and we had our in-service teacher trainers provide job site assistance, with supervision from masters level students at the sites, and training them how to apply systematic instruction in the work site to train a person with a disability. There are other resources in the community that we need to tap into, to help us with transportation, or staffing these sites, and oftentimes they tend to (inaudible) one of the major barriers to development and an implementation of the program is the issue of liability. It's essential for educator to involve and develop community- based vocational training become familiar with the educational agencies and the employers' insurance coverage before the student begin any type of community-based vocational training experience. Liability insurance is certainly required for all of these activities. I think most schools will tell you this. In order to find out about your school's liability policy, you can contact the business manager, oftentimes they know, or superintendent. The school's director of liability, if there is one, liability insurance. The agency's insurance carrier, perhaps a technical education coordinator might know or also the school district's attorney should be able to provide you with ample evidence. In terms of the employer, they must also have adequate insurance coverage and provide workers compensation as required by law. Certainly workers compensation only comes into play at paid employment training sites. But we should have a certificate of insurance on file at the school, for each of our community-based vocational training sites or at a minimum, the application with the company name and the number of the policy. The next slide addresses liability issues. I'm not going to go over all of those. But those are some things to keep in mind in terms of what you should have on file for your records to cover the school system. The next slide as well, individual training agreements, should be written. And all of this information I know is available through some of the resources on our use transition Social Security use transition demonstration site. There is a publication by Marlene and Bill Holland that was published several years ago that is still current and relevant about the requirements of developing community-based vocational training sites. In addressing parental concerns, I want to take you back to the ideas that Miss Rabuck talked about. Benefits counseling, there are a number of qualified individuals within Miss Rabuck's school system that provide benefits counseling to parents. This is a major concern. A number of the community service boards that serve students with disability also have benefits counselors on staff. That is a very important issue. It's critical that we get them involved early on in the student's academic years or school years. The other thing I would stress, with the parents, not to alarm them, but the post school outcomes of students with disabilities in terms of employment, and this may shed some light on helping them get over some of the concerns about their students' participating in community-based work experience. Then oftentimes, parents will be concerned about the student missing part of their school day. Certainly when they graduate or they socially graduate, we should be looking for competitive employment placement. The student should still be able to participate in many of the school activities, the senior prom. But when they graduate with their students, they should graduate into paid employment. The school if the students phase in through special education entitlement, the school should also provide ongoing services at the job site while the student is enrolled in school. Safety is also an increasing concern for parents about letting their son or daughter, especially for students with more significant disabilities, letting their son or daughter participate in community-based training. One of the best ways to address this concern so to provide as part of their educational programming, which there are several state standards, I'm familiar with Virginia and the Ohio state academic standards, that look at a basic first aid, eye safety, sexual harassment is something that might not be covered in the state standards but that is something we should address with the students, plus them starting their community vocational training experience. One of the things within the State of Ohio that has been helpful for addressing parental concerns is that several school systems have on paid staff parent mentors that will go to parents with IEP meetings, they will meet with parents to discuss and address several of the concerns that parents express about their son or daughter's participation in community-based training. And they can hear from a special educator, but until they hear it from somebody that walked a mile in their shoes, it's not given as much credibility. These parent mentors have been successful in helping parents overcome some of their apprehensions they have about having their son or daughter participate in community-based vocational training experiences. The regulations and guidelines that I referred to as being one of our goals of the webcast, I know most of you who are actually implementing community-based vocational training experiences or work-based learning, you are familiar with the Fair Labor Standards Act. The next series of slides, I've provided several I guess key points or highlights of the Fair Labor Standards Act. You can take a look at these at your leisure. If you have any questions about them, I can address them during the question and answer period that follows the webcast. But if you want to take a look at those, most of this information you can get from the Department of Labor's Website. But there are some occupations with students with disabilities can participate in. There is also specific guidelines for students between the ages of 14 and 16 about the hours that they will work. And the guidelines are less restrictive for 16 to 17-year-olds. You can take a look at those. A couple of the important points I want to point out about the Fair Labor Standards Act is that if the students are participating in career exploration activities, they are visiting job sites for the purpose of observing work being done or participating in job shadowing experiences, they are not earning a paycheck, they are not being paid, then they are not subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. They will certainly be taken into consideration in evaluating whether student participation in these experiences creates an unfair advantage to the business, but really if they are not a paid employee, these guidelines really don't apply. When the student is employed, when a student is an employee of the business, then the guidelines certainly apply. Some of the other information, the students have to be under the general supervision of school personnel, if they are on the school's rolls. It doesn't necessarily mean they have to be physically present at an employment site, but if it's a service provider, adult service provider, provider that is providing assistance at the job site, it should show up in the student's IEP, if the service provider can't provide the services, we have to address that within the IEP and specify what alternatives arrangements are going to be made. These guidelines certainly should be shared with a parent. In the last couple of the final points about the Fair Labor Standards Act and implementing community-based vocational training, it's very important that you keep parents and the students up to date on the activities that are taking place at the community-based vocational training sites. You have to stress the idea that participation is voluntary. That there will be no recourse against the student if they choose not to participate in the community-based vocational training experiences. It's also important to stress to the parents and the students that for some of these activities, the student is not entitled to wages. We need to clarify that up front, before the student goes into those training sites or work experiences, that are not paid. And the student should be aware of this, and the parent. The last slide, the guidelines, and I believe Miss Rabuck alluded to these during her questions and answers, the guidelines for including these activities in the student's IEPs, and these are general guidelines in vocational exploration activities are not to exceed five hours, her job experience, and you can see the other requirements on the slide. We can certainly post additional information if there are questions on these, on our Website. One point I want to stress, it's critically important that once the student reaches the goals and objectives that are set forth within that student's IEP, for a particular training site, the student needs to be moved to a different employment experience or paid employment. It doesn't, it does the student a great disservice to keep the student in a vocational training site where they have met or exceeded all of their IEP goals and objectives. If there is some behavioral skills we are working with on that student, in that site, then they can remain at that site. But it should not exceed those hours that are specified, and certainly they need to be moved once they reach their IEP goals and objectives. Lastly, I'd like to thank you all for participating in the webcast today. Certainly, if you have questions or concerns or comments, please feel free to call in during the question and answer period. Thank you. (End of webcast at 2:02 p.m. CST) ****** 1