Way2Work: Helping Marylanders with Disabilities Transition into the Workforce

This is the final blog in a series of three blogs in October from the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) to honor National Disability Employment Awareness Month.


Way2Work Maryland logo

Way2Work Maryland is a project designed to improve the academic and career success of students with disabilities in Maryland through work-based learning experiences. The project is open to any student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a 504 Plan who will complete high school with a diploma or certificate in 2020. The project focuses on helping students engage in paid or unpaid work experiences, aligned with their interests and skills, while supporting a student’s academic success to complete high school. During the 2018-19 school year, seven Maryland counties engaged in the program for juniors and other students who are two years away from finishing high school. The program is a partnership of the Maryland’s Department of Education, Maryland’s Division of Rehabilitation Services, the American Job Center Network, and the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland.

The following stories highlight the work done by those Way2Work Maryland serves.

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Successful Work Experiences

Alaska and Nevada VR Websites

NOTE: October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.


The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) assists state and local education agencies and VR agencies and service providers, and it keeps close contact with these agencies and providers in order to share real stories of real youth being supported in transition programs. Alaska and Nevada are just two of the states that are creating programs to help youth with disabilities transition into a work environment.

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Transition Resources Help Agencies and Service Providers Support Youth with Disabilities

Logo - National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT)

This is the first blog in a series of three blogs in October from the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) to honor National Disability Employment Awareness Month. In this series, NTACT will share resources and success stories of NTACT-supported agencies and providers and individuals whom the agencies and providers assist.


The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) assists state and local education agencies, state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies and VR service providers in implementing evidence-based and promising practices to help ensure students with disabilities, including those with significant disabilities, graduate prepared for success in postsecondary education and employment.

NTACT, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), identifies effective practices to improve employment preparation and employment outcomes for students with disabilities.

In celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, NTACT wants to remind the field of some resources available on its website that focus on preparing students for successful careers after high school and college.

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Finding Rehabilitation Training Materials: RSA Technical Assistance and Other Resources

National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials (NCRTM) -- RSA Funded Assistance & Other Resources

For National Disability Employment Awareness Month, check out the many resources available in the National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials (NCRTM), funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).

Bookmark the NCRTM RSA Technical Assistance & Other Resources page for quick access to the RSA portal, RSA TA centers and funded projects, Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) federal partners, other resources and research databases.

In this second of a three-part blog series from NCRTM, we share information from three more RSA-funded TA centers and highlight resources that can serve as a springboard for learning about new ideas, and promising and effective practices for expanding disability employment opportunities.

View our first blog from NCRTM.

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State Transition Services for Students with Disabilities: Preparing for Success after Graduation

Note: October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

OSERS funds the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT), a technical assistance center that connects the work of local education agencies, state education agencies, state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies, and VR service providers. NTACT provides support to these entities in implementing practices ensuring students with disabilities graduate prepared for success in postsecondary education and employment. We invite you to read more about the work of NTACT on their website. In recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, this post highlights successes across the country, made possible by NTACT’s activities related to transition planning, graduation, post-school success, and data analysis and use. It also highlights critical resources developed by the center. Follow more activities from NTACT by searching the #transitionta and #NDEAM hashtags on social media.

Arkansas 

Arkansas’ core leadership team for its intensive technical assistance (TA) work with NTACT includes partners from education, VR, career technical education, and blind services. They are implementing the Communicating Interagency Relationships and Collaborative Linkages for Exceptional Students (CIRCLES) model of interagency collaboration in two school districts this year. Through these efforts, students and their families will be connected efficiently to services, transportation, work-based learning experiences, postsecondary education, and jobs!

Alaska

Alaska’s Interagency Transition Council (AITC)—a product of the state’s TA partnership with NTACT—has supported four times the number of Transition Camps, hosted by Alaska’s state VR agency, Tribal VR, and local education agencies this year. Transition Camps provide three full days of career development and work readiness activities, and focus on entrepreneurship and subsistence living, as well as more traditional employment opportunities. The AITC is also engaged in a summer work program, through which 166 students completed more than 6 weeks of summer employment. Additionally, half of students supported in internships through state VR have achieved full or part-time competitive employment—one participant in this program achieved their GED and five are currently enrolled in postsecondary education. Finally, the Tribal VR agency in Nome, Alaska supported an enterprise to provide students work-based learning experiences while in high school.

Nevada

Nevada’s VR Bureau and Department of Education have partnered to develop interagency agreements at the local level and to host cross-agency professional development activities. These steps are part of their overall efforts to increase the number of students with disabilities accessing pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS), intended to greatly improve integrated employment outcomes. Since initiating these efforts, the state has recorded a 69% increase in the number students engaged in these services, which prepare them for competitive integrated employment. They had set out to increase this number to 600 students by June 30, 2017, a goal which they have far exceeded. Currently there are around 883 students in the state receiving Pre-ETS!

North Dakota

NTACT has assisted North Dakota’s education and VR agencies to develop a training guide for job coaches. One large and three rural districts will participate in this professional development opportunity, intended to increase the number of students receiving quality job coaching and workplace readiness skills, thus preparing them for competitive integrated employment.

Resources from NTACT