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Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID)
Special Education and Vocational Rehabilitation Services

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At the time of their interviews, former special education students from the Big Five City school districts attended postsecondary education programs half as often as the reference group (27 percent and 56 percent, respectively). Postsecondary highlights include the following:

• Former special education and the reference group students attending 2- or 4-year college programs full-time similarly expressed that they did not feel 100 percent prepared to complete critical tasks expected of successful college students. Full-time college students with disabilities consistently felt less well prepared than did the reference group. The biggest gaps were in academic skills for making oral presentations and learning and using math and in study skills for using computers and technology as required for coursework. Attachment II displays the details of these findings.

• Colleges provide academic support services to assist those students who feel that they need additional help with completing assignments. Academic support services may assist students who have problems with the reading, writing, math, public speaking or study skills required in their courses. More college students with disabilities used academic support services (63 percent versus 36 percent of the reference group).

• Figure 5 shows the community living status of former special education students who were attending college full-time. Students with disabilities were living at home more often and in the dormitory less often than did the reference group.

• The former special education students from the Big Five Cities who were in college full-time limited their choices of college majors more than did the reference group. Almost two-thirds (60 percent) of college students with disabilities majored in five areas of study (Computer Science, Liberal Arts, Business, Fine Arts, Education). In contrast, 60 percent of college students from the reference group are distributed across eleven major areas of study [Computer Science, Liberal Arts, Business, Education, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Law, Allied Health Services (Nursing, Physical Therapy), Social Science, Engineering, Construction, and Protective Services].

• Prior to entering college, students with disabilities had fewer career preparation experiences to refine their goals than did the reference group. See Figure 6.

The community living status of former special education students from the Big Five Cities was similar to that of the reference group. When interviewed a year after leaving school, the differences were slight, especially for students with disabilities who had been educated in less restrictive, integrated classrooms. Findings in relation to post school community living are as follows:

• A year after exiting school, 83 percent of former special education students were living with their families, while 76 percent of the reference group were living with their families.

• The reference group students more often socialized with their friends (37 percent) than with their families (32 percent). Similarly, former special education students from integrated educational placements socialized more often with their friends (35 percent) than their families (31 percent). In contrast, former special education students from separate educational settings socialized more often with their family members (44 percent) than with friends (32 percent).

• Former special education students most often spent free time enjoying home entertainment such as reading or television (19 percent) compared to the reference group (14 percent). The frequency of spending time in home entertainment was higher for former special education students from separate educational settings (21 percent) than for former special education students from integrated educational placements (16 percent).

Travelling Independently: In spite of living in the State's most urban communities where accessible public transportation is generally available, and in spite of a high frequency of public benefits available to the former students, 11 percent of the former special education students in all cities reported that they could not travel when they wanted or needed to go somewhere. Only two percent of the reference group reported this problem.

• Most of the former students with disabilities who reported travelling problems had been educated in separate settings (86 percent); had received an Individualized Education Program diploma (63 percent); or, aged out of their secondary programs (8 percent). They more often had developmental disabilities, including mental retardation (35 percent), multiple disabilities (21 percent) and autism (10 percent).

• The top two reported reasons for having problems travelling included medical/disability (40 percent) and not knowing how to travel (30 percent).

• Most of these former students with travelling problems lived with their families (73 percent) or in group homes or supervised apartments (16 percent) and were attending day programs (45 percent) or sheltered employment (6 percent).

Uses of Community Agency Supports and Services: Once the student leaves secondary education, the responsibility of the Committee on Special Education ends for multidisciplinary service planning. The Committee on Special Education and its subcommittees, such as the School-Based Support Team in New York City, have a critical role in helping students before they leave school to identify and connect with appropriate community agencies and services. If these connections are not made, former special education students are at a great disadvantage in finding needed assistance. Determining if connections to services are made appropriately depends on the purpose of the service.

• Two-thirds (66 percent) of former special education students from the Big Five Cities were connected to at least one community agency program.

• The community agency programs most frequently accessed were Medicaid/Medicare (46 percent); Social Security (38 percent); Vocational Rehabilitation (23 percent); the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (15 percent); the county Department of Social Services (13 percent); community or religious groups (11 percent) or mental health counseling (8%).

• Relatively few former special education students were connected with either the county employment services of the Job Training Act (3 percent) or the New York State Job Service (3 percent). This finding has implications for the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act, which will use these community employment resources as basic components of the one-stop employment centers that are envisioned. Additional outreach to exiting youth with disabilities will be needed to increase access.

• Among former special education students from the Big Five Cities, 23 percent were using vocational rehabilitation services (from NYS VESID or the NYS Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped). Among the 184 former special education students still looking for work, only 27 percent were using vocational rehabilitation services.

• Connections to independent living centers were reported by students only two percent of the time in this sample, even though most students lived at home and 11 percent had problems with travel in the community. Students in this group have the most severe disabilities and would be considered likely candidates for independent living services.