Serving Students with Disabilities

By: Amy Milsom, D.Ed.

For nearly 30 years, federal legislation has provided continuously expanding opportunities for students with disabilities. Arguable the most influential disability legislation for school-age students, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, recognized the rights of all students to a free, appropriate, public education. This legislation, its reauthorization in 1990—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—and its 1997 amendments have helped many students with disabilities experience public school education more like their peers without disabilities. Even the current No Child Left Behind legislation, while controversial, encourages educators to hold students with disabilities to high standards.

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, services for students with disabilities at postsecondary institutions expanded. Since that time, the number of students with disabilities pursuing postsecondary education at four-year colleges and universities has increased by nearly 200 percent. Nearly half of these students, though, never complete their degrees. Additionally, many students with disabilities are still encouraged by parents, teachers, administrators, and school counselors to pursue vocational professions.

In 1990, IDEA introduced the concept of a transition plan, and in the 1997 Amendments mandated all students with disabilities actively participate with Individualized Education Program team members in the development of a post-graduation transition plan beginning no later than age 14. The purpose of the transition plan was to identify post-graduation goals (i.e., job placement, further education) and appropriate coursework needed to reach those goals. In developing the transition plan, the team was to identify skill and knowledge areas the student should acquire before graduation to ensure greater likelihood of success in reaching his or her goals, as well as services to be provided in order to help the student gain those skills and knowledge.

Transition planning teams can be critical in helping students with disabilities develop realistic postsecondary goals, and beginning the process by age 14 allows for a maximum number of options to be considered. Many students with disabilities have the potential to succeed at four-year institutions, but they must acquire prerequisite skills and knowledge comparable to their peers without disabilities. They also must have the desire and motivation to succeed. Realistically not all students are meant to attend four-year educational programs, nor should they feel pressured to do so. The attitudes and opinions of educators can greatly influence students and parents, and it becomes important for all educators to communicate belief in and support for students with disabilities who express interest in pursuing four-year schools.

Helping students with disabilities prepare for success at four-year institutions requires teaching them the skills of self-determination. Since the early 1990s, self-determination has been a frequent topic of research. On a very basic level, self-determination involves students possessing an awareness of their needs and an ability to be assertive in meeting those needs.

To receive accommodations or related disability services at college, students with disabilities must self-advocate. It is not uncommon, however, for educators and parents to advocate for students with disabilities throughout their K-12 education. We do these students no favor by continuing to allow them to rely on others. Students with disabilities should be provided opportunities to develop self-awareness and assertiveness skills before they really need them.

This is where transition planning comes into play. Many high schools and colleges have implemented successful programs to help students with disabilities transition to college, and the majority of those programs have included self-determination components. Common skill and knowledge areas addressed in those programs included assessing personal strengths and weaknesses, understanding disability legislation, and developing assertiveness skills. Transition planning team members can work with all educators to create a safe atmosphere for students to practice these skills.

Current trends in disability legislation have helped encourage students with disabilities to become actively involved in their own current and future educational and career planning, not only to a greater extent, but also starting earlier than they did in the past. No matter what future they may choose to pursue, all students with disabilities can benefit from the opportunity to learn how to fight their own fight to the greatest extent possible. Transition plans that promote the development of self-determination skills can be of great service to students with disabilities.

Amy Milsom, D.Ed. is an assistant professor affiliated with the School Counseling and Counselor Education programs.