S-4, Student Self-Survival Skills Project
Millburn, New Jersey
Contact
Daphne Gregory
Transition Coordinator
Steven Keisman
Internship Consultant
Millburn High School
462 Millburn Avenue
Millburn, New Jersey 07041
Phone: 973-376-3600 ext.373
Fax: 973-364-0041
E-mail: nemc-nj@juno.com
daphneg@ix.netcom.com
Mission
The purpose of the Millburn High School Transition Services Program is to provide students with disabilities a structured continuum of coordinated services and activities. It is designed to increase their awareness of who they are, their challenges, effective accommodations necessary to meet their expressed goals, strategies to be effective self-advocates, ways to provide others with information to help them understand more about disabilities, and how to make more informed choices about post-secondary options. In their senior year, they become eligible to participate in an integrated career internship component designed for both students with and without disabilities.
Organization
Organization Type: Education Agency - Local, School, Business - Millburn-Short Hills Chamber of Commerce and Metropolitan New Jersey, New York, Business Partnership
Geographical Area: Towns and cities
Primary Setting: High School, Regular education class, Resource room, Community-based businesses
Funding: External funding source - Office of Special Education Program (OSEP) - Project # 350/794-10-000000 (Partial), State Transition Systems Change Grant
Consumers
Target Population: Secondary education students With and without disabilities, Teachers or faculty- Secondary education, Postsecondary education, Community service providers, Business people or employer, Teachers or trainers
Disability Areas: All disabilities
NTA Framework Categories: Student-Focused Planning and Development, Career Pathways and Contextual Learning, Family Involvement, Business, Labor, and Community Resources
Description
S-4 Student Self-Survival Skills Project is a transition program developed for Millburn High School students with various disabilities. Designed as a four-module continuum of services, the program actually begins before the students move up from the district’s middle school to high school. Classified youngsters, with their parents’ help, are asked to complete a Positive Student Profile. Much of this information is integrated into the student’s Individual Education Plan when they first transition into high school. This provides the Transition Coordinator, as well as other members of the Child Study Team, relevant background material to merge into the student’s overall plan for high school and eventual post-secondary options.
By participating in the IEP meeting and meeting with members of the Special Services Team, the Transition Coordinator begins to gain a better understanding of the needs of each student new to the high school. The Transition Coordinator begins to use the structure of S-4 Student Self-Survival Skills Project. Through organized classes, including Student Self-Awareness, individual meetings and grade level round table discussions, incoming freshmen begin to experience the various activities and program objectives.
Some areas formally covered include an overview of different kinds of disabilities, physiology of the brain and how it functions, styles of learning, the purpose of the Child Study Team and the IEP process and specific laws related to disabilities. Once this has been accomplished, the next program module helps the student put it all together by developing a personal framework. Students then examine the value of educating others about learning disabilities and explore effective and appropriate ways of obtaining needed accommodations for school and work. Included are specific negotiation strategies and self-advocacy techniques. Interested students can choose to participate in the school’s Student Self-Advocacy Speakers’ Bureau. In 1998, the Millburn High School Speakers’ Bureau developed and led two statewide student leadership and self-advocacy conferences for more than five hundred students and one hundred professionals from all parts of New Jersey. These students also provide follow-up technical training activities for students in other districts who would like to start their own Speakers’ Bureau.
Throughout their first three years of high school, integrated into the curriculum is a large variety of post-secondary planning activities. Included are opportunities which include participating in a one semester Career Awareness class, career shadow days, information interviews, school-based business fairs, employment readiness, assembly programs, and a business leader guest speaker series, etc.
In the student’s senior year, they become eligible to participate in the school’s Career Exploration and Internship Program, which is the fourth and final module of S-4. This is an opportunity for the student to be immersed in a host of school-to-career and community-based activities, which incorporates all of the related skills developed and practiced since entering high school. At this time, the student’s individual career interests, abilities, values and experiences are assessed through both pen and paper as well as computer-based instruments. In their final semester this information, along with all other relevant materials which are collected and stored in a students maintained S-4 portfolio, is used to provide students with an opportunity to work in a curriculum and project-based community internship. As interns, students are place and supervised in participating businesses in a recently developed local Chamber of Commerce partnership as well as in other sites in surrounding New Jersey communities and Manhattan.
Also during their senior year, students who are evaluated as possibly needing inter-agency support after graduation (i.e. New Jersey Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Division of Developmental Disabilities) are referred to and registered with those agencies for post-secondary support. In this way, students who need such services will be able to secure them immediately after graduation.
Although the community internship component was originally designed for classified students, its popularity drew the attention of many non-classified students. As a result, it evolved into an integrated program for both classified and non-classified students. This has proven to be most beneficial for both populations and has proved a positive environment of inclusion for all students. This is particularly evident in the intern’s weekly advisory seminars where the students discuss individual internship experiences.
After participating in all four modules, the success of S-4 is apparent in that the students are making more informed choices and setting realistic goals based on their experiences. This allows them to transition to the most appropriate postsecondary opportunities for their individual needs.
Evidence of Success
Success Story
Craig Beatus is a student classified as neurologically and visually impaired. His overall IQ scores range in the mid-80’s and his performance ranges from grades 2.5 to 8 in various content areas. In the eighth grade Craig’s parents considered whether the highly academic, non-comprehensive, high school he was scheduled to attend would meet his scholastic, social and transition needs. Craig had a difficult time both in learning and social situations while in middle school. His peers sometimes picked on him due to his size, somewhat pronounced gait, and poor vision, all of which are related to his disabilities.
After completing a Positive Student Profile, the first step in S-4, Craig and his parents met with the district’s Transition Coordinator to discuss a complete school-related strategy. The Transition Coordinator concluded that in spite of Craig’s difficulties, he was pleasant and friendly and loved sports. Along with the Child Study Team, the Coordinator developed a combination schedule of
small-setting content replacement and mainstream classes. As a ninth grade elective, she scheduled him into the Self-Awareness class she conducted. In this class, Craig began moving through the steps of S-4 ‘s Module A, which gave him the opportunities to explore various learning disabilities, the brain’s physiology, how it functions, styles of learning and intelligence, and the IEP process.
In addition, the Coordinator met with the high school football coach to see if Craig could somehow be included as a team member. He became the team manager and was actively involved with specific duties and responsibilities at all team practices, games, dinners, and celebrations.
From the time he began in his freshman year, he became excited, involved and motivated. The Transition Coordinator encouraged him to apply for membership in the National Athletic Managers’ Association, something Craig still speaks of proudly. This entire experience provided him with an entree into the school’s social setting in a positive way. It should be pointed out that Craig remained manager during all four years of high school and that he earned a Varsity letter for each season. In addition, the football players purchased a Varsity team jacket for him with their own funds.
Craig took Career Awareness as a sophomore elective and continued to move through the next phase of S-4. This module is designed to help students understand the Child Study Team and the classification process and allowed Craig to set personal goals and objectives while understanding various laws, rights and responsibilities related to people with learning disabilities. At the same time Craig’s newly gained self-confidence provided him with the motivation to become a member of the Students’ Self-Advocacy Speakers’ Bureau allowing him to participate in many local and statewide presentations designed to educate others about disabilities. He also tried out and was accepted to the school’s Varsity bowling team.
As a junior, the Transition Coordinator and the Internship Consultant began working on a transition plan for Craig that would include an on-site structured learning experience in a specific career area. The school’s Internship Consultant performed a careful intake which led to the decision that Craig would do well in the hotel/hospitality industry, perhaps in a hotel’s health club or spa. This conclusion was based on various career assessment instruments, a face-to-face interview with Craig, a meeting with members of the Child Study Team, his IEP, and his past interest and success in sports and physical fitness. It was also decided that Craig would probably need the support of a Division of Vocational Rehabilitation sponsored job coach.
A placement was found for Craig at a local hotel, the prestigious Short Hills Hilton. During the first half of his junior year experience, Craig, with his job coach, "shadowed" and "job sampled" various departments throughout the hotel. After this introductory internship phase, it was decided by Craig, his job coach, the Internship Consultant and the Child Study Team that a half-day placement in the hotel’s deluxe health club would be appropriate. A strategy was developed and set in motion where the job coach would support him for as long as needed and would assist him during the work-based transitions on an as needed basis. Consideration was given to his ancillary school responsibilities, which now included manger of both the football and baseball teams and Varsity athlete. Craig’s day involved a combination of academics, an internship experience and team responsibilities.
During his senior year, Craig maintained a similar schedule. S-4’s Module 3 helped him define and acquire specific accommodations, refine appropriate work and social skills as well as develop conflict resolution techniques. This helped him attain great success as an intern at the hotel where he no longer needed a full-time job coach. He even received the hotel’s Employee of the Month award in October 1998. Craig also achieved success as a football team manager and a student. The final module of S-4 helped Craig investigate appropriate post-secondary options, programs and services and to understand the difference between high school, college and prepare for the "real world".
After experiencing all four modules of S-4, Craig felt confident to apply to several colleges, with excellent support programs, to begin formal study of the hotel and hospitality industry as well as in becoming an athletic equipment manager. He was accepted to two such institutions, both with excellent reputations in this career area. In he fall he will be attending a program in New York, where he will live away from home in a supported environment.
Craig’s participation in the S-4 process provided him with the opportunity to move through all the critical steps of self-awareness, career awareness, self-advocacy, self-determination and self-actualization. Craig now has the "equipment" to actualize himself and enjoy a seamless and positive transition into a post-secondary environment.
Products
S-4(c) - Student Self-Survival Project - A Nationally Recognized Program of Excellence • Developed by Daphne Gregory and Steven M. Keisman • May 1999 • $239 plus shipping and handling (Accompanying Training Available)
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