October Is National Disability Employment Month

The U.S. Department of Education has issued a proclamation that October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. While I am glad for the greater attention to this essential issue, however, I can not feel that nice proclamations and a special monthly designation are merely nice rhetorical flourishes. We need the US DOE to  set guidelines, goals, standards and priorities to actually increase employment for people with disabilities. A good start would be for the US DOE to vigorously insure that the SEAs are holding LEAs responsible for full implementation of their transition responsibilities under IDEIA. We will not see greater rates of employment until schools recognize the centrality of transition planning, which day to day I have not seen.

Comments

[Sandy Crawley]

Transition planning is the key to preparing special needs students for employment after secondary school.