Educational and Training Options After High School

Summary

In this comprehensive session by the Tri-Valley SELPA Resource and Transition Fair, experts Karen Linganfelter and Carolyn dive deep into the plethora of educational and training options available to students after high school, especially focusing on individuals with disabilities. They elaborate on vital transitions like from high school to adult education, emphasizing regional centers and person-centered planning. Various programs, such as paid internship through regional centers, supported and structured employment, adult education, vocational programs, and post-secondary education, are discussed with practical insights for families and students navigating these decisions. The emphasis is on empowering students through tailored educational paths and essential skill-building opportunities.

Highlights

• Karen Linganfelter has over 35 years of experience in disability services, showcasing her passion for empowering individuals. 👩‍🏫
• Various programs on transitioning to adult services highlight how they differ from the K-12 IEP system. 🔄
• Person-centered thinking is a game-changer in planning individualized educational and career paths. 🎨
• Examples of real-life implementation of programs like paid internship opportunities and job coaching. 💼
• Stressing the importance of working on communication and self-advocacy skills for long-term success. 📣

Key Takeaways

• Transitioning from high school to adult education is a crucial step, especially for individuals with disabilities. 📚
• Day programs and community integration help students develop life skills for independent living. 🌟
• Paid internship programs provide real-world experience and are often funded through regional centers. 💼
• Community colleges offer great resources for students needing extra support, thanks to services provided under the ADA. 🎓
• Programs like Best Buddies and project SEARCH support employment and social integration for students. 👫

Overview

Karen Linganfelter and Carolyn from the Tri-Valley SELPA Resource and Transition Fair are champions for transition planning post-high school. They provide a casual yet deeply informative walkthrough of how to navigate adult education, especially for students with disabilities. With over 35 years of experience, Karen shares her insights into how the landscape has evolved to better support these students.

The discussion significantly highlights the importance of person-centered planning. This modern approach tailors educational and career plans around the student's individual goals and dreams, empowering them to pursue paths that resonate deeply with their personal desires and capabilities.

Additionally, the presentation walks through various opportunities available post high school—including vocational and adult education programs, internships, and college courses. Through shared experiences and expert suggestions, students and parents gain valuable insights into the resources and planning required to successfully transition into adulthood.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Presenters The chapter titled 'Introduction and Presenters' opens with the speakers, Carolyn and Karen Linganfelter, introducing their annual talk fondly referred to as their 'dog and pony show.' Karen, who is affiliated with Mount Diablo Adult Education, shares her extensive experience of over 35 years in the field of disabilities, highlighting her passion for aiding individuals in reaching their life goals. The presenters aim to provide valuable information resources and are open to addressing questions, intending to offer a comprehensive and interactive session.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Presentation Overview The chapter titled 'Presentation Overview' informs the audience that there will be opportunities throughout the presentation to ask questions. Attendees are encouraged to put their questions in the chat, which will be monitored by a designated person. Carolyn and the presenter will address these questions. Additionally, both presenters' email addresses are displayed on the presentation for any unanswered questions during the session. The presenters invite the audience to email them for further assistance.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Options for Individuals with Disabilities This chapter introduces the role of a transition specialist who facilitates the transition from high school or transition programs into adult services for individuals. The speaker, who works in the tri-valley area for Pleasanton Adult and Career Education, appreciates the warm welcome and expresses their honor to be present at the event.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Individualized Program Plans The chapter provides an overview of the topics to be covered regarding individualized program plans, particularly focusing on Alameda and Contra Costa County. Although the timeframe is short, a resource list will be provided for further information on the discussed programs. The chapter also acknowledges the broader audience tuning in from across California.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Support Systems and Case Management This chapter discusses the evolution and current state of support systems and case management for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. It highlights the exciting advancements and increased options available now, compared to the past 35 years. The chapter covers transitioning to adult services and explains what that process entails.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Importance of Person-Centered Planning This chapter discusses the importance of person-centered planning, differentiating it from the traditional IEP system in K-12 education. It also explores pathways to employment for students, highlighting various programs and resources available to facilitate competitive employment opportunities. Carolyn provides an overview of these programs and resources.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Understanding Regional Centers The chapter discusses the transition of day programs and services to virtual platforms due to COVID-19. It begins by addressing integrated employment opportunities, then provides an overview of how day programs have adapted to an online format during the pandemic. The chapter also explores various post-secondary educational opportunities available to individuals, including community college, adult education, and four-year institutions, highlighting the choices and challenges these options present.
• 06:30 - 07:30: Life Skills and Transition Programs This chapter discusses the challenges faced by individuals transitioning to adulthood, particularly at the moment of graduation when decisions about college or employment need to be made. It introduces resources and programs designed to help with these transitions, providing explanations to enhance understanding of adult life preparations.
• 07:30 - 08:30: Pathways to Employment This chapter discusses the transitional pathway from the K-12 education system to adulthood, specifically focusing on employment. It highlights the use of Individualized Education Plans (IEP) in the school system and addresses the transition from receiving educational support to entering the adult world, be it after graduating at 18 or completing a transition program by age 22.
• 08:30 - 09:30: Paid Internship Programs The chapter discusses individualized program plans in the context of paid internship programs. It highlights the nationwide adoption of person-centered thinking, emphasizing the role of person-centered plans. An example snippet of a person-centered plan is provided, showcasing their importance and influence in driving effective personalized programs.
• 09:30 - 10:30: Employment and Self-Employment Options The chapter titled 'Employment and Self-Employment Options' delves into the discussion about aligning an individual's personal goals and dreams with their life needs and aspirations. It emphasizes the importance of determining necessary services and supports to reach these objectives. The chapter introduces the Individualized Service Plan (ISP), which is essential for adults receiving services through regional centers. These services may include adult educational programs or career support initiatives tailored to enhance the individual's employment or self-employment opportunities.
• 10:30 - 11:30: Supported Employment and Job Coaching The chapter discusses the shift in case management when transitioning from a transition program to adult services in regional center systems. It highlights the change in case managers from someone focusing on transition to a new adult services case manager, which might be new and unfamiliar to parents and students.
• 11:30 - 12:30: Question Break: Employment and Internships The chapter discusses various adult services that aid in the transition to independent living or supported living. These services include supported employment, paid internship programs, and day programs. It also highlights that many families might not have accessed regional center services during the k-12 education phase.
• 12:30 - 13:30: Continued Discussion on Employment The chapter titled 'Continued Discussion on Employment' highlights the critical role of adult programs in providing supports, services, and vendor partnerships essential for employment initiatives. Specifically, the chapter underscores the importance of these programs in offering paid internship training. These programs are characterized as a vital resource or hub, integral to the various services and programs discussed in the chapter. However, it's noted that, outside of California, there isn't a regional equivalent to these programs.
• 13:30 - 14:30: Day Programs and Community Integration This chapter discusses the Day Programs and Community Integration facilitated by the regional center, part of the California-based Lanterman Act. This legislation ensures crucial funding for services that assist individuals with developmental disabilities in integrating into their communities. The regional center, under the Department of Developmental Services, plays a vital role in ensuring these individuals receive the necessary support to live the lives they choose.
• 14:30 - 15:30: Understanding Transition Fairs The chapter titled 'Understanding Transition Fairs' seems to focus on educational programs and planning tools that aid in personal development and goal setting. In the provided transcript, the speaker talks about handling questions using a chat during a session, followed by breaks for further discussion. The speaker introduces two programs, 'Life Skills' and 'Tops', and describes their connection to personal action planning, which is part of person-centered planning. The concept of creating a 'map' or action plan for setting and achieving personal goals is emphasized. The transcript appears to be part of an interactive session with opportunities for participants to engage with the speaker.
• 15:30 - 16:30: Transportation and Accessibility The chapter 'Transportation and Accessibility' focuses on a personal perspective, where the speaker, who has been in their field for 35 years, shares their aspirations for retirement. They express desires to travel, spend time with animals, and be more involved with family, especially looking forward to becoming a grandparent. The chapter highlights the importance of understanding personal interests and goals, which are central to discussions held with students and their support teams. Together, they work on forming a comprehensive picture of an individual’s aspirations and future desires.
• 16:30 - 17:30: Question Break: Day Programs and Transportation The chapter discusses the transition to adulthood and the importance of understanding personal interests, strengths, and goals after finishing school. It emphasizes the role of self-awareness in selecting day programs and transportation services that support individual aspirations. The chapter also highlights the necessity of considering career interests, enjoyable activities, and significant relationships when planning for future endeavors.
• 17:30 - 18:30: Post-Secondary Education Options The chapter discusses the speaker's pre-existing germ phobia and how it intensified with the onset of COVID-19, emphasizing their continuous focus on sanitation. It highlights the importance of health, family time, and supporting the well-being of their family members, including their mother and son. Additionally, the speaker expresses a commitment to advocating for students and supporting their staff, all of which are integral aspects of their life priorities.
• 18:30 - 19:30: Special Programs at Colleges and Universities The chapter focuses on special programs available at colleges and universities that aid students in preparing for their future and achieving their goals. The narrative involves personal reflections on mental well-being and life goals, emphasizing stress management as critical for long-term success and longevity. It also touches upon the significance of financial planning for retirement and personal aspirations, such as having grandchildren. The chapter is structured as a living document, suggesting ongoing updates and developments in both the professional and personal realms.
• 19:30 - 20:30: Adult Education Programs This chapter describes the process of creating an Individualized Service Plan (IPP) for participants in adult education programs. It mentions that different programs have their versions of important documents to assist individuals, like Karen, in setting and achieving personal goals. The IPP is a collaborative approach to identify what is significant to the individual, outlining their aspirations, dreams, and objectives, and detailing how the program can support them in reaching these aims.
• 20:30 - 21:30: Adult School Offerings The chapter titled 'Adult School Offerings' focuses on the personalization of service plans based on individual goals. It highlights that these plans, often part of an Individualized Program Plan (IPP), may prioritize goals such as transitioning to independent living, managing finances, employment, attending community college, or participating in continuing education and adult education classes. The chapter introduces the fundamentals of person-centered planning, emphasizing the importance of tailoring plans to meet individual needs and aspirations.
• 21:30 - 22:30: Questions: Education and Programs The chapter titled 'Questions: Education and Programs' focuses on the importance of family and significant others in supporting individuals, particularly in educational and programmatic settings. The document emphasizes collaboration with families for effective support. It also teases an upcoming discussion involving questions for a person named Karen regarding student participation from San Ramon.
• 22:30 - 23:30: Preparing for Transition from High School The chapter discusses the transition from high school to adult and career education, focusing on the flexibility and opportunities offered by adult schools. Unlike traditional K-12 schools, which have boundary limits, adult education is more accessible as it often forms part of a larger school district but operates without geographical restrictions, offering broader access to continued education beyond high school.

Educational and Training Options After High School Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 carolyn and i do this talk every year and um we call it our dog and pony show i'm karen linganfelter carmen as you said i am with mount diablo adult ed but i've been in the field of disabilities for over 35 years and it's my passion uh to work with individuals and help them achieve everything they want to achieve in life and we're hoping that this evening we can provide you with some information and resources and also answer some of your questions as jun said there'll be
• 00:30 - 01:00 opportunities you'll see throughout the presentation where we will answer your questions we're just asking everyone to please put them in the chat for us and we have somebody that will be monitoring the chat and we'll be giving carolyn and i the questions so that we can answer them and we are also both of our emails are up on the presentation that you have so if you have any questions that were not answered are not able to be answered this evening because we have so many um please feel free to email either one of us would be happy to help out
• 01:00 - 01:30 yeah thank you jun for the warm welcome and um thank you karen i echo your sentiment um and i'm the transition specialist as june mentioned uh in the tri-valley so for pleasanton adult and career education and basically i'm that warm hand-off from high school or transition program into adult services so thank you it's an honor to be here the next slide please
• 01:30 - 02:00 so i'm going to kind of go through an overview of what we're going to cover tonight now we're going to be giving you a lot of information and not a very long amount of time um so you're going to have a you have a access to a resource list to a lot of the programs and types of things that we're talking about we are going to be focusing primarily on alameda and contra costa county um it's exciting though we know that some people have are dialing into this or tuning in through throughout the state of california and i
• 02:00 - 02:30 believe in the prior presentation even throughout uh some of the other states and even out of the nation which is exciting but what's wonderful what june said this is an incredibly exciting time uh for individuals with developmental intellectual disabilities the options are greater than they've ever been before and it's exciting for me having been in the field for 35 years to see the progression and to see where we're at now so the four things that we're going to cover is we're going to cover transition to adult services and what that looks like
• 02:30 - 03:00 because it's very different than the iep system the k-12 system that your student or you are currently uh potentially currently enrolled in um we're also going to talk about pathways to employment so if employment is a goal for your student or for you we're going to carolyn's going to give you an overview of some some different programs that are set up there wonderful resources and training resources that can lead to competitive
• 03:00 - 03:30 and integrated employment and i'm going to talk a little bit about day programs and of course now with um our shelter in place in covid um everybody's online and doing virtual including all the day programs but i will give you kind of a snapshot of what day programs can provide and then i'm going to talk a little bit about post-secondary educational opportunities and that's community college it could be adult education it could be four-year so there are choices available it's just it's challenging and
• 03:30 - 04:00 overwhelming sometimes right at that graduation moment as you're preparing for what's next i'm just like with anybody kind of trying to determine whether to go to college or get a job that kind of thing so hopefully some of these resources will be helpful and the explanations will kind of help you get a greater understanding of what these programs are like next slide please so if you can on your screen you'll see alphabet soup you're moving into the adult world adult
• 04:00 - 04:30 services world of even more acronyms and we in the k-12 system you have your iep uh individualized education plan and once your student graduates or completes and leaves the um iep or the k-12 system whether they graduate with a diploma at 18 or they go through a transition program to age 22 what happens next is then they become they go into the adult world in the
• 04:30 - 05:00 adult world it becomes an individualized program plan and what's absolutely wonderful and that this is happening all over the country and certainly not just in california is the embracing person-centered thinking um by doing a person-centered plan and i'm going to give you an example i did kind of a little snippet from what my person-centered plan would look like person-centered plans are amazing and they drive they're all about
• 05:00 - 05:30 that individual's goals and dreams and what they need and what they want out of life and how they can get there and what services and supports they need to get there and that is an integral part of the ipp and what's not on here is the isp which i should have put on which is the individualized service plan which is what happens when you have an adult who is getting services through a regional center for getting adult um services like a day program or a work
• 05:30 - 06:00 activity program or something along those lines so i'm going to give you a little more details as we go also what will happen in some parents or and students are surprised by this in the regional center system case management changes you go from maybe if you're in a transition program having a transition focused case manager then to a new case manager who is an adult services case manager and somebody that you're not familiar with or maybe you don't know and what's key about regional center and
• 06:00 - 06:30 adult services is there are so many wonderful services that can enable and support your student in transitioning to independent living to supported living with additional supports to have supported employment paid internship programs day programs a lot of families say they don't access the regional center during the k-12 or they haven't accessed them for services or supports however in the
• 06:30 - 07:00 adult world they're a critical part of helping to provide the supports the services provide the vendors if you will because all we're all vendorized programs providing the the money for paid internship training they're just a wonderful wonderful resource and the hub for many of the programs and services that you're going to hear about tonight however if you're out of california you're not going to have a regional
• 07:00 - 07:30 center so those of you that are in california we're very fortunate to have the landerman act which gives us this wonderful agency regional center under the department of developmental services that provides this incredible and important funding for services to help your student become and live in the world in the way they want to and be the adult and get the services and supports they want in their community next slide please and by the way i see some questions coming up please continue
• 07:30 - 08:00 to put your questions in the chat because as we move on we're going to take a break after my part here and then i'll be happy to answer questions as well as carolyn so my program so i have a program called life skills and a program called tops that june mentioned in the introduction and they we have created what we call a map which is kind of my action plan so this is part of person-centered planning so me that's my name what are my goals and dreams well no surprise since i've
• 08:00 - 08:30 been in the field for 35 years i'd like to retire um i'd like to travel spend time with animals spend more time with family and to be a grandma at some point um i list out my interests and these are the type of things and questions that we talk with our students about we bring whoever's in their support team their family to come in and kind of create this beautiful picture of who is this person and what do they want in life because
• 08:30 - 09:00 you know when you become an adult and you're out of school it's like oh my gosh what do i do next well knowing what you're interested in and knowing what works for you and doesn't work for you and what you hope to achieve can help programs help you support you in those goals uh next slide please so things to know about me you know what are my career interests what are my favorite activities what who are they what are the important relationships in my life because all of these things are going to play a part in my determining what i want to do
• 09:00 - 09:30 and supporting me but what i don't i like um i have to point this out because i don't like germs i never have but see when covid came out i was way ahead of the game because i was already sanitizing all the time so um it just amped up my uh my germs uh germ phobia my health is important to me time spent spent as a family my mom's health my son's health advocating for the students that i work with supporting my staff life living life
• 09:30 - 10:00 laughing being outside my best friend duke is my dog who's at my feet right now and then what support and training do i need to be successful and work towards my goals so yeah stress management to keep me alive long enough to retire because i have that workaholic thing happening uh certainly money to retire and hoping my son will soon get married and have i can have grandbabies um so in this document and this is a living breathing document
• 10:00 - 10:30 and every program out there has their version of what of this document um and we take this information and from there we bring it to the ipp meeting we do our individual service plan for that individual which is a document that also kind of says here's what karen here's what's important to karen here's what karen wants to achieve here's her hopes and her dreams and her goals and here are some things that our program can do to help her achieve those
• 10:30 - 11:00 goals and that becomes the individual service plan and it's all tied into the goals and an ipp because an ipp instead of having educational goals it may have more about transitioning to independent living managing money going to work um it may be going to community college or taking some sort of continuing education taking adult education classes um so it will vary but this is just the beginning of what person-centered planning is all about
• 11:00 - 11:30 and having family input or people that are significant to that individual provide support or input in this is critical also because they're going to be the support team that also helps to make these wonderful things happen um next slide please all right questions so i think we who's my question rose it's me karen so okay have a couple questions for you um can students from san ramon
• 11:30 - 12:00 or danville attend pleasant and adult and career ed yes um one of the things we're going to talk about what the beauty the beautiful part about adult education is so adult schools are part are often part of a k-12 district so i'm actually part of the mount diablo unified school district but we're the adult education branch however unlike the k-12 side of things where there are boundary limits you have to live within a certain boundary to attend certain schools
• 12:00 - 12:30 in adult education there's no boundary limits whatsoever so we have students that come to our tops program which serves adults with autism and a prior diagnosis of asperger's from all over the bay area in fact we've had them come from napa um because many of those students drive san francisco oakland berkeley um and what's great which i'll talk about a little bit we're just three blocks from concord bar but anybody can attend an
• 12:30 - 13:00 adult school and both carolyn and i are going to talk a lot about some of the programs that you can access at adult schools in in terms of job training programs and certificate programs because it's it's pretty amazing um it's an option in addition to or in lieu of a community college depending on what your student desires thank you um so the next question is one of the challenges for youth with only an ohi
• 13:00 - 13:30 diagnosis in their iep and intellectual developmental disability that is not one of the named categories accepted by rceb is how to qualify for rcv services what tips do you have for qualifying for rcb for a youth who is in the counseling enrich program um i'm sorry counseling enriched classroom at seneca center within a school district for seven years yeah that and i'm not regional center although rose you could probably answer
• 13:30 - 14:00 that this is certainly better than i could but i can say that i just know the primary diagnosis for regional center um is pretty specific i mean many of the folks that we work with have dual diagnoses and they may have asd autism spectrum disorder and they may have obsessive compulsive disorder anxiety disorder some other um or mental health disorders but the primary for one the primary disability has to be an intellectual developmental disability
• 14:00 - 14:30 is that correct rose yes so we have four qualifying criteria and then our fifth category and then in addition to having one of those diagnoses they also need to have significant impairments um in i think um four out of seven areas that are in our website um okay so in order in order to keep the question break short do you want do you have time
• 14:30 - 15:00 for another one or one more i think we'll do one more by the way i can just tell uh that this is being recorded um someone asked if it's being recorded and yes this is being recorded and you'll have access to that um yeah one more question would be great okay um do you have a sample of map look like for an adult who would have a moderate to severe disability one who will not be independent so this is so our map uh my action plan
• 15:00 - 15:30 is designed for the individuals that we serve in our program uh which are mild to moderate however every program has a person-centered planning tool that they have created and designed it specifically to meet the needs of the individuals that they serve so even if your son or daughter isn't necessarily going to be independent in the sense of living their own apartment possibly if that's what you're thinking or working there are many many degrees of independence that an individual can
• 15:30 - 16:00 achieve as an adult and so many of the programs that work that we're all part of a larger group serve individuals that are with moderate to severe disabilities and they are working um and they are doing um more skills more things independently i one of my good friends and i'm an advocate for her granddaughter um she is severe disability but she's been getting some vocational training and although she can only work for
• 16:00 - 16:30 three minutes at a time and then needs a break for about five she's feeling good and being productive and she's doing um some work skills she's learning and so it really depending on the program that you select when you're looking for programs they will tailor it to the needs of the individuals there this is supposed to not be it's not a one stop shopper one size fits all it will look different for even the folks we serve right in terms of what they want to achieve because not everybody wants to live on their own
• 16:30 - 17:00 and not everybody wants to go to work but they may have other goals like they want to be part of they love chess and they want to be in a public chess club in the community and participate with others or they want to swim um it's it's not just about the highest level of independence that any of us can think of it's really driven by what's most important to that individual what makes you know what motivates that person what makes that individual feel good and feel happy and that's
• 17:00 - 17:30 what we want to um and to be a part of their community whatever that looks like it can look very differently sorry that was over talking i think we can go on now rose okay thank you thanks karen so let's talk about employment if you would like to work there are many systems in place to help you achieve this goal but first i would like to give you some background information
• 17:30 - 18:00 this information can be found on the department of labor office of disability employment website and it can also be found on the department of developmental services website there is a national movement called employment first this is a framework that is centered on the premise that all citizens including individuals with significant disabilities are capable of full participation in integrated employment and community life
• 18:00 - 18:30 in california governor brown signed a b 1041 into law establishing an employment first policy in the lanternman developmental disabilities services act we also have a competitive integrated employment blueprint that is effective and has been effective from 2017 and goes until 2022 this blueprint is the combined effort of the california
• 18:30 - 19:00 department of education the california department of rehabilitation and the california department of developmental services major outcomes of this blueprint include improved coordination between state agencies providing employment services additional support for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities to earn competitive wages in an integrated
• 19:00 - 19:30 setting individuals will earn no less than minimum wage and since the state will and since last year the state will no longer place or serve individuals in segregated work settings including sheltered workshops if you are in california and are a regional center consumer this can be a good place to start if you have exited high school or completed a transition program
• 19:30 - 20:00 and are over 22 years of age your employment goals should be discussed at your annual review otherwise you can reach out to your case manager and let them know that you are interested in pathways to employment the regional center can purchase services from employment service providers to help you train for work and gain that precious experience the department of rehabilitation here in california
• 20:00 - 20:30 or the vocational rehabilitation office in other states around the country provides a range of services through their supported employment services this could include job coaching to help you learn and do well at your job money for transportation or even to buy clothes or other necessary items that you would need to do your job you know an example of this would be like non-slip shoes if you're working in the kitchen
• 20:30 - 21:00 or any kind of assistive technology as well so to become a dor or evoke rehab consumer you need to complete their application process this you may have already started a partial file open when you participated in various employment programs at the high school or transition level but you would need to open a full file once you exit these programs and the k-12 system
• 21:00 - 21:30 you can do this by yourself by visiting an office but most times your supported employment provider will assist you with this step we can move on to the next slide great so one type of work training or employment training is the paid internship program and here's a picture of the folks at um our in adult and career education
• 21:30 - 22:00 this year and you can see we're all being safe with kovid um so we are participating in a project search model and this was developed in cincinnati and is now available around the world the internship includes soft-skilled classes on-the-job training resume building and interview skills as well as job development and follow along next slide please
• 22:00 - 22:30 here we have an example of um individual internship model and this is a really great opportunity for anyone who has identified a workplace that they would like to gain some experience perhaps meet those pre-employment qualifications maybe they need to work somewhere for a year before they get considered for employment so this is really
• 22:30 - 23:00 um another great way to gain those um that employment experience this is something that's usually worked out with the employer directly of course a supported employment provider can also help with that uh individual model also comes along with job coaching job training and that type of thing okay next slide please
• 23:00 - 23:30 so remember competitive integrated employment is the goal so working in an integrated setting alongside individuals that are not disabled making no less than minimum wage and having the same opportunities for advancement this can be achieved in a couple of ways and here are some examples so customized employment or job carving is creating a position with the individual in mind that matches their abilities and their
• 23:30 - 24:00 skills along with the employer's needs supported employment and also i should mention that custom customized employment um does come along with job coaching so there is training involved with customized employment um supported employment provides job coaching and support to make sure that the individual is learning their job and being successful another type of employment which is not mentioned on the slide unfortunately i apologize is called
• 24:00 - 24:30 micro enterprise or self-employment and this is when an individual puts their abilities their skills and talents to work for themselves examples of micro enterprise could be using artistic or culinary talents to create meaningful work and work opportunities to make money next slide please okay so at this point we'll take a a brief pause and answer any questions you might have
• 24:30 - 25:00 at this time and if there's no questions we can just keep going along we have a couple of questions so i'm gonna um try to choose a couple um does adult school need to be added to the iep or the ipp um so adult school you know um thinking about next steps you would probably start to talk about it um definitely in your transition plan
• 25:00 - 25:30 um and then i think that would be added to your ipp when you exit out of k12 and you're starting to think about adult services that's when you would add it what are the differences between supported employment and paid internship program um that's a great question so paid internship program um basically it is for a limited time so it's a program
• 25:30 - 26:00 with a start date and an end date um there's some clear objectives that you want to accomplish during that time so if i'm talking about our internship program or karen's internship program it's about nine months so the interns will learn three different jobs over those nine months they're paid for the um the time that they're working these are funds that come uh from the regional center um but it's more of a program
• 26:00 - 26:30 you know if that's the right word for it's more of a structured program whereas supported employment um that would come after the internship program so that's always the goal so as as you're finishing up your internship um we're doing job development we're looking for placements and then once that person that intern is able to transition into employment that's when supported employment would kick in and that means they would get job coaching they would get follow along
• 26:30 - 27:00 and support the the job coach would be coordinating with the employer just to make sure that everything's running smoothly and typically i would say job coaching could start out at 100 but then the expectation is that the supports may fade as the individual becomes more adept at their work but there are individuals that will continue to need support and that's okay too and and that's available as well
• 27:00 - 27:30 thank you just a quick reminder to our participants if you have a question go ahead and type it in the chat and then i'll ask it to our presenters so i'm going to combine two questions um how are other employ employment programs such as best buddies the same or different to your program and then are there open houses to observe different adult programs to see what is
• 27:30 - 28:00 offered yes yes there are um and i believe karen's going to talk about that uh in the next couple of slides but as far as best buddies go they are a fabulous fabulous program they're nationwide and i they might even be international i'm not i'm not 100 um but their philosophy is that they match i mean it starts in in the k-12 it starts in school and they will match up an individual with um a buddy or a mentor in the school system
• 28:00 - 28:30 and then that philosophy continues um into adulthood as well i believe they have three pillars of um like their model is three pillars so they do uh the job coaching you know they place individuals they support them in their job but then there's also i believe a public speaking aspect to it so um you know if there's a an individual that that they feel would be a great advocate or really loves public speaking and wants to talk about their program then
• 28:30 - 29:00 there's that component as well to best buddies ah okay best buddies is global that's great yes i see there somebody posted that awesome yeah there it's an amazing program and i believe it said travolta was it no not i he did the the futures explored the film right there was someone famous that started best buddies do you have one want to do one more question sure okay this one's come up a couple times how do you get into a paid internship who do you reach out to is that through
• 29:00 - 29:30 the regional center or through d.o.r yeah so um if you're a regional center consumer that's definitely the first place to start so um as you're doing your annual review or as you're getting ready to exit high school um that would be a great time to start you know i would recommend going to and karen will talk about this in a little while but you know doing your homework researching all the different programs
• 29:30 - 30:00 talking to other parents that's really the the best place and then as far as um getting a referral or a purchase of service for an internship that's really through your case manager and then can i ask just one quick one um what age can you access paid internships yeah so re so basically regional center will um provide resources for any service that is no longer that is not a
• 30:00 - 30:30 generic resource which means that the k-12 system including transition is considered a generic resource so after an individual finishes a transition program at 22 then they can qualify for regional center-funded programs or if they exit high school with a diploma then they're eligible for regional center-funded programs and the pips are through the funded funding through regional centers someone
• 30:30 - 31:00 had said that they didn't get department of rehab didn't mention or know anything about it so start with the case manager for sure yeah yeah okay um tag i'm it hey so we're gonna talk about day programs um and there are some center-based day programs and those that are community-based programs meaning so for instance we're at loma vista adult center in concord so we have a center base although we're out in the community every day but a community-based program is
• 31:00 - 31:30 essentially often meets in the community or they pick up their participants and then they're out in the community whether they're at the library or they're you know going you know learning shopping skills things like that going to the classes out in the community so they're out in the community all the time they're not going back to a center necessarily there are some that combine that as well um so some of the focus that you see in a day program some of the primary focuses are social and recreational
• 31:30 - 32:00 skills you know as part of being an adult you know we have to have a balance in our lives between working um and taking care of all the responsibilities we have and then recreation and being able to access recreation in our community whether it's at an adult school or a lot of folks take classes through their local city um park and rec departments things like that um social skills are key when carolyn wraps it up at the end she's going to talk about how important it is to work
• 32:00 - 32:30 on developing social skills um it's a necessity for work and just it's a necessity um for even just being able to order go into a restaurant and eat and order your meal that kind of thing it's helpful to really focus in on that and self-advocacy i'm going to tie that in with that because it's critical self-advocacy is so important and for those of you that have students that may be going to department of rehab or maybe going let's say to community
• 32:30 - 33:00 college things will change in the sense that unlike in k-12 where the parent is is brought in and a part of everything in those situations where there's a college whatever they want to talk to the individual that's that's wanting classes or wanting services this doesn't mean they won't talk with the parent um but often to do that the person who is an independent adult has to sign and say it's okay for you to talk with my mom about my employment plan or that kind of thing so
• 33:00 - 33:30 it's very different um in adult services community integration access becoming a part of the community one part of person-centered planning and i saw a question i just want to make sure everyone knows person-centered planning is for everyone it's not just for self-determination so it's for every individual in the united states that has a developmental or intellectual disability and so part of that might be you know becoming a part
• 33:30 - 34:00 of my community more participating in classes getting support so that i can do more in my community there's been some wonderful stories about individuals who have we had a student who loved to knit and she took she joined a knitting group and at the adult ed just a regular knitting class and and became just the most popular student in the class every time i walk in just to check in that class they're laughing and having a great time so it's really it's
• 34:00 - 34:30 about giving opportunities for individuals to experience their community what's in their community life skills encompasses budgeting and cooking and cleaning and being able to do some of the basic skills you need doing laundry are parts of those things it doesn't mean doing all of them it could mean learning a part of the process so maybe it would be challenging for them to start the washer but maybe they could sort between colors and whites and play
• 34:30 - 35:00 a part in their household and do a part play a part in contributing to their household but also in taking care of themselves through doing learning how to do laundry um developing self-advocacy as i said is critical and i'll talk about more how that fits in with community college especially kind of behavioral working through you know getting the supports needed to anything that is challenging for an individual that makes it difficult for them
• 35:00 - 35:30 to reach their goals to achieve their goals to do what they want to do in life getting the supports necessary going to the programs where they have that support so that that individual can grow and expand their skills and and beyond and be able to achieve what they want most programs day programs offer vocational training it looks like um volunteer work typically so we're talking about it's going to um
• 35:30 - 36:00 be volunteering like our students volunteer at the concord police department the um what is it monument crisis center right and then restore and those are opportunities for our individual students to gain employment skills right volunteer work is a great transition to employment that's where we can really assess their skills and their ability to follow directions and follow steps and what adaptations or accommodations they would need
• 36:00 - 36:30 to be successful if they are going to want to get a job at some point so those are the basic components of most of the day programs that are out there next slide and by the way um there is i i'll say it now i i was going to say it a little later we're you're getting a reference list a resource list very comprehensive and on that list you'll see day programs um you'll see um a lot of information about some of the other things we've talked about like paid internship
• 36:30 - 37:00 programs things like that so it's a really wonderful list and you'll have access to that in fact i think it was already in the chat um all right so what do i do somebody asked us earlier so are there open houses at day programs no not typically but what happens is is that every year um once a year throughout the county so alameda county has a very very large transition fair and it's usually in march
• 37:00 - 37:30 contra costa county has one it's actually held at one of our um mount diablo school district buildings and it's usually in the fall and west contra costa county also does a transition fair and at these fairs you will have all of the adult providers the majority of us participate in it's it's a little overwhelming i'm sure for your student and families to walk around but it is everything from resources to help them transition to independent living or more
• 37:30 - 38:00 independence in their own home to day programs work activity programs um department of rehab regional centers there it's it's a one-stop place to get a ton of resources to get information about programs and give you kind of a snapshot of okay so what do we want next you know what fits based on what your goals and interests are what best fits your students needs what are you looking for what kind of support um or if you have
• 38:00 - 38:30 medical needs what type of medical needs do you have your regional center case manager is where you begin the process and you talk to them and they will refer send packets to programs and then you'll be able to often visit or tour we do tours most programs set up tours and what i call visits which is where an individual comes and spends a day or two or three to really see what it's really like to be in a program um and what the program is focused on if
• 38:30 - 39:00 it meets their needs um you can also have to look i mean beyond visiting day programs and trying to figure out what's the best fit um i can honestly say that many of the programs and some of you probably heard this have a wait list we definitely need more programs throughout both counties our programs are all wait listed um at the adult school and i know that's a scary proposition when you're looking at graduation let's say in june and
• 39:00 - 39:30 you know what are my options and you get but i can't encourage you enough to get out there that year a year prior to graduation on completion of transition program and start touring with your you know son or daughter and seeing what's out there seeing what's available seeing what might be a good fit and getting on a wait list um if that's possibility so that when things do get when you do get closer to that point um the last thing for me what's really hard is i don't like having wait list because i don't like people graduating then
• 39:30 - 40:00 sitting home and not being able to you know pursue their goals and so that can be really challenging so i can't encourage you enough to get out there and start talk to the case manager get some referrals of programs that would maybe address your needs and interests and then start looking transportation can be another challenge one of the things i said like adult schools people can come from all over and for most adult programs whether they're day programs or work activity programs people do come
• 40:00 - 40:30 from all over the area depending on their needs and interests the challenges is we have paratransit on the county connection link um try delta transit and alameda county can't remember now what is it carolyn is it wheels wheels yeah so there are a variety of paratransit and those are wonderful you have to fill out an application get a doctor to sign off on it and they're door-to-door sorry dial rides sorry okay pick up at
• 40:30 - 41:00 home take to program and then at the end of the day you know take home and that's transportation that regional center can fund as well but it is challenging sometimes and regional center also is vendorized with different transportation companies that also can provide transportation to programs and then you know how accessible is the program if you have a son or daughter that wants to learn how to trans how to get to the program
• 41:00 - 41:30 is it accessible by bart or bus public tran transportation in our county is um in any county it's not as great as we all need it to be but it's certainly accessible um to get to some of the more you know in town localized um locations but it's really really important that you venture into that and talk to the case manager about transportation as well next slide please questions
• 41:30 - 42:00 go to roads okay we got lots of questions sorry it took him a second to unmute no worries um okay do you have to get on a wait list for pleasant and adult and career ed that's a carolyn question i would say um yeah most years we've had a wait list so i would say um put your yeah talk to your case manager and get
• 42:00 - 42:30 your referral um if you're interested you can connect with me and we can um we can do a zoom call or like a virtual visit that's what i would recommend during kovid but yeah we do have a wait list yeah yeah and we are um we're virtual and we've been having folks visit um and do a virtual visit it's certainly not the same of course as being there um but it's helpful i think to give a
• 42:30 - 43:00 snapshot of what a class is like and who are the students in the class that kind of thing um what types of companies participate in these programs so are we talking about the paid internship programs i believe we're talking about paid internship we have two paid internships one is at the embassy suites in walnut creek and one is at the marriott in walnut creek so those are hotel hospital hospitality industries but there are many many
• 43:00 - 43:30 any employment any employer is a possibility for a paid internship program any employer and originally project search started and at a children's hospital in chicago cincinnati not chicago cincinnati so yeah every type of industry where there's jobs and opportunities to learn and train on the job and then successfully get employed it can be anywhere i know we also work with
• 43:30 - 44:00 toolworks which is another supported employment agency and they have people at pg e they have people at pinterest um that are doing paid into internship programs so any company uh small big or small because you can do individual paid internships or you can do group group is usually for the larger industries like a hotel where you've got close to 200 employees and lots of different departments so folks can rotate and gain
• 44:00 - 44:30 different skills um i'm just going to ask you two quick ones in rapid succession um how long can a person be in a paid internship and then is there a regional list with descriptions of public adult school and career ed programs okay carolyn yeah so um so there are funds there are regional center funds
• 44:30 - 45:00 for the paid internship program so these are the wages um for the interns and the maximum is ten thousand four hundred dollars per year um so it's basically whenever you start the internship until whenever you end the internship it's ten thousand four hundred dollars that are allotted for that program so typically we see our interns go through one year um but there have been exceptions where we feel like an individual needs to do
• 45:00 - 45:30 another round of internship um just to really um work on some some more skills and we just felt um that it would be better so we have seen two years um and then sorry rose what was the other question the list um is there a regional list with description of public adult school and career programs yeah so um there's a fantastic resource page that's um attached to this conference
• 45:30 - 46:00 i'm not sure if it's posted in the chat but you will be able to find all the adult schools on that resource page otherwise you can also research you can find the website for the mid alameda county consortium if you're here in california a lot of a lot of adult schools are part of a consortium so that is in our case in with our mac there's eight adult schools and then
• 46:00 - 46:30 um two or three community colleges as well so that's another resource just to complicate things a little bit more yeah um does conservatorship affect a person's eligibility to enter a program such as a paid internship or a job no the only thing i would say is when we're doing the onboarding paperwork for department of rehabilitation we just need the conservator signature
• 46:30 - 47:00 uh when we're signing all the paperwork yeah we have you know emails yeah and we just we make sure that the communication goes both to the individual and to the conservatory um just let me know when you're at time um how does employment impact benefits such as ssi and medicare and just i'm going to talk on another one does paid internship wages impact ssi
• 47:00 - 47:30 and medicare benefits yeah do you want to handle this one karen are you sure i was going to say a great resource hireable dot org where uh many of us are a member of this organization it's an organization of providers that support individuals and in gaining competitive integrated employment in the community and they're they are doing some benefits training they received a grant which is fabulous and they're doing
• 47:30 - 48:00 some benefits training because yes it does impact ssi the the short answer is that in the end your the individual will still end up making more money because after the first i think 75 dollars it's for every um two dollars they make in their job then one dollar comes away from their ssi um and that will go all the way down doesn't mean they'll lose their medi-cal if they're medi-cal they will not lose that but it's
• 48:00 - 48:30 possible that they could work enough not in the paid internship programs because we're typically not our paid internship programs usually pay 20 hours a week maybe at minimum wage and because there's also education happening on these sites with a teacher that they're having class about so they're maybe getting paid for 20 to 22 hours a week but yes and one of the things i can't say enough is that you need to send your pay stubs to social security and also do not be alarmed because like
• 48:30 - 49:00 anything they're going to be behind it's going to be a couple months behind um by the time they get it and they process it and adjust the social security accordingly but yes that does happen however in a paid internship program there's also a form that the supporter employment agency can sign that talks about they're getting a hundred percent support um and i believe that minimizes ssi is that correct rose i'm going to ask you on that um i'm sorry
• 49:00 - 49:30 because i was reading the chat no worries it's okay um but i i can't tell you enough to go to check out our the website for hire able it's one word hireable.org and yeah if i could jump in turn to the other website is db101 that's another um you know they have calculators and yes it's a little it can be a little complicated sometimes working the calculator we've all kind of played with it but it does give you a snapshot of what
• 49:30 - 50:00 it'll look like and how much money you can make and how that's going to offset if you can you know use the calculator but yeah it's disability benefits 101 db 101 thank you carolyn yeah all right next slide yeah can we move on okay okay post-secondary options and comparing so we're going to talk about community colleges universities adult education schools and
• 50:00 - 50:30 trade schools and art schools so these are if you're looking if you've kind of talked about the employment options so if you're looking for the educational options what's next i'm going to go through some details if next slide please i'm going to kind of break it down for you and it's not you know none of these you know are depending on the individual what they want and desire and what their skills and abilities are is going to be the one these are just some really wonderful options so if you've ever gone to any
• 50:30 - 51:00 um presentations that um david hagerty from dvc has done about um community college and transitioning one of the things is they are absolutely mandated as are adult schools uh by law under the ada to provide support services um some of the departments are called dss some of them are called dsps but they are disability support services and so individuals that want to take classes or non-credit classes which they now have a
• 51:00 - 51:30 lot more non-credit classes available than they used to previously if they're a class it's kind of like your high school diploma so to get a high school diploma you can get a lot of accommodations whether you need additional time or a decreased workload in classes or what have you but modifying the correct they cannot modify the curriculum because in a community college the curriculum states whether you're getting
• 51:30 - 52:00 working towards your aaa degree if you're doing it for credit i'm talking or if you're doing it if you're trying to get a certificate they can't modify so the curriculum remains the same but they can provide the accommodations that they determine you would be eligible for when you meet with the dss counselor with an iep preferably if you have a prior iep so that they can look at that and use that kind of as a guide and also to verify that the individual has a disability that qualifies them for
• 52:00 - 52:30 services and some of the things that the dss or dsbs departments can provide is priority registration which is great lots of counseling academic career and disability counseling note taking tutoring extended test time audio books recording lectures we've had many of our students do that interpreters closed captioning services all types of different media services they have a specialized lab i know at dvc and at lmc los medanos and
• 52:30 - 53:00 i'm sure i believe contra costa college as well i work in tandem with community colleges because carolyn referenced that we're part of consortium and several years ago the funding from the state became connected to community colleges for adult education so i sit on the steering committee for our county and we're partnered with los medanos contra costa college and dvc diablo valley college and the adult schools so we
• 53:00 - 53:30 do we work in tandem trying to help students get supports they need we provide concurrent enrollment so they may be taking a class at dvc and they're in my tops class getting some college support on time management organization skills things like that but and we work with the counselors and stuff so there's a lot of that happening with adult schools throughout the state because of the mandate and the cape what we call california adult education programs so if your
• 53:30 - 54:00 son or daughter starts at an adult school and then wants to go to community college there's often an easier transition to help them make that happen through what they learn at the adult school and then the transition specialist that most adult schools have that work directly with community college and link the two next slide please so there's special independent living skills programs at colleges and universities um and their campus
• 54:00 - 54:30 inclusion experience so you are living there you're living in a dorm uh taft um is down in the bakersfield area i've had several students that have gone to tap for two years um we had a young woman who went to taft completed the program came back with her driver's license and is did the paid internship program at the marriott and got a full-time benefited job at the marriott at the completion of her paid internship um wayfinders at fresno state's the same
• 54:30 - 55:00 idea college living experience is down in monterey they're typically two-year programs they provide like i said dorm experience and they not only yes they're taking some college classes but they're really also gaining work experience they're gaining independent living skills it's kind of an all-inclusive focus and regional center does um is works with these programs so you these are programs that you can talk with the regional center case manager about funding um part not necessarily the res the apartment
• 55:00 - 55:30 rent if there is a program like cip and berkeley were which is in the next group for individuals with autism spectrum disorder they will pay for the program cip not the apartment cost right the living cost if you will um cal state east bay we have had several students transition from tops to the college link program there it's a wonderful support program for uh individuals on the spectrum they have um a lot more there's
• 55:30 - 56:00 mentoring that goes on on campus of other individuals that have been successful at the college that are on the spectrum and we just had two students transition last year over to cal state east bay they're working with their dss department they're in the college link program and providing getting support through support groups course everything's virtual now right so classes are virtual supports virtual um during the shelter in place and then college to career we've had
• 56:00 - 56:30 several students complete the college to career program at college of alameda if you live in that area um that's a great book training program it's specific to prepare them to go out into the world to take classes and learn skills to help them go to work to find a job to complete training and we just had a young man who completed their program this past year and he now has a full-time job but he lives over in uh west contra costa county over in that area um next slide please
• 56:30 - 57:00 all right adult education program so prior to 2008 many adult schools in the state of california had programs that were adults with disabilities programs in 2008 the funding fell out um and we lost our attendance funding and like k-12 has so everything kind of stopped in and many of the schools adult schools in the bay area and even in the southern part of the state northern part had to drop their
• 57:00 - 57:30 adults with disabilities programs which is really unfortunate but some of them have survived and are continuing to grow and and strive and provide services castro valley adult has in career education they have a large program called the strides program they serve close to 100 individuals and they do employment they have a job developer they do independent living skills our life skills program is very similar to the strides program um in terms of the focus fremont adult
• 57:30 - 58:00 uh in continuing education they have the null center which is also a fairly large program and and they under the direction of their new director they're reaching out and doing a lot more with employment focus and and transitioning individuals to employment successfully i'm with mount diablo and we have the two paid internship programs at the hotels we are virtual right now because the hotels are at less than 10 occupancy so there's no room for us to come in and work and and
• 58:00 - 58:30 for many of our individuals they don't feel safe doing that at this time understandably um our tops program which um started back in 08 and it's designed to help individuals who are wanting to transition to college uh to employment maybe to get a driver's license kind of transitioning on to achieve goals it's more of a short-term program where they get supports and skills to to move on to the next phase in their life our life skills program is a day program and we provide
• 58:30 - 59:00 um all all the different topics that i covered earlier about social skills communication skills community access and vocational training we do have a job developer that works with our programs all of our programs to help individuals go be successful in in doing employment on an individualized basis we have the pip programs but we also have individualized uh job development and then we have the on-track program and that program is for individuals who have uh
• 59:00 - 59:30 suffered an acquired brain injury a lot of folks in that program um were working and in college and maybe had an auto accident or a drug overdose or something like that that caused a brain injury oakland adult is really i think the first adult school in this bay area to to do project search and that and they do that at the alameda county courthouse for years um i think they were also partnering with
• 59:30 - 60:00 children's hospital when they were doing the training there as an instructor but for they're still continuing to do the project search through oakland adult uh carolyn is with pleasanton adulting career education and and they just launched into this amazing adults with disabilities program several years ago actually three or four i think since i've met carolyn and um they're growing and doing some really wonderful on training programs within their own school district pip programs which is awesome and they do life skills and career readiness and then wes contra costa
• 60:00 - 60:30 adult does independent living skills occupation work skills most of those teachers from that adult school go to programs in the area day programs work activity programs and provide these classes there's no geographic limitations again which is wonderful for enrollment at any adult school throughout the bay area so make sure to access that resource list it has a comprehensive list of adult schools in alameda and adult schools in contra costa as well next slide
• 60:30 - 61:00 please all right some basic adult school programs so these are programs that most adult schools throughout the state offer adult basic education is reading writing technology math skills kind of help people prepare for college a lot of people will come because they want to um pass a test maybe with the county to be eligible to promote um and or just you have a personal goal that you want to improve your skills um it's a it's a
• 61:00 - 61:30 starting point for individuals who have i mean some basic reading and writing skills that they want to develop further most adult schools have a high school diploma program where you get a legitimate high school diploma at the adult school we have had some students from our transition program which just happens to be on the same campus that our adult school is at have gone from the transition program had enough units that
• 61:30 - 62:00 they could go into our high school diploma program with their iep there's a program specialist that our school district provides to make sure the iep is carried out and then that have gotten their high school diploma but there's also the ged and the high set the high sets become more of a popular equivalency because the ged for many people feel it's more difficult i i'm not familiar with either but i know that we've had some students in our tops program complete
• 62:00 - 62:30 their high set and their ged and walk and graduate adult schools that have high school diploma programs actually graduate there's a ceremony and it's you know an official document that diploma or that ged some of us have satellite offices for america's job centers of california some of you may know them as one-stop centers and they were developed years ago through federal mandate for any individual within that county can go and get free services
• 62:30 - 63:00 get free workshops on you know resume preparation interview skills do a lot of career assessments and we have a satellite office at our campus that individuals can come and access in our our america's job center is still out on port chicago but they're throughout the state um and they used to be like i said the one stop now they're called america's job centers of california so you may be able to access that at your local adult school
• 63:00 - 63:30 most have lifelong education still even though funding stopped for that um back in 08 however many of them are just fee-based and those are wonderful opportunities for students for you to take a class with your son or daughter cooking dancing painting um it's they're wonderful classes taught by credential teachers fitness classes we have taken students and we've gone and take ceramic classes at our pleasant hill center where they have some ceramic classes so it's
• 63:30 - 64:00 really really wonderful um to access those lifelong education classes and you can do it with your student and provide them the support they need while you're there in the class if you feel that's a need or they can take it individually next slide please okay carolyn tag great thanks aaron so along with all the myriad of uh programs that karen just talked about in
• 64:00 - 64:30 adult ed um we also offer career and tech ed and this is really um kind of the nuts and bolts of learning hard skills uh upon com successfully completing these programs you will get a certificate and then you can actually transition right to employment um from these programs so you can see here a whole bunch of uh different types of training everything from um
• 64:30 - 65:00 emt training a certified nursing assistant uh here in pleasanton we have a huge apprenticeship program so carpenters um firefighters you know we've got a whole bunch of different programs so that is also part of adulthood and know that if there's a career that you that you know that you want to go into and you just need that training to get there adult ed would be a really great option
• 65:00 - 65:30 for that if they offer your program next slide please so on that same vein we've got the trade schools and the art schools so um similar to career and tech ed um you know you can get a certificate upon successfully completing these programs i do want to point out that creative growth art center and niad are both specifically for regional
• 65:30 - 66:00 center consumers if you're interested in art you really loved working with different mediums then this is a great option for you and they also offer the possibility to sell your artwork as well so that could be a great option for micro enterprise or self-employment next slide please so we'll pause quickly to take some
• 66:00 - 66:30 questions okay good we got lots yeah i know like drinking out of a fire hose yeah i can definitely say there was an error on and i apologize and i guess it says triple a versus a a degree yes it's a a um do you suggest that a high school graduate do adult ed as a transition to community college depends on their
• 66:30 - 67:00 skills so if they have their high school diploma and they have good study skills and time management and organization skills um because as we know in community college everything amps up and it's a faster pace and you don't have i mean one things you don't have is that that teacher saying come on now you guys don't forget this is due so you have to if your student is able to to do their work and stay on top of it and and keep up then they could transition with
• 67:00 - 67:30 support from the dss departments and they also have some mentors on their campus i think dbc does individuals that have disabilities that have been successful that mentor however if it takes a lot of prompting from you and there's a lot of challenges around organization and study skills and follow-through and turning stuff in then it might be helpful for them to take you know an ade class and focus on study skills because that's also something that they will do in or if they're an individual that
• 67:30 - 68:00 might have asd and want to check into our tops program because that's also what we we do we help provide a lot of support around those you know organization and time management skills that are necessary for success can someone who's not a client of the regional center attending adult school absolutely absolutely yeah all the programs that we
• 68:00 - 68:30 discussed are minus the list that says adults with disabilities programs all the other programs career tech ed there's english as a second language there's parent education lots of lifelong learning classes any individual in the community can attend absolutely they're for the community at large does the project search program accept residents outside of klezington yes yeah so um basically there's no kind of
• 68:30 - 69:00 geographic catchment area for adult schools so you could be from another county another city yeah as long as you can manage the transportation right that is the challenge we've we're in walnut creek we have individuals coming from brentwood oakley thankfully uh the embassy suites is at the pleasant hill bart station across the street but even then if you've got to use paratransit to get there it can be challenging i mean transportation is always
• 69:00 - 69:30 you know a challenge and that you need to take into consideration when you're looking at programs and apps we've had um we've had interns uh from hayward san lorenzo and uh oakland was the furthest one um oops sorry i just lost my spot um will the dorm experience programs take conserved students that's a good question i have no idea
• 69:30 - 70:00 unfortunately i'm not affiliated with them i can't imagine i don't know that's a great question that i mean i'm not gonna even speculate that's something you would have to you know go online with the list that we've given you and and reach out and contact the programs and ask them yeah and they're usually at the transition fairs so you can talk to um you know the folks from wayfinders or i don't know if taft is there but wayfinders is usually there at the transition fair yes right okay um
• 70:00 - 70:30 can students who are in the mild severe program um attend college or do they need to be a diploma track they don't need to have a diploma to attend a community college there and there are classes often through the dss departments even that are specifically work on independent living skills that are to help serve individuals with disabilities that may not be on that
• 70:30 - 71:00 academic track per se so i think there is going to be a level of reading and writing skills that are going to be necessary to participate in that but certainly not a anybody can go to a community college you don't have to have a high school diploma to take classes what does it take to convert a certificate of completion to a high school diploma it takes units you have to have the units if you don't have the units i mean you
• 71:00 - 71:30 can certainly take units at an adult school for a year or so if you need to but if you don't have the units [Music] already then what we recommend is you do go through go for the hiset or the ged and and there is support available you know if you need to if you need a little bit of support with that yeah and adult schools are mandated we're ada we're under the ada as well of course
• 71:30 - 72:00 and we do accommodation plans for our students in career tech ed we serve actually a lot of folks from department of rehab um that are served by department of rehab and we do accommodation plans we have staff that do that and i do them periodically for our careertech ed department um when would be an appropriate time to connect with disability support center if a student is looking to apply for
• 72:00 - 72:30 community college should they apply for admission first and then contact the department or vice versa i think go ahead go ahead caroline i was just going to say um it would be good to get in touch with the department you need to basically have all your ducks in a row so you need all your documentation you need your iep they might ask for um a diagnosis or a letter from your doctor um so i would definitely
• 72:30 - 73:00 reach out to the to the office and see there are some requirements that they need and then usually typically what happens is there's an appointment with a counselor and basically they walk you through what the steps are for that at dvc i know i'm not sure about the other two but they'll tell you in order for them to serve or work with you you have to be enrolled do you know enroll do the paperwork part portion but reaching out to them and finding out
• 73:00 - 73:30 what they need in their documents like carolyn was saying so that you have everything so that as soon as that happens then you can get your services and they might even support you to enroll i know at las positas um they have oh that's yeah [Music] oh can i really quick follow up on the conversion question do they need a transcript from the high school
• 73:30 - 74:00 for community college if they if um they're wanting to transition their certificate of completion to a diploma and they need to add the units that karen was just answering i'm sorry i'm reading chat at the same time so do they need to provide their transcripts for the adult school if they want to complete their um yeah you would have to show the yeah they need transcripts regardless and
• 74:00 - 74:30 they'll ask for them they'll ask you know they'll get them from the school they'll get permission and then after that they'll help make a determination there's always an initial orientation at adult schools where they do an assessment test just to see what base where the basic reading writing and math skills are just to make sure they're at the level that we can serve them in our adult ed classes and or for a high school diploma or high set or ged
• 74:30 - 75:00 shall we have carolyn do the last slide and then i'll take us into the thanks karen so the next slide is really just for the folks that are um thinking about transitioning you're in high school or you're in a transition program how can i start preparing for my future right now you can start working on your person-centered plan um this is a living document so you know karen kind of walked you through um what hers looks like so you can start thinking about that what your goals
• 75:00 - 75:30 your hopes and dreams are what you like your likes and dislikes so start identifying that definitely work on those communication and social skills those will take you very far um work on your self-advocacy so that means you know um asking for things for yourself um you know depending on on how much independence you have at home really requesting um that self-advocacy so ordering for
• 75:30 - 76:00 yourself at restaurants making phone calls doing research you know that's really all part of it um and those are great skills to learn and you'll keep learning those skills but it's good to start now uh time management you know very important and then travel training i know right now it's a little bit tricky with covid but you could definitely do some virtual um traveling you know pick a point on the map you know maybe in your county or the next city over
• 76:00 - 76:30 and you map out how you're going to get there so bus bart you know train who knows but this is something that you can start working on and that's it so thank you so much