David Rosen wrote:


>we heard that it  

>is often difficult for community-based education programs that serve  

>adults and out-of-school youth, even those which offer a high school  

>diploma through the public schools, to get the records from the  

>schools their students attended for those who were core evaluated and  

>for whom there is an I.E.P.  I was wondering if anyone on this list  

>has ideas about how that issue can be addressed.

>  

>

It is, or should be, a requirement that states keep track of children 
who receive special education services. Check with your state dept. of 
education to see if they maintain a state "child find" list. You might 
be able to submit names of your enrollees to determine whether a name is 
present on the state's list. If it is, there will also be information 
about evaluation dates, IEP dates, and the last school district 
attended. A letter or phone call to the director of special education in 
that school district should produce results. We have found in our 
school, which serves incarcerated adults and youth, that it is often 
most effective to contact the guidance office for  transcripts and 
school records, and the sped director for the special education records 
because these records are kept in separate offices.


>I also wonder what, from your experience, the needs and issues are  

>for out-of-school youth who have learning disabilities, especially  

>needs which might be different from adults with learning disabilities.

>  

>

In my experience, there is very little difference between youth and 
adults with learning disabilities in terms of their needs. There are, of 
course, differences in maturity and differences in learning and 
differences in strengths and weaknesses, social differences, goals, 
family, housing, transportation and employment needs differences, but 
these are individual differences and they need to be addressed 
individually among all students, not by age or by disability.

Self-paced individualized learning and giving the students the power to 
make their own decisions about their education have been factors that 
our school finds enormously beneficial in motivating and helping 
students pursue their educational goals whether or not they have 
learning disabilities. It is my opinion that learning disabilities do 
not become disabling unless the student is forced into an environment 
that does not tolerate or accommodate the individual differences or 
needs of the student. Self-paced individualized learning avoids this 
pitfall. This is oversimplified, of course. There are many many details 
that must be carefully considered to make it happen.

We see workforce development skills as being very important. We look at 
the "hard skills" such as vocational, trades, and career training. We 
also look at the "soft skills" which include qualities that make a 
person employable (e.g. dependability, punctuality, ability to accept 
directions and constructive criticism, interpersonal skills, and 
communication). I believe I'd be pretty safe in saying that we do not 
see much of a correlation between learning disabilities and workforce 
learning.

Tom Woods
Community High School of Vermont