Florida DDC Postsecondary Models - 2020
| MA-Institute for Community Inclusion/Boston Children's Hospital, UCEDD/LEND | |||
| Program Type | UCEDD | Fiscal Year | 2020 |
| Contact | Debra Hart, EdM | ||
| [email protected] | |||
| Phone | 617-287-4341 | ||
| Project Description | |||
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Expanding Inclusive Higher Education Options for Students with Intellectual and Development Disability in Florida Florida has significantly expanded higher education options for individuals with intellectual disability (ID) by establishing the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities (FCSUA) at the University of Central Florida in 2015. FCSUA is designed to increase the number of higher education institutions that support students with ID in going to and paying for college. These efforts, coupled with the Florida Consortium on Inclusive Higher Education, Project10, Project Achieve, TOPS, and other initiatives are creating new pathways toward better employment and a higher quality of life for Florida citizens with ID. Creating models of practice and gathering data on the effectiveness of those practices is a strong step toward constituting higher education as a universal opportunity for students with ID in Florida. However, even with the aforementioned investments in infrastructure, opportunity, and networks, colleges, universities and the Career Technical Education (CTE) system experience challenges expanding these efforts to additional postsecondary institutions. It is worth noting that this circumstance is not unique to Florida. Currently, there are approximately 260 college and university programs that serve students with ID in the US (Think College, 2018) however, this comprises only 6% of potential colleges and universities that accept students without disability or with other disabilities. Expanding options is a critical need given that higher education has demonstrated such strong impact on the employment outcomes of youth and adults with ID. Additionally, existing efforts focus solely on serving students with ID but do not address similar needs of students who have other forms of developmental disability. Current research suggests that strategic efforts including program development, person center curricula, inclusive coursework, and career-oriented instruction lead to improved employment outcomes for students with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). Future program development efforts should be based upon statewide assessment of current needs, as well as administrative, procedural, and attitudinal barriers. This project will establish a Project Advisory Committee to guide project activities and to work with the project personnel to identify next steps for Floridas colleges, universities, and the CTE system to become more inclusive of individuals with IDD. The project will do so through engagement of relevant Florida leadership on the PAC while also leveraging knowledge of existing best practice through Think College. To this end, this project will: 1. Identify perceived barriers and needs for developing inclusive postsecondary programs among public and private postsecondary institutions that do not have programs. The project will employ two online surveys as well as face-to-face interviews with a sample of institutional higher education administrators that do and do not have inclusive postsecondary programs in a minimum of three diverse geographical areas of Florida, 2. Develop a Strategic Plan with PAC feedback that spells out strategies and best practices to address the perceived gaps and needs, 3. Identify program components, resources, student financial aid, technical assistance, and other components critical for both startup and program expansion, and 4. Develop a final report of key findings and recommendations summarizing all project outcomes. |
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