building a successful - florida division on career ......building a successful college, career, and...

Building a Successful College, Career, and Life Ready

Student Expo Visions Conference May 2017

START Team: Student Transition and Resource Team

• Stephenie Purinton • Dave Benthusen • Paul Heinze • Victoria McCraine • Julia McHugh • Toby Rowlinson • Freddie Valadez

Purpose

• Why not try something different than your traditional family/agency fair? This presentation includes strategies and ideas for building a well-attended and successful student and agency expo. Using this approach encourages and empowers students’ self-determination and self-sufficiency in mapping out their future goals.

• The innovative best practice of creating a Student Expo results in students with disabilities gaining unique self-determination and self-advocacy skills, including preparing the students to make their own personal agency linkages and to map out and achieve their college, career and life goals.

District Overview and

START History

Focus Groups

• Focus Group 1 - Students who meet APD eligibility criteria (IQ of 69 or below) and are working on Access points.

• Focus Group 2 - Students who have cognitive and academic skill deficits, but who do not meet APD eligibility criteria; they receive instruction in the general curriculum but continue to struggle to master grade level standards, even with accommodations and direct, specialized instruction.

• Focus Group 3 - Students who, with accommodations and direct, specialized instruction and/or inclusionary practice support, can progress through the general curriculum toward graduation with a standard diploma; they may need additional support for self-determination, self-advocacy, community-based instruction, or on-the-job training.

Suggested steps for creating a

Student Transition EXPO: • Step 1: Invite former students to participate in a student panel discussion sharing

their experiences throughout their education and professional experiences. • Step 2: Invite school personnel, agencies and postsecondary educational programs. • Step 3: Invite your target audience (Juniors and Seniors) to attend. • Step 4: Assign a moderator to facilitate the dialogue between the student panel and

audience. • Step 5: Students are given an opportunity to interface with agencies, post-secondary

representatives, and leisure and recreational resources, as well as given vital information to create their post-secondary resource portfolio.

Funding Sources

• Project 10: Project Connect

• Transportation: District transportation – CBI

• IDEA

• Community donations

Timeline

• October 2015 - Joint Agency/ESE Specialist meeting: Focus Group 1 Student Transition EXPO • January 2016 - High School Professional Development • February 2016 - High School visits • April 2016 - Joint Agency meeting: Share the change in the START’s Focus to other agencies

• October 2016 - Joint Agency/ESE Specialist meeting: Focus Group 2 & 3 Student Transition EXPO at WTC

• February 2017 - High School Meeting, goal setting (cap and gown) and reflection/question and answer on the October EXPO and transition

• March-May 2017 - Development of video to replace HS visits

• April 2017 - Joint Agency/ESE Specialist meeting: Focus Group 1 Student Transition EXPO • October 2017 - Joint Agency/ESE Specialist meeting: Focus Group 2 & 3 Student Transition EXPO at CF

Grant Shoemaker Panel Member Share-out

Questions?

Citrus START Contact Information

• Stephenie Purinton - Chair, purintons@citrus.k12.fl.us

• Dave Benthusen - Co-Chair, BenthusenD@citrus.k12.fl.us

• Paul Heinze, HeinzeP@citrus.k12.fl.us

• Vicky McCraine, mccrainev@citrus.k12.fl.us

• Julia McHugh, mchughj@citrus.k12.fl.us

• Toby Rowlinson, rowlinsont@citrus.k12.fl.us

• Federico Valadez, fvaladez@mail.usf.edu