The Development of Procedures to Identify Career Education Needs of School-Aged Handicapped Persons

Abstract

Although there may be agreement among career educators concerning the importance of early career education experiences and programs for handicapped students, this priority may not be shared by all special educators. Certainly, prevocational and vocational skills for older students are important, though even here some may claim that an academic orientation to students' programs should take precedence. In the lower grades the urgency of postschool survival seems less pressing, and results in many teachers overlooking the importance of specifying career education goals in IEPS. A lack of long-range planning at this level, of course, may lessen pupils' ultimate adjustment and integration into communities after graduation. A recent follow-up survey of graduates of special education programs in Colorado schools between 1978 and 1979 indicated that the employment rate and community independence exhibited by this sample were not very different from comparable results reported nearly 30 years ago (Mithaug & Horiuchi, 1983). This finding suggests that the last-hour intervention effort to provide prevocational and vocational training to secondary-level special education students is too little, too late. A systematic focus upon each student's career education needs is needed throughout the elementary and secondary years.One of the significant obstacles to establishing a more concentrated effort appears to be a lack of concern for career education needs during the initial placement of students into special education programs. It is far too easy for teachers and support staff to view students in terms of the traditional categories of needs, e.g., cognitive, emotional, behavioral, physical, etc., with little attention to the relationship between these needs and the community over the long term. Of course, if a member of the child study team has a career education concern, such discussions may emerge. The point is, however, that this issue is too important to be left to a chance association of professionals and concerned individuals involved in initial staffings.at UQ Library on June 13, 2015 cde.sagepub.com Downloaded from