For Immediate Release From OSERS!
GRANT OPPORTUNITY | Personnel preparation of special education, early intervention and related services personnel at HBCUs, TCCUs, and other MSIs.
Read the full Announcement HERE!:
https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-offices/osers/... ********
RSA Success Story: A Real Job with Real Wages Through the Disability Innovation Fund
By: North Carolina’s Division of Employment and Independence for People with Disabilities
In a February 2024 Dear Colleague Letter, Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) Commissioner Danté Allen prioritized elevating community expectations for competitive integrated employment by showcasing success stories of individuals with disabilities who receive services from RSA Programs. This is the fifth RSA Success Story in a series that will run through November 2024.
Jenna is a young woman with an engaging personality and a strong work ethic, but she had not been able to reach her goal of competitive integrated employment. As a person with an intellectual/developmental disability, Jenna ran into several obstacles and felt her options were limited.
She was unable to drive and needed many accommodations and supports. Jenna’s family never dreamed that she could work in the community.
When Jenna learned about North Carolina’s SPARK program, sponsored by North Carolina’s Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment (SWTCIE) grant, she was excited to learn about all the supports that could help her reach her goal.
Jenna connected with a peer mentor, career navigator, benefits counselor, and employment specialist. She engaged in job shadowing, received help with completing job applications, focused on developing her job skills, and participated in job coaching.
In May 2024, Jenna began her new job at the Midway Café on the campus of Nash Community College. Jenna loves her new job! Her supervisor appreciates her work ethic, and her co-workers find themselves looking for her even on her days off.
Jenna is fulfilling her dream of working competitively in her community in a job she enjoys and where her work is appreciated. The SPARK Team looks forward to all that Jenna will achieve.
Learn about other SWTCIE grantees through RSA’s Disability Innovation Fund:
https://sites.ed.gov/osers/2024/10/rsa-suc... ********
The National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Print Disabled at the
Library of Congress shares a blog post featuring user stories and resources available from the NLS.
Inclusion and acceptance at school are important to all students, and for students with disabilities, reading and enjoying the same books as their classmates can be an important part of fitting in.
“It’s huge to be able to have access to the same books all your friends are reading,” says Brian, who is blind. “To be able to talk about the same books others are reading, as a kid, is about being part of the community, being able to engage.”
Readers of the OSERS blog may already be familiar with Bookshare, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)-funded digital e-book platform, which is free to eligible students in the U.S. and includes access to textbooks and other books in a variety of accessible, digital formats. To learn more about Bookshare, visit Bookshare.org or watch this episode of the EdTech for All Webinar Series, which features an educator, developer,and student sharing their Bookshare experiences.
Like Bookshare, the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), a free program of the Library of Congress, provides books in accessible formats for children, teens, and adults who are blind, have low vision, or have difficulty using printed materials because of a physical or reading disability. For students, those books are a window on the world—and that’s not all.
“I spent so many years feeling isolated . . . when I couldn’t read books like the Harry Potters and the Twilights,” motivational speaker Molly Burke, who lost her vision as a child to retinitis pigmentosa, told NLS’s national conference in 2022. “I really believe so much of the bullying I experienced was due to what the sighted students perceived as a lack of an ability to connect with me, a lack of relatability.”
If she’d had access to the books everyone was talking about, she said, “Who’s to say how much easier schooling would have been for me in terms of friendships and relationships? So, it’s more than just reading—it allows us to connect with people around us in more meaningful ways.”
Read the full article HERE!:
https://sites.ed.gov/osers/2024/10/launchi... *******
Attaining College Equity and Excellence
Now accepting applications for ED’s Postsecondary Success Recognition Program!
Learn more about the program, which honors schools for raising the bar on college excellence & equity.
Raising the Bar on College Excellence and Equity: Update on the Postsecondary Success Recognition Program by James Kvaal, U.S. Under Secretary of Education
Too often, the conversation on higher education focuses on a handful of colleges and universities that were founded centuries ago, have huge endowments and sparkling facilities, and admit very few students. While our country is lucky to have these institutions, we also need colleges and universities that are innovative, affordable, and inclusive – and that help students from all backgrounds graduate and find a career.
Secretary Cardona’s Raise the Bar initiative supports colleges that excel at pursuing a variety of missions. As part of that work, we launched Postsecondary Success Recognition Program in April 2024, a program that uses data and evidence to identify exemplars across the country. Today, after receiving feedback from the public on program design, we’re publishing the list of 200 institutions that clearly have a story to tell that demonstrates what institutions do matters to ensure student success – and inviting those institutions to submit an application to be recognized for their efforts.
To help us determine the most data-driven approach to building a more inclusive definition of student success, the Department posted a Request for Information to inform its development of the recognition program. We carefully considered submissions and recommendations as the Office of Postsecondary Education and the Office of the Chief Economist designed a methodology to identify these top 200 institutions
Read the full article HERE!:
https://blog.ed.gov/2024/10/raising-the-ba... ********
The Razor-Sharp Edge of Vocational Rehabilitation Podcast. Adrian Clark, who works in the field of making surgical blades, shares her story on the VR Workforce Studio podcast. Plus, hear from RSA Commissioner Dante Allen.
LISTEN HERE!:
https://vrworkforcestudio.com/the-razor-sh...
Posted By: agnes levine
Wednesday, October 16th 2024 at 1:01PM
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