Berkley Gives Special Education Students a Postsecondary Boost

The has taken a leading role in helping all of its students gain independence after high school and this year has launched a postsecondary program for special education students.

The program is a collaboration between the Berkley School District; the Autism Connections program at the Judson Center of Royal Oak; and Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS), a state-run agency, said Sharon Berke, special education and transition coordinator.

In the past, the Jardon Vocational School in Ferndale, which focuses on job placement, was the district's main source of postsecondary support. But the new effort will add a variety of resources based on each student's needs for independence.

BSD's director of student services, Jeff Montgomery, invited parents of children with disabilities to discuss where special education is headed during an Aug. 29 meeting.

“In the past, it has been a one-size-fits-all approach,” Montgomery said during the meeting. “Now, we will be better able to support students make the transition to adulthood. It's really exciting.”

Five students are participating in the first year of the program, which began Sept. 7.

“We know this will get better and better,” Montgomery said.

Empowering students

Berke said the postsecondary program is key for special education students who are not getting a diploma and are not college-bound.

“The new program allows these students transitional support,” she said, highlighting its three key components:

• School instruction: Students meet in a classroom at Oakland Community College in Royal Oak. A teacher is provided by the program, and students attend the class with their peers. Although not intended for college credit, it is a way to empower the students, Berke said. They are reminded of their vocational and transit goals, are taught self-advocacy, learn executive skills such as organizing time, taking notes and managing resources, as well as journaling and socialization at the bookstore and cafeteria during class time.
• Independent living skills: The students are taught individualized living skills, such as home care, meal planning and mobility in the Autism Connections program at the Judson Center in Royal Oak, which provides a house and resources. “We are lucky to be able to take advantage of staff and resources at the Judson Center,” Berke said. Founded in 1924, the Judson Center is a nonprofit human service agency that offers adoption, autism, family preservation, foster care, mental health counseling, residential living, respite care and supported employment services.
• Work experience: With the aid of a job coach provided by the Judson Center, students can participate in a monitored workday at Providence Hospital in Southfield. The experience is intended to move students toward employment, Berke said, and MRS provides vocational assessments to help students achieve that goal.

But the components of the program are not set in stone, Berke said.

“We truly individualize,” she said. “There's a lot of opportunity in the program to do a variety things.” One student continues to take academic courses at the high school, for example, she said.

Berke added that the program won't replace other resources, such as the Jardon center-based program and other services.

“We do not intend to replace options that already exist,” she said. “We just want to provide another option and additional services.”

Montgomery said new language in pupil accounting has allowed more flexibility so districts can opt to provide post-high school programs that are better tailored to students' needs.

Berkley is the first district in Oakland County to take advantage of the new language for postsecondary funding, he said.

“The district is committed long term to this program, as it is cost-beneficial to the district," Montgomery said. "But most importantly, we believe it will better support our students' transition to adult living, and the collaboration allows us to leverage the expertise of these different organizations, again, to better support our students' transition to independence.”

Learning to be independent

Sarah Bretz of Royal Oak, who serves as clinical supervisor for Autism Connections, said she sees the Berkley School District as a leader in postsecondary support.

“I think it's neat that Berkley was open to such an innovative program,” she said. “To teach skills based on each student's individual needs, as a parent, it's what I'd want.”

A house on the Judson Center's campus has been spruced up to provide a real-life learning environment for students.

“What better place to teach (students) living skills than in a house?” Bretz said.

In the house, students have their own bedrooms and can set them up the way they want, she said. There are two common areas, a workout room, a kitchen, a laundry room, a bathroom, a shower room and a classroom.

Students are taught everything from preparing a lunch for work to cleaning the bathroom, she said, and “all the skills needed to live independently.”

Bretz said students work with transition specialist Giovanna Interian during their time at the center.

“Gio does a mixture of life skills and dialectical behavior therapy,” Bretz said.

Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is a form of treatment that was developed for people with borderline personality disorder but has been adapted to teach social skills to those with autism, cognitive impairment and other disabilities, Bretz said.

DBT has four components:

• Core mindfulness, a Zen-like approach that helps students learn to pay attention to one thing at a time.
• Distress tolerance, which takes core mindfulness one step further and teaches the skills needed for destressing.
• Emotion regulation, which helps students understand and identify emotions and find happiness.
• Interpersonal effectiveness, which includes communication and socialization.

Judson employees began using the method during summer camp, said Bretz, who added that she was “surprised how well kids responded."

Besides life and socialization skills, the Judson Center's staff also provides support in mobility and vocational placement.

“Our job is not just to teach work skills,” Bretz said, “but to find them employment.”

Job coach Kate Czarnopys reinforces DBT skills at Providence Hospital. Czarnopys and Interian meet once a week to ensure they are on the same page and that the students are applying the DBT behavior tactics at work.

Interian, who said mobility plays a key component in vocation, has begun teaching students how to find locations using a map. The program also will teach students how to use the SMART bus system, how to navigate streets, how to find pivotal locations, such as home, work and the grocery store, and how to read street signs, she said.

Mobility is key to an active role in the community, Interian said, and it's an important skill to have to be independent.

"You can't have a job if you can't get there," she said.

Interian said she is enjoying the program and has done similar work in Macomb.

“I'm happy to be doing it again,” she said. “I'm seeing kids beginning to grasp it.”

She said she has been busy teaching the students kitchen safety and hopes to begin baking soon.

Interian and Bretz said the thing they are most proud of is the program's ability to meet the individual needs of each student.

“The possibilities are there,” Bretz said. “It is really exciting.”