DCSD unveils new program for students with disabilities

By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net

Starting in August, some students with severe disabilities in the Darlington County School District will have the option to leave school with more than just a certificate of attendance.
Project Search, a nationwide program, will start its first class with five students from across the county.

Lynette Jordan spoke to the board of education about the new program during their May 14 meeting, held at Mayo High School’s conference center.

“The grant that we applied for and were granted helps us with technical assistance, the curriculum, lots of the forms and all of the things that go along with the program,” Jordan said. “It is a nine-month program for students with moderate to severe disabilities. It will be housed at Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center. The ultimate goal is that we are raising the rigor for our students with disabilities in the moderate and severe classes so that we can get them some competitive employment after they leave high school.”

Currently, by law, students with disabilities can stay in the school system until they are 21-years-old. Jordan said that the Project Search program will be available to students during their last year of high school.

“Students will learn employability and marketable skills,” Jordan said. “They will have three internships throughout the year at Carolina Pines where they learn a little bit about themselves and they get to learn a skill, depending on the internship they’re in, that they will be able to develop and put on their resume. The classwork that they have before and after their internship will help them will the other skills that they need once they leave us like budgeting, completing an interview, getting to work on time; those things that we might take for granted.”

Jordan said that students will spend their entire school day at Carolina Pines requiring them to get their own transportation, similar to when they get a job.

“The classroom will be located at Carolina Pines in Hartsville and taught by a Darlington County School District special education teacher,” Jordan said. “We have already had a skills assessment day where we had students work a set of skills to show what they know and what they don’t know. They had to go through an interview piece. We have chosen five students, some from our Hartsville High program and some from our Darlington High program.”

Jordan said that Project Search programs across South Carolina have had great success and she believes it will be a great opportunity for DCSD students as well.

“We chose Project Search because it helps our non-diploma track students with disabilities have that opportunity to learn those work-related skills,” Jordan said. “These are students who can learn some of those entry-level positions and be successful in those positions and then turn around and get competitive employability in those positions. People with disabilities are under-employed across our state and Project Search helps to improve that outcome for individuals. In South Carolina, Project Search programs across the state average around a 95 percent employability rate once those students complete the program.”

Also during the meeting, representatives of the TEACH Foundation presented the school district with a $35,000 check to fund summer reading programs in Darlington County.

Author: Stephan Drew

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