JUDITH HOLT: We're now going to hear from the Granite State CIL and Maureen, I think you'll be leading this.

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: Yes, I'm Maureen O'Donnell from Granite State Independent Living.

Yes, that small state of New Hampshire.

And I'm really excited to be here to talk to you about our youth transition program because we created it four years ago.

But let me just give you some of the statistics.

We work with at risk high school students with disabilities who are at risk of dropping out of high school or who already dropped out of high school, between the ages of 16 to 21.

We work about 45 to 50 students each year from one of the largest school districts in New Hampshire and that's the Manchester School District and there are three high schools of 5,000 students.

We work with students with all disabilities, but the majority of our students have severe emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges as well as learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.

The focus of our program is to reengage these students in their education and we do that by providing a lot of career exploration activities as well as work experience out in the community and pre-employment skills training.

And the goal is really for the students to start seeing the relevancy in their education to their life ahead of them as well as the work goals.

We use the community as our classroom.

We have approximately maybe 100 or so community partners that we work with, and those community partners assist us with the education and work experiences.

The unique part about our program, which I think is a little bit different from the others, is the learning that takes place at GSIL, students can earn academic credit for it.

So, for example, in one session that we have, students can earn approximately four to four and a half credits for the learning that takes place at GSIL.

Hence the name Earn and Learn Opportunities Program.

And the program experience is part of every student's IEP and transition plan.

So what are the transition services that we offer?

First it's the employment skills training.

A lot of the pre-employment, you know, students do work assessments, they do, they complete applications.

They do practice interviews.

They do development of their resume, they do practice interviews as in the classroom as well as out in the community.

We also do a lot of job placement, so every student does have a work experience, as well as after we work with the student we continue to work with them along with vocational rehabilitation to do job placements.

With the education, which is one of our core services, not only do they get academic credit, but it's also the education around their disability.

I'm not sure if any of you have experienced this, but we have a lot of students coming to us and we'll say what's your disability?

And they'll say, I don't know.

I don't know what I'm here to do.

So what's in your IEP?

I hear the theme throughout, I've never looked at my IEP.

So we go over all that with what is your disability?

What are the accommodations out there?

How do you talk to an employer about disclosure?

And it's all related to work.

The other piece is the independent living skills.

Public transportation I know has been an issue for many.

In Manchester we do have public transportation but we work closely with the Manchester Transit Authority and they actually provide the transportation training for us.

We also have a person on finance and we work with the local banks and credit unions and they come in and teach the students about personal finance.

We also have a health, fitness and nutrition program, communication and social skills, personal growth and of course the advocacy piece of it.

And with the advocacy piece of it is, we really see that when  the students have an exit plan meeting and they go back to their school and it's the incredible growth that we've seen that they said I think I want to take these courses now.

I found out what careers I would like to do and I need to maybe take more sciences or I need to now take more maths.

So they're starting to have a voice in their IEP and they really know what their career is all about.

So a little bit of background when we got started.

We got started back in November of 2009.

GSIL was awarded some ARRA funds, some stimulus dollars through the Department of Education, vocational rehabilitation.

Really to address the need of the high drop out rate of students with disabilities.

These students were disengaged in their education.

They lacked their maybe 17 or 18 and had only one or two credits towards graduation, and their attendance rate was poor.

Some of the students missed 60 to 70 to 80, 90 days of school the previous year or they were sitting in school but maybe in the cafeteria.

And they really lacked preparation for the life ahead of them and what we called soft skills.

There was no current model in place.

There was no footprints in the sand.

So we were saying what do we do?

Oh, the other piece is the governor of the state of New Hampshire raised the dropout rate from 16 to 18 during this same period.

So we had to work closely with the outreach coordinators because there were kids out in the community, 16, 17 years old that needed to be brought back into school.

So this was all part of the engagement piece as well.

So our model is based on extended learning opportunities.

So you're probably saying what are these extended learning opportunities?

In your packet that you received in your folder there, there is some information on Page 6 about ELO's, but let me just tell you what they are.

The Department of Education, New Hampshire Department of Education definition is the knowledge and skills that a student acquires through instruction outside of the four walls of a high school that they can receive academic credit.

And it pertains to, but not limited to, apprenticeships, independent living, study, private instruction, internships, online courses and performing groups.

So the learning that takes place at GS IL is part of that academic credit.

The difference between a course maybe in high school to an ELO, it's competency-based.

It's not based on seat time.

So what will happen is a highly qualified teacher from the school district will come in and evaluate the student's work.

So there is a midterm evaluation at the end.

So the students really have to demonstrate their mastery of knowledge by doing a presentation.

They also do a reflections each day so they really have to demonstrate their knowledge.

It's a pass or fail.

So what does the program look like?

So the program is housed at GSIL.

It's not at the high school.

It's a group format of about 15 students at each session.

So it's a small group size.

We work with one school district.

We have worked with other school districts for fee-for-service as well, probably two or three school districts that have come in to do this.

We have three sessions a year, one in the fall, which is 14 weeks.

One in the spring, which is 14, and we have a five week summer program.

During the school year, students are with us from 9 to 12.

And after that if there is discussion we need to talk to them after that from 12 to 1 they are available as well as at lunch.

So during the fall session and spring, it's four days of academics, and one day of a work, out on their work experiences.

We also have an afternoon computer lab which the students can then take more online classes for either credit recovery or basic online classes.

The summer is used as extended the school year for the school district, and the program is a job.

It's not a school.

It is much different, I'm going to explain that in just a minute.

We have three staff members.

There is a director who is the lead instructor of the program.

We have the transition support specialist, an IL coordinator who also does the instructions but also the referral and exit plan meetings and we also have the employment coordinator that [works, develops the work sites with the students as well as the job placements after.

The budget is fee-for-service, two-thirds of our funding comes from the Manchester school describing and a third comes from vocational rehabilitation.

And we divided it up this way because vocational rehabilitation is really career focus.

So the career exploration piece is the funding we get from VR and the rest is the academics that comes from the Manchester School District.

Our approach in the classroom is based on the philosophy of self-efficacy, which is through Albert Bandura.

It's a student's own belief that they can complete a task successfully.

And self-efficacy really influences the choices the student makes, the effort they put forth, how long they persevere and how they feel.

And how we developed this is mastery of experiences.

We work with the students to make sure they are successful.

And by that they can do their own reflections to see what have I done today?

What have I learned?

What have I accomplished?

So they start seeing their successes.

The other piece was social modeling and social persuasion, is more the peer support in a sense.

Social modeling, for example, is we have the students do a mock interview.

We always get the one or two students that volunteer right away and say I'll go up and do it.

You get that student up there and do a really good job and we evaluate each student.

So we go over all the positive things they've done as well as some things that they need to improve on.

And then the rest of the group said, well, if he or she can do it, I'm going to go up.

I can do that as well.

So it's just that social modeling and the social persuasion is right from the beginning, most of them will say I'm not going up there.

In front of my peers, I'm not going to do a mock interview in front of everyone.

And you are oh videotaping me, this is too much.

And they all get together and give each other support.

I did it.

You can do it, you are just as smart as I am.

We can do this together.

So that's a piece on social persuasion and then the psychological response is being the positive responses.

Throughout the whole, each session we're always giving positive responses back to each other and we set that up at the beginning, you know, always give one or two positive, say something positive about someone.

At the beginning they start saying your hair looks nice or I like your shirt and towards the end they are saying, wow, that was a good question you asked.

Or, you did a really good job with that presentation.

So the key ingredients to our program, relationship building, relationship building with our staff and relationship building with each other.

Rigor, our course work is rigorous.

And of course we talked about relevancy.

The next is we have high workplace expectations.

We don't have school rules.

Because if we had school rules, the first time someone would come in, they might say a nice swear or tell me to whatever, and they're gone.

So we're not a school.

We're really set up like a workplace.

We are competency-based as I mentioned before and not seat time and I think we've all talked about this with the holistic approach.

We address the needs of the whole child, someone who is very lonely, we have to address that.

We're not going to get beyond anything else unless we address those issues.

We involve the students, families, school personnel and VR in the entire process.

We have the connections in the community as I said over 100 to 150 community partners we work with.

We have identified some core elements of the program that we're going to later talk about I think this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

We also have an advisory group that focuses on all aspects of the service and the support and those are our stakeholders, the school district as well as vocational rehabilitation.

So the program activities, so first it's the application and referral process.

We have an application that we give to the schools three months before.

The students have to fill out and the students have to explain why they think that they would like to come to this program.

And then with the referral process we interview all the students that are interested, and it's really hard for us to make a selection.

But we have to narrow it down to 15 students.

If they don't come this session, they're put on the wait list for the next session.

There is an orientation before each student starts and we review again the expectations and the parent information center is there as well as VR and someone from the school district.

So we go over what is expected in the program, how many credits the student can receive.

What we stress is the importance of, I'm going to get into this next so I won't say it right now.

The first day that the student is with us, the HR director from GSIL comes down and says welcome to GSIL.

Today is your first day on the job.

You're going to be filling out job applications.

You'll be doing an I 9 and a W4 form and emergency contact list.

Just like all of us when we start the very first day on the job.

We go over the expectations and the expectations are you need to be here every single day like all of us at work.

The only reason you'd call in is if you were deathly ill or there is a death in the family.

There is no swearing at each other.

Respect yourselves and others and take responsibility for your own action.

Cell phones, we all have cell phones, but they need to be off.

I don't want to see them texting underneath the table.

Because we can't do that at work.

We can't swear to someone, our co-workers.

These are all workplace expectations.

Soft skills development is the glue to our program.

It is weaved throughout every part of the instruction that we give.

The soft skill development is the strong work ethic, the decision-making, the conflict resolution.

It's every aspect of the job.

As I mentioned before, we have seven ELO's and the seven ELOs are career choice and exploration, which is a one credit class.

We have the independent living, they call it consumer science at the Manchester School District.

We have personal finance, which is an elective business class, which is a half a credit, we have a health which is half a credit, physical education which is half, we have an English half, and computer technology.

And what do I mean by blended academics?

For example, when we do career exploration, we might have the student do their resume on a Word document.

When they are doing the resume, they are learning about the font and they might put a border around it.

They are learning about bullets.

That's part of the computer technology.

We're talking about a Word document.

When we did personal finance, we had our independent living coordinator who is part of our program, she comes in and talks about budgeting, how to live on your own.

What does it cost for an apartment?

What we do as part of again, the computer technology we do the Excel training along with that.

So they can start to see the relevancy, they are doing something that means something to them.

There is also a piece, so whether it's, you know they have to do a PowerPoint presentation on their career.

They're writing cover letters and thank you notes and resignation letters, how to write that and that's part of the functional English.

So it's all braided, they don't come into class and say right now we're doing English.

It's not.

It's braided all in between and they are reaching all those competences.

And every student has a work experience out in the community.

In the summer, they with us from 9 to 11 and Monday through Wednesday they are in the classroom and every Thursday and Friday they are out at their work sites.

We have computer-based programs when we're doing the work assessments and interest inventories.

We use Bridges Transition.

We also use Key Train to get some of those soft skills development.

In the afternoon we use a software called A Plus that's for credit recovery.

Our community resources, our partners, we work with local businesses and colleges.

When the students are there, they all have one or two college tours that they just go out and find out, you know, from their career experience and their assessments what kind of colleges they'd like to attend and we try to get everyone out to one college.

We work closely with the Transit Authority.

They do all the transportation.

The YWCA who does the life skills training, it is the BoughtVin life skills training that they do.

Banks and credit unions, families, we work very closely with families, VR, Manchester School District, VR and independent living coordinator plays critical roles in every aspect of the program.

The ELO's that I mentioned before, we have a highly qualified teacher that comes in halfway midway point and evaluates at the end, grants credits.

We have exit plan meetings before they leave our program.

We meet with their guidance counselor, the VR counselor, and we talk about what kind of classes they're going to take, what kind of program, some students go back to school.

Others might go to, back to their original school.

Other students might go to an alternative education site.

And at the end we have a great graduation.

And I know I don't have much time so I'll talk really fast.

Group cohesion, some of our successes, they come in, they don't know each other from the three different high schools.

At the end they've bonded and great friendships and great relationships.

They say it at the graduation.

Our attendance rates, these are kids that I said miss 70 or 80 plus days of school each year.

This past summer the five week program was a 98 attendance rate.

They were there every single day.

In New Hampshire we had a beautiful summer.

It was 85 and sunny every day, koudos to them.

Their overall attendance rate is 94 percent.

We have feedback from our stakeholders and our advisory group meetings.

Our graduation is the most proudest moment for me.

We have about 12 to 15 students that graduate and we have approximately 80 or 90 in attendance.

The mayor from the city of Manchester goes to every single graduation as well as the superintendent from the Manchester School District.

I've lots of success stories, but I don't think I have time to talk about that today.

So let me just give you the outcomes of our program.

So for the past four years, and I didn't include the summer because that just got over with right before I came here.

We had 142 students that have graduated from the program.

We had 527 ELO's completed with 363.5 academic credits.

The discrepancy with the credit amount is some of those credits were half credit courses.

And then we had an additional 97 credits in our afternoon computer lab.

58 students have graduated from high school.

11 have attained their GED.

We have an average attendance rate of 94 percent.

119 work experiences in the community.

An 89 percent of the students have graduated from high school, obtained their GED or are on track to graduate.

So the goal of the program is for students to get their high school diploma, employment and live independently in the community.

And this is my contact information as well as Peter Darling's.

And I am open to questions.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: on slide 30 I noticed that you started your transition services in 2009 with ARRA funds through the Department of Ed and vocational rehab and then by slide 34 you were two-thirds funded by the school districts and one- third funded by voc rehab.

I thought I heard you say on fee-for-service basis.

Can you tell us a little bit about how that metamorphosis between slide 30 and 34 came about?

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: So in 2009 we had the ARRA funds.

And about a year and a half after that when the funds ended, we approached the school district and we approached vocational rehabilitation.

The school district did not have any funds in their budget.

They had a really tough year.

So VR supported that program for another year.

And then for the past two years we have been fee-for-service for both Manchester school district and vocational rehabilitation.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: One of the questions I have is what is it that you do for students that have little to no supports in these programs?

A lot of the students that we are working with have very challenging family dynamics.

Do you have any recommendations on how we can get assistance with that or what are you doing?

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: Yeah, that's a challenge.

I agree.

When we meet with the students before, during that referral process, we talk with the families.

You know, explain about the program and the expectations of the program and we do have some families, if I back up a little bit, especially around like transportation.

We provide public transportation services.

We've had a few parents that say I don't want my son or daughter, you know, riding the public transportation.

I want the school district to pay for that and pick them up through special transit services.

So we explain the importance of you're not always going to be there.

The school is not always going to be there.

So let's start now with that support.

It's really educating the parents about life after high school.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: for those that don't necessarily have parents at home or how do you get the support?

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: You know what, I say predominantly most of the parents, we have some parent support.

Sometimes it's very minimal, but I really haven't dealt with parents that have not been there at all.

Is that what you're saying, a student that doesn't have any?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes.

Homelessness and just a lot of very, a lot of broken relationships with parents and their children.

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: Yeah.

It's, you know we work with a lot of dysfunctional families and it's been a struggle for us, but it's just more educating.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: One quick question.

I don't know, do you have any assistance with assistive technology for a lot of the transition with the students that they may need in order to help them in the ELO's and those opportunities?

Is there a separate funding base that you have for that?

Does the school district, how do you get funding for assistive technology for the students?

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: Yeah, a lot of times the school district will provide us with that.

We had an individual who had a significant visual impairment and they provided us with different, with a special computer for them with all the different devices on it.

But the school district provides a lot of that for us.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm Jim Baker from Los Angeles. 

I'm just wondering in working with the schools in contracting and all, do you run into any problems of needing certified teachers in order to do these programs?

And I know that you're coming from an employment base rather than an education base, but you really are coming from an education base, too?

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: Yeah, the ELO's, it can be an employer, and that can be the students can get ELO, but a highly qualified teacher from the school district has to come in and evaluate that ELO.

So we developed the ELO with the school district and those competences.

So I have a background in special ed and I think the district knows that, but still it can be anybody out in the community doing an ELO, but a teacher has to develop it with that person.

Did I answer that question?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm Nicole Craig from the Disability Resource Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your selection process, say you've got 20 students who want to join and you can only take 15.

It gets kind of tricky when you have to, do you have a set of guidelines that lead you to who you choose for the program.

MAUREEN O'DONNELL: We don't have a specific guideline.

We talk with the teachers as well as the commitment from the students.

What we say is part of the program is you need to be there every single day and some students say I can't do it.

When we're looking at their applications of why they want to be in the program.

Some say this might be easier than being in school and it's really not.

So it's just by listening to them and talking with the teachers and saying is the student going to be committed?

Because we have had students that have started and after the first couple of days they just don't show up.

So it's really finding out –

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you have a committee that kind of comes together to make those decisions?

So it's not all on one person?

MAUREEN: Absolutely.

There is three staff from GSIL as well as the school district and VR.

VR has different stipulations.

With VR they have to have at least 10 to 12 credits to get into the program.

VR has six or seven out of the 15 students that will be VR referrals.