Special Education

The Economy and Transition

By Christina A. Samuels — April 07, 2009 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

When I was working on my story about transition for students with disabilities, I wondered what role the sputtering economy might play in efforts to find good jobs for adults who may be looking for vocational employment.

According to this article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the picture doesn’t look good:

Photos line the hallway outside the Elmbrook Work Center, showing smiling students delivering office mail, washing dishes, stuffing envelopes and shredding paper - part of contracts forged with private businesses and other entities. For the center based at the Elmbrook School District's Fairview South School, where job training is provided to special needs students, that kind of work has slowed to a trickle. It's a problem educators involved in all kinds of vocational education in the Milwaukee area are seeing during the economic slump.

This isn’t a bad time to remind people that the federal government has sources for both employees with disabilities and employers who are considering hiring them, at www.disabilityinfo.gov.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the On Special Education blog.