KU expanding program to bring students with disabilities to college, including to Wichita, Atchison
LAWRENCE — Researchers at the University of Kansas have secured a grant to expand postsecondary education opportunities for Kansans with intellectual disability.
The funding will support professional development for Kansas educators, increase outreach to families across the state and facilitate expansion of the Transition to Postsecondary Education program on the KU Lawrence campus.
Moreover, the funding will support the development of similar comprehensive transition programs at Wichita State University Tech and Benedictine College in Atchison.
The grant comes 10 years after the establishment of the KU Transition to Postsecondary Education, known as KU TPE program, at KU’s Lawrence campus. The program has proven successful at bringing students with intellectual disability to campus as full-fledged students who are engaged in the full college experience.
The students seek undergraduate certificates and plan for competitive integrated employment after they complete the KU TPE Certificate, aligned with their personal and career interests.
The U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education awarded the research team, based out of the KU Center on Disabilities and Life Span Institute, a five-year, $1.9 million grant.
A top priority for the research team is to expand information dissemination about inclusive postsecondary education options and to support professional development for Kansas educators, as well as increase opportunities for K-12 students and their families to learn about and then enroll in inclusive higher education programs like KU TPE.
The principal investigators are Dana Lattin, research project director of KU TPE; Karrie Shogren, Ross and Mariana Beach Distinguished Professor of Special Education and director of the KU Center on Disabilities; and Lauren Bruno and Ashley Taconet, assistant research professors in the KU Center on Disabilities.
“The educational piece for teachers and families is critical. So often, people are told, ‘Your child is not going to college,’ so they don’t make a plan for college,” Bruno said. “By getting that message out and showing that higher education is a realistic option early, they can start talking about it and making a plan.”
Many students with intellectual disability miss out on opportunities like camps and recruitment events. KU TPE will support expanded access to these events at KU and partner institutions for students with intellectual disability. During these visits, students and their families can learn about available support, programs of study, housing and other aspects of higher education.
Kansas Comprehensive Transition Program Consortium
The grant will also establish a Kansas Comprehensive Transition Program (CTP) Consortium. KU will partner with Wichita State University Tech and Benedictine College in Atchison to support them to plan and refine inclusive higher education programs on their respective campuses.
“We’ve seen what works with KU TPE in helping students succeed, and we will work closely with our partners as they build their programs to continuously evaluate what is needed to meet the unique needs of their students, making sure to use approaches that are most effective,” Taconet said. “Then we will be able to expand using practices that have proven themselves to help the sustainability of these programs.”
Across the three programs, the goal is to enroll nearly 50 eligible students with intellectual disability.
Expansion of KU TPE
Finally, the funding will allow for expansion of the KU TPE program. The research team will develop a KU TPE Alumni Council with alumni who have completed the program as well as worked to attain accreditation though the Inclusive Higher Education Accreditation Council.
Further, the work will expand certificate options. The KU TPE is currently housed in KU’s School of Education & Human Sciences, and the program will work toward also offering certificate programs within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and School of Professional Studies.
The expansion at KU will also support the development of a peer support model and expand career development activities aligned with statewide Kansas Department of Labor programs. KU will partner with multiple organizations to assess workforce needs across the state and prepare students for in-demand jobs in their home communities.
The KU TPE has proven successful at preparing students for employment. Evaluation of the program has found that 74% of the program’s graduates are competitively employed in their communities after completing their KU credential. The state’s average of individuals with disabilities in competitive, integrated employment is 6%, illustrating the discrepancy in the employment rate for people with intellectual disability who do not enroll in higher education programs like TPE, researchers said.
The program focuses on career readiness while the students are on campus, helping find employment and paid internships while students complete their coursework.
“KU TPE establishes high expectations for students and then supports them to achieve their goals for their future through their coursework and internships during the program,” Shogren said. “Expanding access to programs like KU TPE in Kansas is critical to advance outcomes for people with intellectual disability across the state of Kansas.”
The research team said the success of students in KU TPE is due in large part to students being part of an inclusive campus and community with the support of faculty, staff and fellow students in their classes, in the residence halls and in the KU community.
“Students come in as full-fledged, card-carrying Jayhawks. They take courses like those in any other program of study that are aligned with their career and personal interests,” Lattin said. “We’ll be able to provide that experience to more students and on the campuses of our partners at WSU Tech and Benedictine.”
The research team will also work toward making the programs sustainable by seeking further state investment.
“Sharing that 75% of people with intellectual disability who attend college are competitively employed, many of which are working full-time, will help show the value of ongoing support for these programs in Kansas,” Lattin said. “That will further illustrate that we are both supporting students and families but also meeting the labor needs of Kansas communities.”