PANAMA CITY — Once their diploma is in hand, many high school graduates grapple to find a job that suits them. Twenty-year-old Candice Hodgson, a student with disabilities, is no different.
She’s taking part in a school districtpilot program in which students who earn special diplomas — designated for some special needs students — are provided an opportunity to work at Bay District Schools.
However, a state Senate bill could eliminate special diplomas for special needs students.
READ THE BILL
If passed, students with disabilities could face new challenges to earning a standard high school diploma, which could lead to fewer employment choices.
Qualifying for employment using a special diploma recently landed Hodgson a clerical position at Cherry Street Elementary.
She is one of three special diploma students who work at the school. Hodges believes there’s a future for her as a paraprofessional at the school.
“They bring an element to the office of new personalities, talents and skills,” said Principal Carol Rine. “They are doing the same work as our office clerks would be doing, helping with the workload, and the same job my custodian does.”
The bill
Senate Bill 1512, called Students with Disabilities, eliminates the special diploma as an alternative to a standard high school diploma.
“I think it is state knowledge that a special diploma was giving them a false hope of a document that didn’t actually provide them with anything,” said Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland.
“We’re going to do a lot of things to help these children to obtain the standard diploma,” she said. “But if they can’t obtain the standard diploma, then they have the option of the certificate of completion, which shows they did show up, they did try, they did work; they just weren’t capable of meeting the rigor that we need for a diploma in the state of Florida.”
A special diploma is earned in a number of ways through “access points.” Students have to prove they’re knowledgeable in standard high school subjects. However, the ways they comprehend and express proficiency is based on individual educational plans.
Special diplomas are not accepted for entry into a university or the military.
“Our goal is that they would graduate with a meaningful document that will actually afford them opportunities, work skills, life skills,” Stargel said. “They’re going to have the ability to be independent.”
Currently, students with disabilities are not required to take or pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) or end-of-course exams as required for all other students.
Under the Senate bill, students would have until age 21 to obtain a standard high school diploma under state funding. If they do not achieve it, they’ll receive a certificate of completion.
Current special diploma holders will not be affected in a negative way if the bill passes, Stargel said. And students would continue to take the Florida Alternate Assessment, a state exam that replaces the FCAT for students who have cognitive disabilities.
“Some of these kids are very capable to get standard diplomas. They just need to have accommodations and a little more time, but they can grasp the concept,” Stargel said. “Hopefully, if this gets passed, we’ll have the opportunity for students with disabilities to have many more opportunities as they go further into life, whether it’s to go to the workforce or to college, even.”
Working with a special diploma
Hodgson said she likes working at Cherry Street Elementary “a lot.”
I like “the interaction that I get with the ladies that I work with,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “I file paper. I do the pre-K passes. I do whatever they ask me to do.”
After graduating from home school, she has spent the past three years at Chautauqua Learn & Serve Charter School, a school for adult students who have cognitive disabilities.
Chautauqua students are known for offering services to the community, from building gardens for elderly people to cleaning Bay High School’s cafeteria daily to raising 3 million grains of rice for the world’s hungry. All 80 students at Chautauqua have special diplomas.
Students at Margaret K. Lewis, a school for developmentally challenged students in grades kindergarten to 12th, are on track to earn special diplomas.
“The tasks that the kids are doing, they’re able to do quite well,” said Chautauqua Principal Cynthia McCauley. “It was very progressive for the School Board to take the steps forward and eliminate a barrier that probably should have never existed.”
Sharon Michalik, human resources director at Bay District Schools, called the adoption of the district’s new policy “an important first step in the journey toward opening doors for future employees.”
“Employees hired under the guidelines of this policy will have first completed an intensive, on-the-job coaching and training program and will always have a mentor or supervisor assigned to them who is familiar with working with adults with special needs,” she wrote it an email.
Special diplomas do have limitations, according to Pat Martin, director of exceptional student education and pre-kindergarten services at Bay District Schools.
However, people with disabilities can “work in a variety of places and capacities” and are very trainable and loyal, he said.
“They are very good about being faithful to the job, not missing work, being dependable,” he said. “They make good employees.”
Stargel’s bill eliminating special diplomas doesn’t seem reasonable, Martin said.
“We want as many kids who are capable of doing so to graduate with a special diploma,” he said.
McCauley believes the bill will result in disabled students being denied opportunities.
“Standards are important and necessary, but I’d hate to see somebody’s life and potential be just so marginalized,” McCauley said. “A special diploma has more value than no diploma. There are more people more capable than a special diploma, but aren’t capable of a standard diploma.”
By the numbers
– Students with disabilities: 4,270
– Students who graduated in 2013 with special diplomas: 89
Disabilities represented at Bay District Schools:
– Orthopedically impaired: 56
– Speech impaired: 920
– Language impaired: 960
– Deaf or hard of hearing: 42
– Visually impaired: 10
– Emotional/behavioral disabilities: 296
– Specific learning disabled: 1,150
– Hospital/homebound: 11
– Autism spectrum disorder: 262
– Developmentally delayed: 97
– Other health impaired: 206
– Intellectual disabilities: 252
Total disabled: 4,270
Source: Bay District Schools, Florida Department of Education