As students with disabilities grow older and transition to adulthood, barriers exist that prevent them from achieving rates of employment and post-secondary attendance that are comparable to those of their peers without disabilities. The Illinois Pathways to Partnerships Project (IPPP) is engaged in the important work of helping students with disabilities prepare for their lives post-high school. The project is a collaborative effort, marshaling the expertise of the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Rehabilitation Services (IDHS-DRS), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and other participating local agencies. The overall intent of the project is to support students with disabilities as they work to become active, participating members of their communities, providing them with opportunities for gainful employment, improved quality of life and greater economic independence.

Christina Muri Irland, community research specialist with IPPP, was drawn to the project by the benefits afforded through the mutual effort of the agencies involved. “Interagency collaboration is paramount when planning for students’ lives after high school,” said Irland. “It’s exciting to set up structures to ensure there is collaboration between the students and their families, schools, Centers for Independent Living and the Division of Rehabilitation Services.”

IPPP seeks to foster better transition outcomes for students with disabilities in a variety of ways — including increasing access to competitive integrated employment (CIE) and independent living outcomes — and is targeted specifically to individuals between the ages of 10 and 24. This is conducted through a Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) model, which provides earlier access to services for students, as well as their families. Transition services will be provided to students as young as 10 and follow students throughout their educational experience, offering curriculum that is age-appropriate, with students ages 10-13 and 14-24 receiving specific curricula for their age groups.

The collaborative nature of IPPP will allow the project to offer direct instruction to students in numerous areas. The curriculum is being developed and implemented by CILs and will be delivered at local schools and educational agencies. This evidence-based curriculum focuses on advocacy and self-determination, counseling on post-secondary educational opportunities, strategies for gaining employment, development of soft skills, financial literacy and independent living skills, among other competencies.

As part of the project, students will have the chance to participate in summer internships and professional development opportunities, as they receive other job preparation and training services that promote participation in gainful employment. Irland applauds this particular facet of the program, emphasizing the benefit it affords to students. “Research shows that work experience while still in high school equates to better employment outcomes,” she said. “Embedding this into the project follows best practices when preparing students for employment.”

Michele Schutz, Ph.D., assistant professor of special education and associate faculty for the Illinois Institute of Rehabilitation and employment Research (IIRER), is leading the development of curriculum for IPPP. She emphasized the great need for the services provided by the project in terms of improving accessibility for students with disabilities and the role that collaboration plays in that effort, while recognizing that barriers exist that hinder successful collaboration.

“A host of national, state-level, school-level, agency-level and other barriers continue to limit the extent to which such collaborations actually occur,” Schutz said. “This project seeks to tackle some of these barriers by increasing the capacities of agencies and schools to engage in local and statewide collaborations with one another and broaden and strengthen upon the services and supports they can provide individually.”

Thus far, the project has been in its development phase, with DRS and ISBE working to identify school districts to involve in the project, while CILs develop the two distinct, age-appropriate curricula, vetted by the project’s partners. As the project moves forward, its advisory council will hold quarterly meetings in order to identify what is working successfully with the project and what challenges still need addressed.

While the benefits afforded by the project’s work are many, areas exist that will need particular attention going forward. Two school districts have dropped out of the project, requiring IPPP to identify two new districts to include. Furthermore, rolling out the broader curriculum across the state, anticipated for January 2025, poses its own set of challenges. CILs and school districts must create schedules to ensure that all of the project’s modules are completed prior to the end of the school year, and curriculum will need adapted to fit specific students. “The curriculum is not a ‘one size fits all’ curriculum,” said Irland. “Each CIL will need to adjust and modify the curriculum based on the students they serve.”

Overall, while there is still much work to be done, Irland believes the project is an important one and that the relationships established between the partnering agencies are tantamount to future student success. “Better collaboration will equate to better outcomes for students,” she said. Schutz agreed that the task set before IPPP is complex, yet vital. “Facilitating collaboration across local and state systems is difficult work,” she said. “CILs, DRS and IIRER [have worked] diligently to collaborate, problem solve, and act flexibly and creatively in an attempt to enact systems-level change, [which is] needed to dismantle gaps in services and supports that have persisted for far too long.”

By Danielle Fields, Ed.D. | contact-iirer@illinois.edu