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Event to offer tips for disabled

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Angela Bucher helps her son, Aaron, 19, balance his checkbook in their Altoona home. An event sponsored by The Arc of Blair County and the Blair Transition Council will provide guidance for those with disabilities and their families.

Our transition from childhood, when things were done for us, to adulthood, at which point we needed to do more for ourselves, might have been scary.

The journey into adulthood can be especially forbidding for people with disabilities — and their families.

A Halloween-day event sponsored by The Arc of Blair County and the Blair Transition Council will provide guidance for those people and their families through that scary transition.

Until people with disabilities graduate from high school, they receive needed services as an entitlement, with agencies coming forward to help, according to The Arc Executive Director Maria Brandt.

After graduation, which can occur as late as age 21 for those with Individual Education Plans, they’re eligible for services but need to seek out the agencies that provide them.

Failure to make adequate preparation to handle that change can have long-term consequences, according to John Allender, work experience coordinator at Altoona Area High School.

Glancing out the window of his office, Allender saw three former special-ed students who’d been in school within the past four years.

“Still not engaged,” he said, disappointed — suggesting that those individuals and their families might not have prepared as they should have. “It’s a motivational thing,” he said.

Starting too late big mistake

Families of special-education students often wait too long, according to Brandt.

If students reach their last year of high school without paying attention to what they will need for life after graduation, they’ve already made things difficult for themselves, Brandt said.

State law requires schools to begin talking about what will be needed after graduation during the school year they turn 14, she said.

It would be better if planning began as early as pre-school, she said.

Starting too late is “one of the big mistakes in our system,” Brandt said. “We’re trying to change it, but it will take time.”

The prep should start slowly, culminating in a secure foundation, she said.

One of the reasons the transition can be difficult is because the adult system for helping people with disabilities is “vast,” Brandt said.

Even people employed within that system have trouble navigating it, she said.

“It’s a whole new world” for the families, she said.

When a student with an IEP is in school, it’s the school’s responsibility to make sure the IEP is followed, said Stephanie Onkst, business services representatives of the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

“Your hand has been held,” Onkst said.

On graduation day, those supports end, she said.

You still need those supports and accommodations, but now you need to take the initiative and find them yourself, she indicated.

It can be overwhelming, she said.

Training not automatic

In school, necessary training was provided.

After graduation, if a person with disabilities needs vocational training, he or she needs to get an assessment, then get qualified, Brandt said.

There are waiting lists for day programs or vocational work sites, she said.

In school, accommodations outlined in the IEPs were provided.

After graduation, if a person with disabilities applies for a job, the prospective employer won’t automatically know what accommodations — like a mat to stand on to ensure against a bad back flaring up — may be necessary, Onkst said.

With preparation, though, a person with disabilities will know that a pre-hire conversation with that employer will alert him or her to the need for that mat, she said.

Without it, the new employee may end up so uncomfortable at work that he or she risks losing his her job for under-performance, Onkst said.

In school, one grade followed the other as the day follows the night.

After graduation, a move to college requires initiative, Onkst said.

“College doesn’t (just) find you,” she said.

Aides not guaranteed

In school, some students have personal care aides, as an entitlement, Allender said.

After graduation, they can continue with similar support only after evaluations and determinations they’re needed — and that support isn’t necessarily long term, according to Allender.

It’s stressful, said Angela Bucher, mother of Aaron Bucher, 19, a senior at Altoona Area High School who has Down syndrome.

“Up to this point, he goes to school,” she said. “That’s easy.”

She had to work through some issues to get him “included” in regular classes, but generally, things “fell into place” for Aaron in school, she said.

“(But) once that routine is gone, I don’t know,” she said.

She’s not sure whether Aaron will go to post-secondary school or try to find work immediately after graduation.

He may consider culinary school or the Hiram G. Andrews Center vocational school in Johnstown, she said

But she’s not sure how he would get to school or get to work, or how many hours a day he would spend at either one, or how many days a week either one would involve.

In school, he gets “socialization” through clubs and activities.

She’s not sure how he’ll get it as an adult.

“Things are up in the air,” she said.

Still, they’ve begun to plan, having made contact with OVR and an agency called North Star Support Services, she said.

They’ll be going to the Oct. 31 event to get more guidance: to examine opportunities, make connections, learn how to access particular services, figure out how deadlines and timelines apply, understand how changes are made if things don’t work at first.

“We need to take things slowly,” Bucher said.

It will take practice and hard work, she said.

Good at asking questions

Bucher doesn’t feel that she’s especially adept at navigating the bureaucratic issues involved.

There are people better-versed, with clearer ideas of what they need to get what they want, she said.

Nor is she “one of those screaming, pound-the-desk kind of parents” advocating for their kids, she said.

“But I’m good at asking questions,” she said.

The mandated school preparation, beginning at age 14, may include coaching on potential careers, a look at post-secondary schools, discussions about applying to the military or about taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test for college, along with a review of the kinds of accommodations students need to fulfill any of those plans, Allender said.

It also involves an “intake” with an agency called the Southern Alleghenies Service Management Group, he said.

School districts frequently hold their own transition events, but the gathering Oct. 31 is one of only a handful of such events that have ever been held for the whole of Blair County, Allender said.

Five of the seven Blair County school districts are bringing students, Brandt said.

Anyone receiving any kind of special education, including those with mental health issues, are eligible to participate, Brandt said.

“Events like this are so important because they provide parents and youth with disabilities the resources and connections necessary for them to realize the possibilities of their future,” wrote Ali Hrasok, leadership development coordinator for the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living.

“Preparing for life after high school can feel like leaving a safety net behind,” Hrasok said.

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