Spring 2002

Warner students learn from BOCES inclusion partnership

By Sharon Dickman

A very different kind of inclusive classroom is evolving at the Warner School. Rather than trying to diversify a group of learners, the scope of this select class of young adults is reaching out to a multitude of people and possibilities.

"I can learn to live independently. I like it," says 19-year-old Sal D'Angelo about the BOCES Post-Graduate Program that teaches life skills to students with developmental disabilities. This morning was spent at a paid job sorting plastics for a Rochester company. After lunch, he discussed cell phones and phone rates with classmates and a group leader in Dewey Hall. And now he's lobbing a tennis ball during a recreation break at the Goergen Athletic Center.

D'Angelo is one of about 30 students in this year's program offered by Monroe #1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). What makes the arrangement unique and sought after is the blending of University of Rochester students, faculty, and facilities into the daily lives of the class.

"We want the BOCES students to have peer relationships with the students on campus," says Susan Hetherington, coordinator of inclusive education for the Warner School's Center for Professional Development and Education Reform. “A student athlete can teach a sport to the group, for example, but eventually we'd like to move to having an intramural program. That's a very different kind of relationship. Building those relationships is what we're always looking for in inclusion."

The program began when BOCES #1 administrators approached the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities about the possibility of having a class of high school graduates on the River Campus. Four years ago, after discussion with the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, William Scott Green, dean of the College, agreed to rent space to BOCES. "We wanted to bring BOCES students into the life of the campus, and for our students to learn about a group that would be educationally enriching," says Green. To date, the arrangement has spawned academic and social interactions, from an internship on developmental disabilities through the psychology department to talent shows and jobs on campus for BOCES students.

Even before the class was offered, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities had an ongoing relationship with BOCES and provided clinical services.

This unusual set of circumstances, and the range of University partners have reshaped what started out as a basic life-skills class. State education officials say they don't know of another program like it in New York, although services for BOCES students in their late teens sometimes are offered by community colleges. Around the country, this model appears to be rare.

After restructuring last summer, Warner became the site of the instructional program with a second classroom used as a home base in Meliora Hall. BOCES special education teacher Sherry Stulpin and speech-language pathologist Christine Lembach teach the group with support from social worker Denise Asandrov, work specialist Lynn Quinn, and the program's principal Joanne Genthner.

For all practical purposes, the campus is the classroom. Communication skills, consumer skills, and active participation in the routines of everyday life--some of the program's goals--are developed right here. Those 18 to 21 who have graduated with, or are working on, an individualized high school diploma can apply.

The developing role for the Warner School makes sense, says Hetherington, a member of the teaching and curriculum faculty. "Inclusion is an important value of the Warner School that has led to development of a master's degree in inclusive education, and inclusion being one of the foci for the Center for Professional Development and Education Reform," she points out. "The postgraduate classroom is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with other parts of the University and the community to provide a more inclusive environment for young adults with disabilities."

Warner doctoral student Jennifer Ashton, who has taught special education classes in New York and Virginia, has been making contacts to increase undergraduate interaction with the class. She and Hetherington are also at work on more ways to involve Warner graduate students, such as having interns from Warner's counseling and human development program work with the BOCES students and their social worker.

The activity generated by the program pleases the postgraduate team, which pushed for the program on a college campus and worked together to develop the details. They have seen important progress by the students and believe a great deal of their change stems from being with others their age.

"We told the kids from the beginning that we were pioneers," Stulpin says. "They've really grown from this experience. And as we become more noticed on campus, we can do more and more."