Inclusion: BOCES Students Enjoy University Campus Life

Contact
Susan Hetherington
Assistant Professor, Teaching and Curriculum
Outreach Coordinator for the Warner Center for Professional Development and Education Reform

Description
What began as a standard life skills course for high school graduates ages 18 to 21 with disabilities gradually grew into an arrangement where students were able to use University athletic facilities, benefit from clinic services, fill campus jobs, and work with Warner School counseling and human development graduate students.

A partnership between the Warner School’s Center for Professional Development and Education Reform; the Monroe #1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES); the University School of Medicine and Dentistry and Department of Clinical and Social Science in Psychology; and the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities, created this unique opportunity for nearly 30 BOCES students to study on the University of Rochester’s River Campus and be integrated in college life.

For the project, BOCES provided a special education teacher and speech-language pathologist whose roles are supplemented by the services of a social worker, job specialist, and program principal. Medical Center staff provided clinical services when necessary, the University provided classroom space and Warner School counseling and human development students conducted their developmental disabilities internships in the program.