Web Board

Opportunities Offered through Career Tech Ed
April 20, 2009

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Posted on April 20, 2009  3:39pm ET:

I am just concerned because the majority of students who I work with have developmental disabilities. It seems like every program that is out there for assistance to transition age individuals is geared towards either learning or physical disabled students. Here in California, individuals with developmental disabilities are having their services put in jeopardy due to the budget crisis. This is really effecting the options available to them.

Response from Domenic Giandomenico:

I was in Sacramento in the days leading up to the final decision on California's budget (the day the minority leader stepped down, in fact). I got to hear an awful lot about the problems stemming from budget cutbacks for nearly every education program. I can certainly sympathize with the problems that California, and many other states are dealing with right now. I wish that I could offer an elegant solution to this and many other problems regarding education and workforce resources.

Posted on April 20, 2009  2:44pm ET:

Are there any particular fields that students with disabilities seem to be most interested in? Thanks, Jennifer Martin Independent Living Specialist Lynchburg Area Center for Independent Living Lynchburg, VA

Response from Domenic Giandomenico:

Ms. Martin - thank you for your question. I probably couldn't speak with authority on that particular issue and I'm not sure that such a statistic would exist. That said, I'd be shocked if there weren't a fairly even distribution of students with disabilities among nearly all CTE programs, with slightly higher participation rates in fields thought to be more accessible, such as engineering and information technology. I've seen various sources place the overall portion of engineers with disabilities to be between 5-10%.

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