i
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1979
Programs help handicapped student
By DEBBIE PARSONS
Special to The Battalion
Frustration. Anger. Hopeless-
A student with a learning hand
icap struggles with such feelings as
these when he is unable to adapt to
a mainstream education.
The Bryan and A&M Consoli
dated independent school districts
offer special services for students
from three to 21 years of age who
have a learning or physical disabil-
ity-
“Many kids come in with the at
titude that they can’t do anything,”
Elise Millikin, vocational adjust
ment coordinator at A&M Consoli
dated High School, said. “They
have a low opinion of their
capabilities. We give them confi
dence.”
There are 425 students currently
enrolled in the special programs at
A&M Consolidated and 875 in the
Bryan programs.
Students can be recommended by
teachers, parents, a physician or a
social agency for admission into a
special services program.
The programs serve students who
are mentally retarded, language or
learning disabled, minimally brain-
injured, auditorially and orthopedi-
cally handicapped, emotionally dis
turbed or speech handicapped.
“The difference between hand
icapped students that are in vo
cational training programs and regu
lar students is that the handicapped
function on a lower level, so they
are taught at that level,” Katherine
Patton, counselor for vocational
education for the handicapped, said.
When a child enters the special
services program, he must have a
physical examination to make sure
his disability is not a health prob
lem.
! The student is then considered by
a referral screening committee to
I determine whether he should be
placed in a special services program.
Both school districts have a pro
gram for those so severely or pro
foundly handicapped that regular
classroom participation is prevent
ed. Such students are served in a
setting designed for them.
There is a language, speech and
hearing therapy program to improve
communication skills, and a
cooperative work-study program to
prepare students for employment.
Warren Jefferson (left) and Jim Rice set up
the multilith off-set press in the office duplica
tion class. Students learn how to run the press
and print the school newspaper on it.
Battalion photo by Debbie Parsons
Another program is academic in
struction for the learning disabled.
The length of time spent in the
classroom, known as the resource
room, depends on the severity of
the student’s handicap.
“The old connotation of special
education being for ‘retarded chil
dren’ has gone out the window,”
Phyllis Perkins, supervisor of A&M
Consolidated Special Services, said.
“We’ve won that.”
An educational diagnostician runs
psychological, achievement, audit
ory and perceptual tests on the child
after receiving parental consent.
An admission review and dis
missal committee, made up of spe
cial education teachers, adminis
trators, parents and people from so
cial agencies who have been in
volved with the child, meet to re
view the diagnostic tests and decide
which program the child should
enter.
Annual long-range goals are
drawn up and shown to the parents
and child. The teacher assigned to
the students makes quarterly goals
which state the materials to be used
during instruction and the criteria
for evaluation.
There is an annual review to de
cide if the student should continue
in the current program, if he should
change to a different program, or be
dismissed from the special services
program altogether.
Students who can handle a
higher-level class than the special
classes can go into lower-level regu
lar courses, usually English or math,
as well as attend their special
classes.
If parents or a student request a
regular program, or if the student
tests outi he can go into regular
classes. '
It is very important that parents
become involved with and under
stand what is going on in the pro
gram, Patton said.
Most parents are extremely help
ful and involved, Rusleen Maurice,
VAE program coordinator for Bryan
High School, said.
“Some parents won’t admit their
kids have a problem,” Maurice said.
“They are embarrassed to admit it to
their friends or family. This is the
only problem we have, and it is not
very common.”
In the lower grades, kindergarten
through eighth, special education
teachers stress the skills necessary
for learning, which are incorporated
into academic instruction.
The middle and high school stu
dents often go into the Vocational
Adjustment programs.
At Stephen F. Austin Middle
School, for example, three programs
are offered to VEH students. They
must take two of the three courses
during two years they are there.
The students are graded mainly on
their effort.
Students have a choice of office
duplication, horticulture and build
ing maintenance.
In the office duplication class they
learn how to run the school news
paper press, which prepares them
for work at the printing press on
campus. They also learn such things
as printing and typing.
Students work in a school
greenhouse in the horticulture
class. They work with plants and
learn about potting, germination,
fumigation, tilling and planting.
They take care of the school grounds
and grow vegetables in the spring.
In the building maintenance
class, students learn about small
motors by repairing lawnmowers.
They work with wood making book
shelves, tool boxes, facial tissue box
holders and key holders. The stu
dents do everything from sawing the
wood to applying the finishing
Emory Rice strips an old chair in order to refinish it forlLm
building maintenance class. The students also learn car:-: T
try and how to repair lawnmowers. Ren
Battalion photo by Debbie P-JeXi
The
Battalion
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touches. They also learn how to re
finish furniture.
Upon graduating from Stephen F.
Austin, the students can stay in the
VEH program and go into food serv
ices at Bryan High School, or they
may choose to go into a regular vo
cational program if they are capable
of it.
When a student enters the vo
cational program at A&M Consoli
dated High School, he takes a vo
cational adjustment class in which
he learns job-seeking skills, such as
how to be interviewed, how to fill
out an application and how to shop
wisely. He also learns about possi
ble careers.
During the sophomore year, the
students work at a job station on
campus. This includes such jobs as
working in the office, library or
cafeteria.
In their junior year, the students
work part-time off campus. During
their senior year they work full-time
off campus.
Students receive credit toward
graduation for their jobs and must
successfully complete a year of full
time employment in order to be eli
gible for graduation.
Millikin said she finds a job open
ing for the student, and makes the
l initial call, but the student has to
make the second call and fill out the
application himself.
“People in the business commu
nity are super,” Millikin said. “A lot
of people say ‘I’d love to help these
kids’ and when they do, the kids
love them, too.”
There is an 85 percent ot 90 per-
| cent success rate in placing students
in jobs, Millikin said.
fhe
Stat
win i
Tl
t
This year there is a student| s j ai
ing in a pizza parlor, oneatij j]
station, one at the UniversityK or
one at a nursery and anoti nj e]
baker. H
The students enjoy theirL r
Millikin said.
“A student with a learning
lem in school sticks out like
thumb,” she said. “But a it
with a learning problem
mechanic shop doesn’t. fo ce
After a year of full-time erjnat,
ment, the students can graiH
The diploma the special stude^f
ceives is no different form
Ionia which other graduatesre<H
Only if someone wants to clj T
student’s records will it be hear
that the student was inas|6-2
progam. Stej
, , , in >
The Vocational Adjustme: ^
gram at Bryan High Schoolis was
cally the same, except the sti^|
cannot work off-campus uni jj e j
senior year. ove]
Bryan High School abo j uc j,
commercial food services ] g.j'
specifically for the handica
which they work in a small
at the school and learn about
thing from the parts of a mi
preparing and serving the fool
a week to the faculty.
Most students do very«
their jobs, Maurice said.
“One of the greatest things
the program is the change
students after they are workii
job and are away from the
environment,” Maurice said,
have a higher regard for the
and from their family and oth
dents.”
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