Q&A
Addressing barriers to access for students with disabilities in CTE and career pathway programs
1:38:22
ยท
90 sec
Council members and DOE officials discuss barriers to access for students with disabilities in CTE and career pathway programs:
- Council Member Joseph emphasizes the need to remove barriers preventing students with disabilities from accessing these programs
- John Hammer provides statistics on student participation: 14% of Future Ready participants had IEPs in the 2023 school year
- The DOE acknowledges there is still work to be done to achieve true equity, as 22% of NYC public school students have IEPs
- Other work-based learning programs (Career Readiness, Modern Youth Apprenticeship, CTE for All, Summer Youth Employment) are reported to have participation rates more in line with the overall percentage of students with IEPs
Rita Joseph
1:38:22
I visited a site that needs to be built out, so I'm working with facilities as we speak.
1:38:27
The students actually have nothing, and that's the site that they're supposed to be.
1:38:32
So students who have, integrated co teaching classes or special education classes by themselves block from future ready CTE and career, pathway program.
1:38:41
What change needs to help ensure that students with disabilities have access and support they need to participate in those programs?
1:38:47
Quite a few barriers.
1:38:49
How do we remove those barriers to have students when we talk about equity, this is what we mean when we say equity.
1:38:55
Remove the barriers that that stop from students from having access to these programs.
John Hammer
1:39:01
Yeah.
1:39:01
As as I mentioned, as I mentioned earlier, as of school year 23, 4,009199 students participated in Future Ready.
1:39:13
Of those students, 715 of those students had IEPs.
1:39:17
So that was 14% of the cohort.
1:39:19
When you look think about, you know, 22% of students in New York City public schools have IEPs.
1:39:25
We have a little bit of work to to make that truly, you know, truly Equitable?
1:39:29
Truly performing.
Rita Joseph
1:39:31
Word of the day.
John Hammer
1:39:31
But we're but we're working towards that, and that number is improving.
1:39:34
Of course, our other work based learning programs, it's it's it's more directly in line with that 21, 22 percent number.
1:39:41
Programs like career readiness and modern youth apprenticeship, CTE for all, summer youth employment, all of those programs are providing, you know, access to students with IEPs to to work based learning opportunities.