Arkansas Transition Services

Rebecca Sprague, Special Education Teacher at Mena High School, is one of the teachers within the 23 schools participating in Pre-Employment Transition Services through Seamless Transition for Arkansas (STAR) this year. She has students working both on-campus and off-campus, from grades 10 to 12. Between coordinating the Pre-ETS program, participating in the Goal Setting Challenge (GSC) App Project, and managing her day-to-day teaching obligations, she quickly realized a need to put systems in place to sustain the integrity of the project’s implementation. Below are a few tips and tricks she has learned to sustain her efforts and organize the program.

Sprague doesn’t see all the Pre-ETS students in class; therefore, keeping track of students’ job assignments, hours, and new off-site connections, while facilitating the students’ learning of the four core areas of Pre-ETS, requires some intentional organization and structure. To provide this structure and organization, Sprague has a Google Classroom for each student who participates in the Pre-ETS program. This interface allows the students to receive their job assignments, track their work hours, and complete the learning activities. Speaking about the process, Sprague explains, “I can push information out via Google Classroom and do a copy for each student. The students can edit their stuff, and I highlight what they need to update.” Sprague then records the number of hours the students work each month in a spreadsheet that is organized by a comprehensive list of each student and their corresponding work hours for the month. To make things easier on her next semester, she plans to separate the paid students from the students who are acquiring volunteer hours. Additionally, Sprague plans to work this summer recruiting businesses and completing their sign-ups and background checks before school begins.

Last semester taught Sprague just how integral her school’s Pre-ETS program has been in keeping students engaged in their transition planning. The experiences catalyzed an aspiration to push out activities that her students may not have had the opportunity to undertake, such as meeting with the counselor to sign up to attend coordinated career tours, meeting with the business teacher to write a good resume, conducting and participating in mock interviews, etc. She is arranging for the students to bring proof that they completed those assignments, creating student autonomy and a natural support team for transition services. Her Pre-ETS students, no matter their place in the program, are required to complete six learning activities a semester as well as receive 20 hours of work; she wants her students to complete both requirements.

The impact of the Pre-ETS program has proven more beneficial than even Sprague could imagine. She is happy to report that, “my STAR students are motivated and more flexible than students receiving only instruction-based transition skills. Getting paid makes them more engaged. But that motivation has even caught the students who are not getting paid but working to acquire their volunteer hours. All the ones who work now have a drive like I haven’t seen before.”