For Guidance Counselors And Faculty!
How You Can Help!

In the student's day-to-day academic life, you steer the course through the maze of courses and services needed for middle and high school students to graduate and go on to postsecondary education and employment. Taking the following steps will ease the process for you - and for them. First, understand the disability laws and how they affect your interaction with students with disabilities. Then, familiarize yourself with the range and use of appropriate academic adjustments and auxiliary aids and services available to students with disabilities in both the secondary and postsecondary settings.

For Case Managers and Teachers

Assist the student in developing a comprehensive transition portfolio to share with college admissions personnel and disability services offices

Provide sessions on study skills, time management, and stress management

Assist students in forming support groups, networking, and finding and developing an appropriate relationship with a college mentor

Invite college students with disabilities to speak to high school groups and parent groups about their college experiences (good and bad)

Approach college support services from a strategy perspective. Discuss ways in which students can succeed in college classes in general and avoid subject matter tutoring

Reinforce the importance of word processing skills for students with disabilities

Promote the development of individual responsibility by providing more opportunities for students to advocate for themselves and their needs

Work with postsecondary student support personnel in promoting awareness at the high school level about the demands of college

Excerpted from Virginia's College Guide for Students with Disabilities (2003 Edition).
Available at www.pen.k12.va.us