1. From Learning to Earning: Transition from School to Work
Corresponding Notes: The Georgia High School High Tech program is an in school transition program for students with disabilities. The program is administered by the Georgia Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. Our focus is to work with high school juniors and seniors with disabilities that are capable of post-secondary education or employment. We want to insure that these students graduate from high school and are aware of post-secondary education and employment opportunities after high school.
The Georgia High School High Tech Program
Karen Royston, Chief Executive Officer, Georgia Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, Inc.

2. Why Are Transition Services Needed?
Every 26 seconds one student drops out of public school…. 7,000 each day… 1.2 million a year Sources: America’s Promise Alliance and Do Something
Corresponding Notes: We are providing transition activities to the students with disabilities to engage their interest and encourage them to stay in high school so they will not become another statistic in this slide.

3. HSHT Partnerships – Bridges to Success
Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency
Partners in the Disability Field
AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Center at Georgia Tech
Community partners
Local school systems (54 school systems)
Employers
ADP
CDC
The Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency is our largest partner and provides funding for the Georgia HSHT program under a contract. They are implementing a large transition program to provide pre-employment transition services to in school youth. The HSHT program already provides pre-employment transition services so our program will be a good fit for their mission.
AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Georgia Tech is another large partner of ours that have been a real asset with assisting us with providing training, marketing materials, developing training curriculums, and a STEM summer camp.
We work with local school systems and get approval from them to provide services to their students.
We also work with different employers across the state to provide tours, motivational trainings and career exploration.

4. Who is involved? Students GVRA Families Educators Advocacy Groups
Corresponding Notes: A graph that illustrates the partners for Georgia HSHT
Colleges,
Universities, &
Technical Schools
Business Leaders
& Employers

5. Strategies to Make A Difference
Transition activities provided in an in-school model
Partnerships (working with partners with common mission)
Developing relationships with school systems at their local levels
Staff assigned logistically to service areas across the state
Utilize research based guidelines for services that have proven successful
Incentives to keep students engaged
Corresponding Notes:
Some of the factors for our success: Over the past six years, the number of students we serve in Georgia has grown by 200%.
Because it is an in-school program, we have access to the students during the day – this has assisted us with providing more services and getting greater participation than we would get from the students after school or on weekends. We also have transportation available during the day and use school buses to transport the students to post-secondary or industry tours. Transportation is a huge challenge for a lot of our students especially in rural areas – there is no public transportation. So, being able to use school buses to transport students is a real asset.
We realize the importance of developing and maintaining partnerships with agencies & partners with our common mission. We update GVRA quarterly on students participating and activities being provided. We attend GVRA board meetings and give presentations. GVRA staff are invited to HSHT events and activities. We also meet with their staff and create common language and goals to reach our mission. We also do the same with other partners such as AMAC – we work closely with their staff, meet with them frequently, volunteer at their conferences, and work on training curriculums together. We greatly value our partnerships.
We develop our partnerships with the school systems at a local level because in Georgia, every school system is different and we have found that relationships are really made at the local level. Also, at the beginning of every school year, we meet with each school system again and discuss the program as they may have had staff changes since the last school year.
We utilize research based guidelines to develop our services. There was research done at the national level that showed if you provide services in these 5 categories, students will be more successful with their transition after high school. These five categories are: school based preparatory experiences, career preparation and work based learning, youth development and leadership, connecting activities and family involvement. All of the HSHT services fall into one of these categories.
We also utilize incentives to keep the students engaged. One of our largest incentives is the computer competition project which I will discuss in more detail later. With some of our smaller funding sources, we utilize gift cards to keep the students on track and participating. We are also developing another incentive for our students who want to go directly to work after high school and are researching ways to provide them with a professional outfit for interviews.

6. HSHT Transition Activities
Tours of post-secondary education sites
Industry site visits
Self-advocacy training
Job shadowing/job sampling
Job readiness training
Assistive technology training
Career & transition days
Computer competition incentive project
Awards events to recognize the students’ successes
Corresponding Notes:
This is a list with some of the transition activities that HSHT provides or coordinates for the students. The list not all inclusive but showcases some of our services.
We do like to provide tours for students to both post-secondary and industry sites because we are finding that are students do not know what to expect. On a post-secondary tour, we also request the school to make a presentation on disability services offered at their school. If our students get involved with disability services at the post-secondary site early and ask for accommodations, they will be much more successful.
We like the industry tours because we are finding that our students do not know what real jobs look like and the expectations of employment. The employers discuss the expectations of employment, career options available at their site and the requirements of these positions.
We strongly encourage self-advocacy training as we have found that our students are hesitant to ask for accommodations after graduation and sometimes do now even know they were being accommodated in high school.
Some of our sites do job shadowing or job sampling – where a student is scheduled to spend a day with an employer in their career interest and shadow the job for a day. This is a very useful service as it lets the students see what the responsibilities of the job entails. We are also piloting virtual job shadowing in our rural school systems that do not have employers for our students to shadow.
Assistive Technology training – we strongly encourage the students to participate in our assistive technology training as data shows that students who start using assistive technology earlier are more successful. This training was developed by our partners at AMAC.
We also support and encourage awards events at the end of the school year to recognize the students’ that participated in the program all year. We have found that our students do not get a lot of awards and recognition and this goes a long way to start building their self-confidence.

7. Industry Tour (Plant Vogtle)
Corresponding Notes: photo of our students attending an industry tour at Plant Vogtle which is one of our local employers that will hire our students.

8. Post Secondary Tour - Augusta Technical College
Corresponding Notes; Photo of students attending a post-secondary tour at Augusta Technical College and receiving presentations by disability services, admissions, and financial aid which is very useful information for our students. The other photo is of our students touring the campus to see what fields of study are offered at this site. They are touring the automotive department.

9. Job Sampling – Veterinarian Clinic & Culinary
Corresponding Notes; Students at job shadowing sites. They meet with an employer in the area of their career interest and spend a day shadowing these jobs. This is a very good service for our students to assist with choosing a career. There is also another benefit as it lets employers realize that students with disabilities can do these jobs.

10. High School High Tech Computer Incentive Project
The High School High Tech computer incentive project generates a lot of interest with the students to participate in the program & to stay engaged in the program
Corresponding Notes: HSHT does an annual computer competition incentive project where students must compete to be awarded a computer at the end of the school year. The students must be active in HSHT and involved with our partner agency – GVRA. The computer incentive is not the priority of the program but it does generate a lot of interest for the students to participate and stay engaged in the program the entire year.

11. Laptops Make a Difference
Approximately 1200 laptops, assistive technology, and electronic notepads have been awarded statewide.
Student Thank You Note:
I really appreciated the generous donation. I value the fact that I was accepted to receive a laptop computer. It brings me great joy knowing that I will have extra help in my transition from high school to college. This computer is a great investment in my future. I know I will be able to keep up in school and challenge myself to be the best. The laptop will go to good use Thank You,
Brandy
Corresponding Notes: The program has awarded over 1200 laptop computers. One of our students had orthopedic impairments and was unable to write legibly with pen or pencil. She uses the computer at home and in her classroom to take her notes. Another student had a visual impairment and we awarded her a computer and assistive technology so she can dictate her notes and assignments into the computer 11

12. SUCCESS – 89% Graduation Rate!!
School Year
89% graduation rate - some HSHT sites reporting 95% (56.4% SWD graduation rate in Georgia)
Graduation from high school opens doors so students can:
Apply & attend post-secondary education
Apply for & attain employment
Become employed above minimum wage
Gain independence
Follow their dreams!!
Corresponding Notes: Last year, the HSHT program had an 89% graduation rate with the seniors that were in our program with some of our sites reporting a 95% graduation rate. This is compared to a statewide graduation rate of students with disabilities that was 56.4%. Receiving this high school diploma opens up so many doors for students with disabilities in Georgia. They need this diploma to apply to post-secondary institutions and to apply for most jobs. Receiving this diploma is the first step that is needed for them to pursue their goals after high school.

13. Next Steps to Serve More Students!!
Implement a HSHT program in every school system in Georgia
Diversify funding
Mix of public and private funding
Broaden reach – start working with students at a younger age
Add additional core training curriculums
Award scholarships
Host summer post-secondary boot camps
AMAC at Georgia Tech
Corresponding Notes: The HSHT program is always working to serve more students with disabilities in Georgia. Our goal is to have an active HSHT program in every school system in Georgia. We also plan to broaden our funding sources to have a mix of public and private funding. We want to start serving students at a younger age. We are also adding some additional training curriculums such as social media etiquette and financial literacy. We are working to raise private funding so we can award scholarships each year to our students who are accepted into post-secondary education sites. We are also working jointly with AMAC at Georgia Tech to host a week long STEM camp for our students interested in science, technology, engineering and math – this would be a great experience for our students

14. Thank You!
Corresponding Notes: - Thank you