State to offer alternate diplomas for students with disabilities
Unimportant. … not worth it … heartbroken.
That’s how some students living with a disability say they feel under current state law that defines them as dropouts.
A new Indiana law will get rid of that definition.
This bill — signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb on March 21 — creates an alternate diploma specifically for students with more significant cognitive disabilities. One school district said these students will be helped tremendously by this new law, which does not take effect until July 1.
Desia Stone, a student in Lawrence Township Schools’ Project SEARCH program, was upset that, under current state law, she and students like her will get a certificate of completion instead of a diploma when they graduate from high school: “Heartbroken … because they should count.”
She lives with a learning disability and is part of the Lawrence Township school district’s program where students with disabilities master life skills. This program site is run by organizations including Community Health Network, Easterseals Crossroads, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, the Lawrence Township Schools and Indiana University’s Center on Community Living and Careers.
Stone said that receiving the certificate instead of a diploma made her and other students “feel like we’re putting in all of our hard work and time for nothing.”
Jordan Green, another Project SEARCH student, said getting a certificate instead of a diploma “makes people like me feel like they are not worthy … distant … not important.”
Karen Niemeier is director of exceptional learners for Lawrence Township Schools. “The certificate of completion does not count toward the graduation rates. In fact, students who leave with a certificate of completion are considered ‘dropouts.’”
Niemeier said, “This alternate diploma will recognize the work and the courses that students with significant cognitive disabilities have completed and have taken.”
Brenda Westfall’s daughter, who lives with an intellectual disability, graduated from Project SEARCH last summer. Westfall said she hopes the new law retroactively helps her daughter, but believes it will help future students.
“It will mean a life change in their outcome, where they can be placed for jobs,” the mother said.
Back in the classroom, Project SEARCH instructor Jill Rusk said the value of what her students learn in the classroom far outweighs any document they earn. “They’re learning to be independent, money skills, work skills, transportation skills. Be able to produce and be part of scociety.”
Anyone interested in hiring Project SEARCH students from the Lawrence Township Schools program can call 317-621-5318.