How to Vet College Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Vineet Narayan graduated from high school last spring and during his gap year he’s on the hunt for a college program that fits his needs. Searching for the right college program is daunting for most students, but Vineet’s mom, Nithya Narayan, says sending her son with Down syndrome to college adds a few extra concerns.

Although the college search process has been surprisingly typical in many ways, Narayan says “It did seem surreal to hear from schools and acknowledge the gap between having no access to curriculum and having to audit college classes, which seems incomprehensible. So I attended the State of the Art conference to see if he could really attend these programs without barriers. We want him to have the liberty to choose classes and make a career path, which is what the typical students do. As I was researching, some of these programs have definitive classes that they have to take which is not what we want.”

College programs for students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) have increased by 73% in the last decade. Currently there’s around 260 programs across the nation. These programs range from fully inclusive community colleges or 4-year university settings with on-campus living, to segregated programs on college campuses. There is much to celebrate with this tremendous growth of post-secondary opportunities for students with IDD. But compared to the 7,000 college programs for typical college students across the nation we’re really still in the infancy of this movement.

Read Related Post: College Scholarships for Students with Down Syndrome

I’ve written recently about the good, the bad, and the ugly of these college programs. Although there is federal regulations for the few programs that receive federal funding (about 25 programs), the vast majority receive no federal or state oversight. It’s up to the college and increasingly parents to self-monitor the efficacy of these programs. So, how can parents and students ensure the program they choose lives up to their expectations?

“Parents and students don’t know what they want until they don’t get what they want. Students with Intellectual Disabilities don’t often go to college night like their typical peers. They go to transition fairs instead. There needs to be a whole mindset change starting in high school,” explains Think College Co-Director, Meg Grigal.

Think College is a great place to start your search. Parents and students can search for programs using an interactive map, and check out the organization’s new “How To Guide on Conducting a College Search.” Grigal says parents should share this with your child’s high school transition team to better prepare for that next step.

But don’t stop there! Jennifer Luebke and her 19-year-old son, Antonio, had to renew his college search after the program he was attending failed to keep promises of at least a 50% inclusive course load (As of February 2019, the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties). Antonio left the program after a year, and now Jennifer has many more questions for the next college Antonio attends. Even though your student may be looking for a different type of college experience, her questions could help guide your inquiry and get you thinking about what questions to ask.

Read Related Post: Bethel University Fails to Keep Promises of Inclusive Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

“We developed key questions that will hopefully reveal answers that go beyond the self-reported information on Think College and the college’s marketing materials,” explains Luebke. Parents from the Facebook Group “Families Think College” also chimed in with other questions that are added to Luebke’s questioning below:

1. “Academic Inclusion: What courses (if any) are inclusive? Provide a list of catalog courses that are available for students with IDD to take where the coursework is modified and where they receive in-class and out-of-class academic support. Do you have courses where typically-abled students are also present, but their role is different from a student with IDD (e.g. as a mentor, co-enrolled as a lab to help students with disabilities, etc.)?
2. Residential Inclusion: Do you have a policy that prevents a student with IDD from being roommates with a typically-abled student?
3. Social Inclusion: Tell us how students with IDD are intentionally and regularly included in campus social activities?
4. Job Training and Internships: How will you leverage his strengths to provide job training to him? What might a few conversation starters be to help him identify a good job fit? What internship opportunities do you have that might be a good fit for him considering his strengths? What percentage of students are employed after leaving the program?
5. Parental Involvement: Do you require a student with a disability to be their own guardian? How do you determine what level of communication is appropriate with parents and how do you calibrate it?
6. Metrics: What metrics do you track and how often do you track them to assess the effectiveness of your program and areas for improvement? With whom do you share your findings? How do you measure and assess each student’s learning and progress?
7. Membership & Belonging: Are students in your program considered enrolled students in the university? Do they have full alumni benefits when the complete the certificate program? Do you have a separately published student handbook and policies apart from the general student handbook (with some areas where additional support is provided where needed).
8. Philosophy of Inclusion: What is your program’s definition of inclusion or what is your program’s inclusion statement that guides the program?
9. Qualifications: What are the program director’s educational background, work experience, and specific qualifications to run this program? Are the professors who teach the courses that students with IDD take qualified university professors? What training have the professors received in universal design? What training do students on campus receive about ability diversity?
10. Please provide us a list of all students and alumni (and their parents and families) that we may contact to ask further questions about your program.”

Nithya Narayan says a “parent comments section” could provide invaluable real-life reviews of how a program actually operates. She says good programs are out there, if you know how to look. “When typical kids go away they shape their life by being an adult and making decisions on their own for their life, and we are very glad that opportunity is available for Vineet.”

How’s your child’s college search going? What is your child looking for in a program and have they found it? What questions have you asked? Share in the comments below.