Leonard Stern, editor of the editorial pages in the Ottawa Citizen, says Toronto’s York University is wise to deny Ashif Jaffer the opportunity to get a college degree. Jaffer gained admission to the school without disclosing that he has Down syndrome.

School officials have refused to allow Jaffer the accommodations he received in high school, including taking a teaching assistant with him into exams. They say the school has a responsibility to protect the integrity of its degrees. Jaffer’s mother is fighting the decision.

An excerpt:

Down syndrome people are generous, fun, thoughtful and curious. But the only way Ashif will ever graduate from university is if someone does the intellectual work for him.

York is willing to let Ashif audit courses if he likes, but his mother seems determined he get a degree. For a woman who is herself very smart, it’s odd that she can’t recognize the error of insisting her son become something he is not.

See also:

• Student says school denies access — Toronto Star
• Sunday edition, CBC Radio report (podcast)

From the New York Times:

Experts in medicine and education say that students with ADHD often need additional support as they head for college and move away from the informal support systems that were provided by family and friends during their high school years.

Varying class schedules, hour-long lectures and disrupted sleep routines can pose daunting hurdles for such students. Research suggests that students with ADHD are at greater risk for academic and psychological difficulties, and have lower-grade point averages, than peers without ADHD.

Tips are offered for easing the transition to college. Among them:

• Consider adjusting medications;
• Plan for a place to get refills; and
• Ask about college services.

Finds more than 25 percent aren’t working or studying

From the [Portland] Oregonian:

A state survey of special education students in Oregon has found that more than more than one in four did not hold a paying job or enroll in college or job training during their first year out of high school.

Results varied across communities, ranging from a low of 44 percent to a high of 84 percent of students either securing paying jobs or enrolling in college or job training.

The report marks the first time that Oregon has tried to determine what happens to special education students after high school. The state had set a goal of getting 74 percent of recent special education students employed or enrolled in schooling.

See also: Special education reports successes — [Salem] Statesman-Journal

Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Linda Kornasky urges professors with invisible disabilities to share their disability status with their students.

My experience with both options of negotiating my [invisible] disability – retaining privacy and coming out – has shown me that, although coming out is not a necessity for me to perform my job as a professor and has even brought about occasional awkward moments, coming out as a professor with a disability is more than worthwhile in so far as it fosters positive identity politics among my students with disabilities.

… By coming out – refusing the less ethical choice of passing – professors with invisible disabilities can educate students to become truly democratic citizens prepared to explore individual identity from all perspectives.

Linda Kornasky is associate professor of English at Angelo State University in west Texas.

From Education Week:

More than three decades after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, transition planning continues to be a challenge for students, parents and educators.

With about half of students with disabilities planning to pursue postsecondary education, many are finding it tough to navigate without the active IDEA-mandated support that was provided in high school.

Transition planning can vary widely from locality to locality, which leaves parents to piece together what they can. “Here’s what I’ve learned: It’s all about networking,” said one mother. “You have to tap every avenue you can possibly identify.”

From U.S. News & World Report:

Brittany Ross (left) is working as a hostess intern at Walt Disney World Orlando after a stint at the College Living Experience (CLE) program and the Community College of Denver. She has a diagnosis of  Asperger’s syndrome

CLE is a private program operating in six cities around the country that helps students with learning disabilities, particularly those with autism and Asperger’s. Students enroll simultaneously in CLE and a college near one of the program’s centers, and work on social skills and independent living as well as academics.

There are presently 187 students enrolled in the nationwide program. The cost is $33,500 per student per year, and can be partially subsidized by some states.

“Comprehensive support is so crucial,” [social coordinator and resident adviser for CLE's Denver program, Kirk Redwine] says. “To think someone with so many issues could do college without this type of multifaceted assistance is setting them up to fail.”

Earlier posts here.

(Photo from U.S. News & World Report)

From U.S. News and World Report:

Katie Apostolides, a young woman with Down syndrome, is among a growing cadre of students with intellectual disabilities who are benefiting from college programs tailored to their needs. New initiatives that were started late last year offer hope for a dramatic expansion in such programs around the country.

Thanks to changes in the Higher Education Opportunity Act and two multimillion-dollar federal grants awarded in December 2008, experts say, the number of post-secondary programs for students with intellectual abilities is expected to expand dramatically from its current roster of about 150 programs.

Presently, fewer than a quarter of students with intellectual disabilities have been able to participate in post-secondary education, according to an ongoing U.S. Department of Education study.

Recent research shows students with intellectual disabilities who completed any type of post-secondary education program earned 1.7 times more per week than their intellectually disabled peers who received no post-secondary education.

“Everyone deserves to go to college, students with intellectual disabilities included,” says Debra Hart, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion. For a list of existing programs, see the ThinkCollege.net website.