From the [Morris County, NJ] Daily Record:

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has signed a law that allows students with disabilities to walk with their classmates at graduation, whether or not they receive a diploma.

The statute was inspired by Alicia Vitiello, a student with Down syndrome. Her family challenged a decades-old policy that barred students from participating in graduation until they completed their education.

Federal law allows students with disabilities to continue attending high school until they turn 21.

Officials in the Hanover Park Regional High School District initially denied Alicia’s request to walk at graduation, but relented. She participated in ceremonies in 2007 (above, with her mother, Janice).

Lots of graduation stories with a disability angle this weekend. Here’s a sampling:

• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: First four students graduate from community college life skills program. The degree was designed especially for people with intellectual disabilities, with the goal of helping them become self-sufficient.
• The [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star Tribune: A journey to better things (autism). Family celebrates the graduation of son with autism who was adopted from Romania.
• The New Hampshire Union Leader: John Clayton: From Special Olympics to autism studies at Yale. Valedictorian who volunteers at Special Olympics plans to attend Yale to study molecular biology and seek the root causes for autism.
• The [Cincinnati] Enquirer: Fitting in was hardest lesson (Asperger’s)
• The Miami Herald: Deaf high school students graduate with pride
• The St. Petersburg [Florida] Times: Student with Down syndrome a part of graduating class
• The Cape Cod Times: Riverview School honors 62 students (learning disabilities — photo above)
• The [Los Angeles] Daily News: Autistic graduates cap off a remarkable comeback

Other graduation stories here.

From USA Today:

Benjamin Bolger, who has dyslexia, just earned his first doctorate at Harvard to total eleven advanced degrees from universities including Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, Oxford, and Cambridge, among others.

Bolger says he reads at an elementary school level. He has gotten through much of his education with the help of his mother, Loretta Bolger, who reads books out loud to him and types papers he dictates. He also uses books on tape and has learned to skim books very effectively.

… He says he works to raise awareness about dyslexia and inspire others to realize they can be successful in academia.

From The Chicago Tribune

As a deaf student in Chicago schools thirty-five years ago, Karen Alkoby felt frustrated and stigmatized, but American Sign Language (ASL) gave her a voice. Officials at DePaul University now say she has become the first deaf woman in U.S. history to attain a doctorate in computer science. Alkoby’s dissertation lays the groundwork for a computerized dictionary that may be able to translate written English into ASL, opening new doors to communication for the deaf.

The Boston Globe profiles four area teens who faced down major challenges on the way to earning their high school diplomas “against all odds”. Of the four, two have disabilities. Briana Galeazzi was diagnosed with leukemia at age 12, and Breannna Comeau has hearing impairments and dyslexia. Comeau, a star basketball player and captain of her team, sees her disabilities as gifts. “They keep me motivated,” she says.

Everywhere you look there are stories about happy graduates these days, and some of them celebrate the accomplishments of people with disabilities. Here’s a sampling.

A word of warning for discerning readers: There are more than a few examples of cliched language here, from accounts of people who “suffer” from their disabilities, to those who “overcame” their disabilities, “rose above” their disabilities, or just didn’t seem disabled at all to those who knew them best. My favorite: the young woman who “refuses to use her disability as a crutch.” How’s that again? (See if you can find it.)

• Baltimore Sun: After high school, her time to shine; Teen with Down syndrome came long way (That’s Mimi Donaldson with her mother and aunt, above.)
  
• Philadelphia Inquirer: Her determined path to success (diabetes and blindness)
• Flint [Michigan] Journal: Without use of her arms and hands, extraordinary teen, Jessica Jones, readies to graduate near top of her Flint Southwestern class
• Orlando [Florida] Sentinel: Student with cystic fibrosis beats the odds to graduate with her class
• Lancaster [Pennsylvania] Intelligencer Journal: ‘Mac’ proves his mettle (Down syndrome)

State reports find high dropout rates, low graduation rates

From the [Portland] Oregonian:

Too many Oregon students who need special education services don’t get the quality education that the state expects, and more than 1,400 of them dropped out last year, new state reports show.

In five Portland-metro districts, more special education students dropped out than earned a regular diploma, according to special education report cards issued by the Oregon Department of Education.

… A panel of educators, parents and others helped Oregon set official targets that at least 58 percent of special education students should earn regular diplomas, no more than 6 percent should drop out a year, and no more than 11 percent should spend 60 percent of their day in special-ed-only settings.

Most school districts flunked those goals.

Figures on graduation and dropout rates among general education students were not provided.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, [Riverside] Press-Enterprise, AP in San Jose Mercury-News:

High school seniors in special-education classes will have to pass California’s exit exam to get a regular diploma this June under a legal settlement filed Friday.

One advocate for disabled students estimates that at least 20,000 members of the class of 2008 who are in special education still have not passed the exam.

An exemption for disabled students expired after last year’s senior class graduated.

… The settlement requires the state to hire a consultant to study students who have failed the exam, and determine whether there are students who have mastered the material but still cannot pass the exam, even with accommodations.