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Job Acquisition by Urban Youth With Disabilities Transitioning From School to Work

Despite legislation promoting youth transition from school to employment, and despite growing knowledge of factors contributing to successful transitions, youth with disabilities continue to work at lower rates compared with their nondisabled peers. Over the past decade, efforts specifically directed toward reducing this intractable employment gap between these two groups of youth have met with relatively little success. Marriott Foundation’s Bridges from School-to-Work Program, a national multisite intervention offering paid competitive employment to high school youth enrolled in special education programs prior to school exit, addresses obstacles to labor market participation confronted by youth with disabilities, with an intensive, time-limited vocational intervention at seven inner-city urban sites across the United States. We found universally high job placement rates of a large sample of youth with disabilities enrolled in high school over several recent years of operation (2006 to 2011) across their sociodemographic and disability characteristics, and across diverse urban areas throughout the United States. Thus, we argue that educational, disability, and rehabilitation professionals should hold high expectations for employment success of these youth, regardless of their disabilities and the local economic conditions of the communities in which they live.