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Helping Students with Learning Disabilities Transition to College

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although assistive technologies and other supports can help, too few students who need them take advantage once they leave high school. Here's what K-12 schools can do to help. AN OCCUPATIONAL therapist and assistive technology specialist for Florida's Alachua County Public Schools, Elisa Wern works every day with students who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia or a lack of executive functioning. Assistive technology "plays a critical role" in these students' success, Wern said. Students with a documented learning disability are eligible for a variety of supports and services, and Wern collaborates with each student's individualized education program (IEP) team to identify the accommodations he or she needs to be successful. These can range from adaptive papers and portable word processors to operating system accessibility features, word-prediction software and screen reader technology. Alachua County serves more than 29,000 students, and while Wern doesn't know how many of these have a learning disability in particular, about 14 percent of the district's population--or more than 4,000 students--are entitled to some kind of support under an IEP. That's a significant number. But if any of these students go on to college, the chances are high that the supports they had in high school won't exist for them in higher education. A national longitudinal study from the United States Department of Education found that 87 percent of students with learning disabilities received some kind of support at the K-12 level, but when these students moved on to college, only 19 percent continued to get support. Sam Johnston, a research scientist for CAST, a nonprofit organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all students, said, "It's shocking to see such a huge change" from high school to college. "These are the same students, but for whatever reason, they're not being served in higher education." Students who have learning disabilities often face steep challenges in making the jump from high school to higher ed, and these challenges go well beyond the shift to more intensive, college-level work. According to Tracy Gray, managing researcher for education at the American Institutes for Research, transitioning students with learning disabilities from high school to college "is a very important issue, and it often gets overlooked." While assistive technologies can help with this transition, Johnston, Gray and other disability specialists warned that too few college-level students are taking advantage of these tools. There are a number of reasons for this, but they said that K-12 schools can play a critical role in preparing students with learning disabilities for a successful transition to college and beyond. 'A Bit of the Wild West' Although many students arrive at college after having had an IEP in high school, "the process is very different for getting services in K-12 compared with higher education," Johnston said. At the K-12 level, the onus for identifying learning disabilities and providing the right kinds of support is on the school or district, Johnston said. When students move on to college, the responsibility shifts over to them and, she added, "it often falls apart somewhere along the line. …