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In recent years, North Carolina community colleges have made an effort to better serve students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Colleges say students leave their programs with skills potential employers can see.
As defined by the North Carolina Department Of Health and Human Services, a developmental disability is chronic, begins at birth or during childhood, and affects individuals’ daily living and functioning. The disabilities can be caused by a mental impairment, physical impairment, or both.
According to research from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, one in nine working-age adults in North Carolina has a disability. The most prevalent of those disabilities is cognitive difficulty, including trouble remembering, making decisions, and concentrating. The second most prevalent is serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, followed by difficulty living independently for physical, mental, or emotional reasons. Working-age adults with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed than those without disabilities.
Enrollment in adult education programs at community colleges and four-year universities is one proposed solution to improving the economic outcomes for students with IDD. Read below for an overview of statewide efforts, and a look at the approaches of two institutions — Wake Technical and South Piedmont community colleges — serving individuals with IDD.
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Statewide efforts
North Carolina has dozens of collegiate programs serving students with IDD.
Some of these programs are being supported by a statewide community college effort called Access to Achievement, which began in 2021 when the General Assembly funded pilot programs at Brunswick and Catawba Valley community colleges to identify the best supports and resources for serving students with IDD.
Since then, 13 additional community colleges have received nearly $4 million in state funding through this effort: Alamance, Asheville-Buncombe Technical, College of The Albemarle, Guilford Technical, James Sprunt, Johnston, McDowell Technical, Richmond, Robeson, Sandhills, South Piedmont, Stanly, and Wilkes community colleges.
One goal of the Access to Achievement cohort is to maximize access to degrees, credentials, and employment opportunities.
“Individuals with IDD face so many barriers to education and employment,” State Board of Community Colleges Finance Committee Chair Lisa Estep said during a 2023 discussion of the program. “Our system should be focused on removing those barriers. We are helping to build inclusive pathways for students with IDD that didn’t exist two years ago, and it is so exciting to be a part of that journey.”
How programs serving students with IDD work
For these programs, candidates attend information sessions followed by an application and placement testing process. Some institutions have an interview process, but not all.
EdNC spoke with Julia Tennant, an instructional program specialist at Wake Technical Community College, about the school’s Pathfinder Career Exploration program.
Pathfinder, which is housed under the school’s College and Career Readiness department, is designed for adults with intellectual disabilities who want prepare for the workplace while furthering their education.
“In a nutshell, really, our goal for students is to live their best life through having the employment they want and also being as independent as they can be,” Tennant said.
Community colleges structure these programs to focus on employability and life skills for students.
Wake Tech offers students a two-year hybrid program where they rotate between six employability skills in cohorts. In addition to the employability skills cohorts, the program also offers Integrated Education and Training (IET) classes where students can earn a certificate of completion.
Compass Education, a program serving students with IDD at South Piedmont Community College, focuses on academics and soft skills. Prospective students, according to the college’s website, “must be readers with the goal of transitioning to a higher level of education and/or employment.” The only other requirement for the year-long program is previous enrollment in an Occupational Course of Study (OCS) or Transition to Adulthood (TTA) course, or following an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in high school.
After completing basic academic classes, students then transition into learning academies. Students have the option of going into a pet care academy or a food service academy.
Both the Pathfinder and Compass Education programs offer students training to earn a ServSafe Food Handling certification.
Slice of life
One student was at the stove. Another was arranging popcorn and candy in a bowl. Others were chopping meat and shaping crescent rolls to make pigs in a blanket.
“We have to give Ms. Nikki her surprise!,” the chefs-in-training said during one class session at South Piedmont last fall.
Nikki Myers, director of the Compass Education program at South Piedmont Community College, was visiting the students while they were baking for their in-class holiday party. The students volunteered to wash dishes or sort out ingredients and helped each other complete different tasks.
“We’ve got some natural-born leaders in this class,” Myers said.
Shortly after, students handed Myers a red and green cake that they baked from scratch.
Instructor Cindy Dellinger said students in the culinary class had enough skills to make Thanksgiving dinner for their parents and some of South Piedmont’s staff in November.
She said she has seen her students grow a lot throughout the course of the semester.
“We want them to be able to live on their own, maybe one day in an apartment or something, and be able to use these skills as they live with themselves, instead of a lot of fast food things,” Dellinger said.
Classes at the colleges are structured so that each student gets a hand at different tasks in the kitchen, whether it’s working with the oven, stove top, food prep, or mopping the floor.
In the end, Dellinger said the skills they are learning in classes are also helping students at home.
In addition to learning skills, students also enjoy the social aspect of the class.
“Well, the best part about being in this class is cooking with friends,” said Nicholas Torres, a student at South Piedmont.
“It’s really fun and interactive,” Roy Bowditch, a student at Wake Tech, said.
Amy Cato, a baking instructor at Wake Tech, praised her students in the Pathfinder cohort.
“They’ve got the best attitude of anybody. They all show up every day for class. There are lots of questions,” she said. “They want to know everything they can know about everything that we’re doing. They’re just fun to be around — it’s been one of my favorite classes I’ve taught.”
Program directors at both colleges believe that community awareness plays a key role in the success of the initiatives.
For that reason, Tennant said Pathfinder puts a strong emphasis on community outreach. She regularly visits local high schools and attends transition fairs to market the program and inform students and families about the opportunity.
“Because unfortunately, even being in the capital region, sometimes, parents and students don’t know that we are here,” Tennant said.
During these visits, Tennant said that parents have a lot of questions related to transportation, what the day-to-day of the program looks like, and which other agencies or services are available to help the student during the program and after when they are looking for employment.
While believing Pathfinder is a comprehensive program for students, Wake Tech is really focused on the next step.
“We give them the skills, we give them a place to learn those skills,” Tennant said. “But that next step, I really want to start concentrating more on just because… you want them to have a place to go after, (to) use those skills, get that job that they want, get that job that pays well.”
After students leave South Piedmont’s Food Service Academy, Myers said they actively help students with their resume and connect them with local businesses.
South Piedmont’s program is supported through the college being part of the Access to Achievement cohort.
Each school that is part of the cohort has an Access to Achievement coordinator who builds relationships with local high schools. Since being part of the cohort, Myers said the college has been able to contact students who previously thought they would not get accommodations for their disability in a college setting.
“And I do think that this has opened the door of communication for them to understand that there are accommodations available for them, and so that they are able to ask for those,” Myers said.
