SAN BERNARDINO >> San Bernardino City Unified offered special education students on-the-job training this summer close to home — in the school district.
“We have a transition services program for kids in special ed,” said Chris LeRoy, San Bernardino City Unified School District Program Specialist, who leads the program.
Over the past three years, 232 students have gotten jobs from the district’s Transition Partnership Program, including at the Amazon Fulfillment Center and San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino. But this year, school board member Mike Gallo suggested using the district’s existing internship program to give special education students additional training in real-world work environments, side by side with potential future employers and coworkers.
“The good news is we’re kind of a gigantic employer,” LeRoy said.
The pilot program put six students with cognitive and intellectual disabilities in jobs at Jones, Henry and Roberts Elementary Schools and at a district administrative office in July.
• Photos: SBCUSD trains special education students for job market in summer internship program
The students used “the skills they’ve attained at an entry level, giving them more experience in the field,” LeRoy said. “These folks have the skills, and they could move into some of these positions.”
The internships included food service, custodial and clerical work and helped prove both to students and their coworkers that the students were up to the task.
“Every time they have work experience, they’re more confident. They do a better job. It’s a self-esteem issue. But at the schools, the staff at the schools, the principals at the schools, they saw these students with moderate-to-severe disabilities have these skills and can do these jobs,” LeRoy said. “We’re kind of selling the story to ourselves. They’re skilled. They’re on time. They do a good job. They ask good questions.”
The program already is paying off for Indian Springs High School student Asante Thompson-Lake, who will work in the school’s cafeteria beginning in August.
“I’m learning how to be a good employee, like getting to work on time,” Asante, 19, is quoted as saying in a school district press release. “You have to have a job to have a future.”
Showing these students there’s a place for them in the workforce is part of what the summer internship program is all about.
“There’s jobs waiting for them,” LeRoy said. “That sounds small, but it’s kind of a kid-by-kid story.”
After this year’s successful pilot program, the internship program will be back, bigger and better, in the future.
“We have a real good game plan on how to expand it, not just as a summer program, but during the year,” LeRoy said. “We’ve had students who’ve gotten jobs in the district, but it’s not as clear a pathway as it could be.”
