Welcome to Boot Camp
Students with Disabilities at Career Colleges and Proprietary Institutions
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 make it very clear that students with disabilities are entitled to equal access to educational programs and programming. Traditional institutions of higher education have struggled to understand their responsibilities and meet their obligations under these laws for many years. Such institutions often serve large numbers of students with disabilities and have dedicated staff, knowledgeable about the regulations AND about disability, and whose sole focus is serving the institution by serving these students. Most career colleges and proprietary schools have few students with disabilities, few resources allocated to their support, and staff with only limited knowledge of the mandates (or time to apply them!), and yet the legal responsibilities for equal access are no different, and the potential for legal sanctions just as real.
There are lots of questions to be asked in trying to determine how best to respond to these legal obligations. What laws apply - and why? How can we balance our legal mandates, our educational mission, and our corporate philosophy to best meet the needs of students? What kind of staffing and what kind of training for designated support personnel will assure that we are doing what we can/should/must to serve students with disabilities? All this is complicated in an environment that often sees several separate sites following the same corporate directives/policies, and in an atmosphere where successful completion and employment potential are an issue for BOTH students and institutions.
You are invited to join Jane Jarrow and her colleagues from Disability Compliance in Career and Online Learning (see information about the "Instructor") in Columbus, Ohio, for two days of rigorous training to help you identify your role, and organize your response to the needs of students with disabilities in career colleges and proprietary institutions. The workshop will provide critical information to personnel from these nontraditional settings about the legal mandates and practical concerns surrounding students with disabilities enrolled in your programs.
(See Schedule and Agenda) Each two-day seminar will provide 15 hours of in-depth training (1.5 CEU's available through the DAIS Academy).