TransCen

This study aimed to examine school structural factors (i.e., free/reduced lunch percentage, proportion of minority student enrollment, and student–teacher ratio) that may contribute to employment outcomes for transitioning youth with disabilities beyond individual student factors through hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses. The secondary data for 3,289 students were obtained from the Bridges From School to Work Program, and the school structural data for 121 schools were drawn from the Common Core of Data. The major types of disabilities for the student participants included learning disabilities (73.1%), emotional and behavioral disabilities (4.7%), sensory disabilities (2%), and others (20.2%). Around 41% of participants were female. The study found that employment outcomes (i.e., whether a participant secured a paid job and weekly job earnings) were primarily attributed to student individual factors rather than school structural factors, particularly prior paid work experience. The finding suggests the potential importance of effective transition interventions to improve employment outcomes for all youth with disabilities. Implications for rehabilitation professionals are discussed.

Recently, consensus among researchers and professionals has emerged about factors that contribute to postschool success of youth with disabilities. Prominent among these factors are targeted academic preparation, family involvement, youth empowerment, and service collaboration and linkages. Work experience and paid employment have been identified as being highly associated with positive postschool employment outcomes. These components are reflected in the Guideposts for Success, produced by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth (NCWD/Y), which represents professional consensus and extant research about what constitutes optimal transition service. The authors present a descriptive report on the implementation of a model for systematically delivering seamless transition services based on components of the NCWD/Y Guideposts. They report on how this model has been applied in 11 of the 24 county-wide school districts in Maryland for diverse special education populations, and provide preliminary data on its early impact on the students’ transition to careers.

Peace studies seeks to understand the negation of violence through conflict transformation, cooperation and harmony by drawing from many disciplines, including psychology, sociology and anthropology, political science, economics, international relations, international law and history. This raises the problem of the complementarity, coexistence and integration of different systems of knowledge. In fact, all of the human and social sciences are products of the post-Westphalian state system and so reify the state and its internal and international system and focus on this as the main source of political conflict. Conflicts, however, can arise from other distinctions involving gender, generation, race, class and so on. To contribute to peace building and conflict resolution, the social sciences must be globalized, developing theories that address conflicts at the levels of interpersonal interaction (micro), within countries (meso), between nations (macro ), and between whole regions or civilizations (mega). Psychiatry and the "psy" disciplines can contribute to peace building and conflict resolution through understanding the interactions between processes at each of these levels and the mental health or illness of individuals.

This article presents findings from a three-year research study looking at the experiences of students with disabilities who participated in the Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship program. Specifically, we examined the provision of supports and accommodations. Using in-depth interviews with former program participants and stakeholders and document analysis of participants' school records, the authors discuss type and extent of supports provided to youth apprentices and adequacy of those supports for ensuring students could successfully complete the program. Researchers also examined the perceptions and practices of youth apprenticeship coordinators and instructors concerning accommodation of youth with disabilities in the program. Results suggest a need for stronger and more systematic planning for providing supports and accommodations within youth apprenticeship programs.