Education

New STEP program will teach life skills

This week, the Rye City School District is rolling out a new program called Student Transitional Education Program that will provide disabled students in middle and high school with a life skills curriculum.

STEP, a pilot program, will take over room 208, which was previously used for the now-defunct home and careers class, and will only take two student participants for now.

The idea for the program has been around for a while, but in a small district like Rye, finding a group of disabled special needs students ages 12 to 21 can take some time, according to Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Pupil Services Julia Chung.

Special education teacher Lisa-Marie DiRusso, left, stands with Rye Middle School Principal Dr. Anne Edwards in the STEP classroom. The classroom was formerly used by the home and careers classes. The room has three sinks and a refrigerator and DiRusso hopes to create a living room area as well so that students can practice social and life skills in a realistic setting. Photo courtesy Sarah Derman
Special education teacher Lisa-Marie DiRusso, left, stands with Rye Middle School Principal Dr. Anne Edwards in the STEP classroom. The classroom was formerly used by the home and careers classes. The room has three sinks and a refrigerator and DiRusso hopes to create a living room area as well so that students can practice social and life skills in a realistic setting. Photo courtesy Sarah Derman

Chung said, however, based on the group of students currently in the elementary schools, the need for STEP will increase rapidly.

“These are the students who may not be able to live on their own as adults. They will likely live in group homes or similar settings,” she said.

In the Rye Middle School STEP program, students will mainly learn navigational skills such as making change from bills, reading directional signs and taking public transportation. The program will provide a continuation of the kinds of skills taught in the self-contained Gateway classrooms at Milton and Midland schools. The Gateway programs are separate classrooms for special needs students, who attend regular classes as much as possible.

High school-aged STEP students will focus more on independent living skills such as learning to parse a public transportation schedule, manage personal banking and preparing to hold a job after high school.

“The idea is to help students live independently as adults,” Rye Middle School Principal Dr. Ann Edwards said. “The types of skills that each child needs will be addressed individually if necessary.”

Offering this program will also help the district keep these students local, which saves money.

“Even with just two students, the cost of providing this program compared to sending them out of the district to learn these same skills is about the same,” Chung said. However, once more students are enrolled in STEP, the savings will increase quickly—an estimated $800,000 a year once the program becomes more seasoned.

For parents, providing these special needs children with an in-school program will likely come as a relief. “We think that elementary school parents especially will be pleased to learn of STEP. If you have a very young special needs child, you don’t want to put them on a bus for a long time,” Edwards said.

Plus, keeping disabled children in the community would increase the community’s diversity. “Why wouldn’t we want them to be functioning adults in our community?” Edwards asked.