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Events Calendar By Tom Sannicandro http://www.wickedlocal.com/upton/news/opinions/x1275649644/Sannicandro-State-helping-open-doors-for-developmentally-disabled Opening college to students with developmental disabilities is a civil rights issue. Students with Down syndrome, autism, and other developmental disabilities who participate in higher education are more likely to reach their full potential, be employed, live independently, and achieve self-sufficiency. As chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, I assembled a 15-member task force earlier this year that includes a university president, a UMass chancellor, a Harvard law professor, a student with developmental disabilities, legislators, researchers and others. In November, the task force traveled the state to solicit public input on ways to improve and expand access to inclusive higher education for students with disabilities by educating them in classrooms along non-disabled peers. Almost 40 years ago, with the passage of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities began to leave institutions and segregated environments in favor of inclusion in K-12 classrooms with their non-disabled peers. This was a paradigm shift for disability rights in our country. Inclusion is critical if people with disabilities are to live full lives in our society. We have now had generations of children who have gone through the public education system in inclusive classrooms. Unfortunately, the legal requirement for inclusion ends at 12th grade. We know the importance of college for life skills and job preparation. Why would it be different for students with disabilities? Two years ago, Congress began funding a program called Transition and Postsecondary Education Programs for Students with Intellectual Disability (TPSID). According to the 2013 study from UMass Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion, in two years, 792 students enrolled in college through the TPSID program. Of those, 236 found jobs. Prior to the program, 45 percent of those students had never held a paying job before. In Massachusetts, doors are beginning to open. Earlier this summer, I went to an end-of-the-year reception at Bridgewater State University, where students with developmental disabilities showed off their work from the past school year. These students were enrolled in Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment (ICE), a program that allows students ages 18 to 22 who have significant disabilities and did not pass MCAS, to enroll in college classes alongside their non-disabled peers. The program is still small - only about 40 students participated per semester last school year in Massachusetts. But the students who participate have opportunities that were never before available to them. Students who participate in ICE have taken classes in drawing, piano, design, auto mechanics, creative writing, art history, algebra, financial literacy, and more. Through their classes, peers, and mentors they also gain life skills that increase their ability to live more empowered, independent, and inclusive lives in our society. Due to increased independence, investment in ICE pays for itself because these individuals require fewer state supports in their adult lives. Read more: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/x1275649644/Sannicandro-State-helping-open-doors-for-developmentally-disabled#ixzz2opdogTP0