Iowa's High School Super Senior School-to-Work Transition Program

This article describes an innovative school-to-work transition program incorporating identified best practices. Iowa's Super Senior program serves students in the "middle range" of the disability severity spectrum during the student's senior and 5th, or "Super Senior" year. The article describes the program elements, presents outcome data, describes the funding mechanism used to sustain the program after the initial federal grant and offers recommendations for transition practice. Iowa's High School Super Senior program has three central elements: (1) Person-Centered Career Planning--where family members, friends and professionals come together to help a student identify their skills, interests, support needs, ideal job match action plan to reach their career goals; (2) Multiple, short-term vocational experiences to help students develop/refine their goals; and (3) Extended Internships and Ongoing Support--during the student's "Super" senior year to develop work skills and employer/co-worker connections that will result satisfying employment that can be maintained into adulthood. 153 students entered Super Seniors 2001 through 2004-05. Of those, 85% participated in the program for at least two years. Of the 153 students served and 125 who completed two program years, 116 exited school with paid employment, with 68 (59%) obtaining full-time jobs and 50% receiving employer benefits. The 116 employed students represented 76% of all participants and 84% of those who completed two or more program years as intended under the model. The employment outcomes for students who completed at least two years in the program were far superior to those who only participated in one year. Specifically, 84% of those who exited after two or more years were employed and only 39% of the students who chose not to complete two years in the program exited school with jobs. In comparison to program entry, students who were employed at program exit increased their hours worked an average of 394% (6.4 hrs. to 31.4 hrs./ week), increased hourly wages by 240% ($2.33 to $7.93/hour) and monthly wages by 612% ($159 to $1,133/month). (Contains 4 tables.)