Helping special-needs students find jobs before they leave school

Wesley Steele loves working with flowers and plants. That is all he ever wanted to do once he graduated from Newark High School and received vocational training. Today, he is living his dream, working in the garden center at Lowe’s near Newark, Delaware, in a position he has held since last April—before he finished school.

Finding a good job after high school used to be much more difficult for special-needs students such as Steele, because they would do a lot of preparation and then have to wait around for a job. But a statewide program called Early Start to Supported Employment helps smooth the move from school to the workplace.

The idea behind Early Start, which started as a pilot project three years ago and became standard procedure this school year, has been to get employable special-needs students involved in finding suitable jobs a year and a half before they turn 21 and leave their formal schooling behind. Read more in The News Journal online.