KU given $1.5M grant to focus on adult independence for teens with disabilities

LAWRENCE -- The Beach Center on Disability and the University of Kansas Center on Developmental Disabilities (KUCDD) have received a $1.5 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant will support research on the impact of promoting self-determination in teenagers with disabilities on their transition to independent adulthood.

Michael Wehmeyer, KUCDD director and Beach Center associate director, will lead the five-year study, funded by the Education Department's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

"We know that after high school, young people with disabilities are less likely to be employed, live independently or continue their education," Wehmeyer said. "Developing self-determination -- problem-solving, decision-making and goal-setting -- can give them control over their lives."

Wehmeyer said that a recent Government Accounting Office report confirmed that even though the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates that young people with disabilities receive transition services in high school, the quality of those services varies.

"There is very little empirical knowledge about the impact of self-determination on adult success," he said.

Wehmeyer's research will help solve this problem. The Beach Center and the KUCDD, along with the Center on Self-Determination at the Oregon Health Sciences University, will test several existing self-determination programs and approaches in Kansas, Texas and Oregon high schools, working through special education teachers.

A total of 694 high school students with mild to severe disabilities, some from foster or juvenile justice systems, will participate in three studies that will continue for up to three years.

During and after the studies, Wehmeyer's group will share findings with the key stakeholder groups of parents, teachers and policy-makers.

"We anticipate that students who get intensive instruction on self-determination will achieve more positive adult outcomes such as finding employment and living independently," he said. "Policy-makers can use the information to incorporate self-determination instruction into the high school curriculum."

The Beach Center on Disability and the KU Center on Developmental Disabilities are among the 12 research centers affiliated with the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, one of the largest research and development centers for the prevention and treatment of disabilities in the country.