This Executive Order establishes the State Community Engagement Implementation Task Force to support the efforts of individuals seeking community engagement activities, education or employment. It includes representatives from the South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, the state's Protection and Advocacy system and the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs.
This bill requires the State Board of Education, in collaboration with the Vocational Rehabilitation Department and other stakeholders, to develop criteria for a uniform state-recognized employability credential aligned to the program of study for students with a disability whose IEP team determines that a diploma pathway would not provide a free appropriate public education. This includes developing a rubric and guidelines to identify and assess the employability skills of the students, based on appropriate standards.
This program helps adults with serious, long-term mental illness find and maintain employment.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Department of Mental Health
Entity Type: State Agency / Office
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
This six- to eight-week paid pre-apprenticeship training program provides a career path for individuals who are blind or visually impaired into employer-based apprenticeships or direct placement. The program includes work readiness development, job shadowing, and a Job Club experience.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Commission for the Blind
Entity Type: State Agency / Office
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
The Business Enterprise Program helps people who are blind become food service or vending operators.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Commission for the Blind
Entity Type: State Agency / Office
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
This program coordinates services to help individuals with disabilities and their families navigate and facilitate enrollment in the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs services.
Operating Entity: The Arc of South Carolina
Entity Type: Non-Profit / Community Organization
Topic(s): Connecting Activities
This program includes a Masters of Arts in Counseling and Rehabilitation, with a specialization in clinical rehabilitation counseling, as well as a Certificate of Graduate Study in Psychiatric Rehabilitation.
Operating Entity: University of South Carolina, School of Medicine
Entity Type: College / University
This program provides a range of independent living services to people with disabilities at Centers for Independent Living across the state. Services include help connecting to local services, assistance with job searches, local transit skills training, assistive technology help, peer mentoring support, assistance with school-to-career transitions, self-advocacy help, and more.
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
IMPACT is a state-wide self-advocacy council for South Carolina, whose members present and attend statewide and national conferences and represent South Carolina by participating in various committees. The Council provides information, training, and leadership opportunities to enhance self-advocacy for people with disabilities, and promotes the development of local self-advocacy groups in the state.
Operating Entity: University of South Carolina, Center for Disability Resources
Entity Type: College / University
Topic(s): Youth Development & Leadership
This program provides five comprehensive transition programs in the state, which help individuals with intellectual disabilities advance their academic and independent living skills in a college environment. These are Carolina LIFE, Clemson LIFE, Coastal Carolina LIFE, College of Charleston REACH, and Winthrop Think College. Counselors from the Vocational Rehabilitation Department monitor progress and assist with transition planning as students approach program completion.
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
This program supports Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resource Centers in 12 southern states. Services include one-to-one consultations, trainings and webinars, peer-to-peer mentoring, site visits, non-profit management tools, and more.
Operating Entity: Parent to Parent of Georgia
Entity Type: Non-Profit / Community Organization
These programs offer students with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to take college classes, engage in career development and independent living activities, and participate in the social life of a college campus.
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
Project SEARCH is a one-year transition-to-work program for students with significant disabilities that includes classroom instruction, career exploration, and internship rotations. It is a collaboration between local businesses, state agencies, local school systems, and other entities, and is offered at several locations.
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
The program offers two Rehabilitation Counseling Training (RCT) tracks; one leads to a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling, with a focus on school-to-work transition and career assessment, and the other provides a certificate of completion in school-to-work transition and career assessment for rehabilitation counseling professionals.
Operating Entity: South Carolina State University, School of Graduate Studies
Entity Type: College / University
This statewide system is designed to improve employment recruitment, retention, and advancement for South Carolinians with disabilities, including by raising awareness, supporting systems that improve outcome for people with disabilities, disseminating information, and collecting data. Partners include the Vocational Rehabilitation Department, the state's Centers for Independent Living, and a range of other state agencies and offices.
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
Topic(s): Systems Coordination
This program is designed to improve educational achievement and outcomes for children who are deaf-blind, by providing technical assistance and training to service providers and expanding supports to children who are deaf-blind and their families, including during the transition to postsecondary education or employment.
Operating Entity: South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind
Entity Type: Other
This program provides blind and visually impaired high school and college students the opportunity to gain work experience during an eight-week summer internship with a local business. Participants receive a stipend after successful completion of the program.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Commission for the Blind
Entity Type: State Agency / Office
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
This program provides youth who are blind or visually impaired with meaningful work experience and career exploration, while reinforcing their adjustment to blindness. The curriculum includes orientation and mobility training, vocational evaluation, braille training, and more.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Commission for the Blind
Entity Type: State Agency / Office
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
TASC provides training, professional development, technical assistance, information, and support to help local communities build capacity to support youth with disabilities who are transitioning from school to adult life. It is spearheaded by the Center for Disability Resources (CDR) at the University of South Carolina and is comprised of 16 partner entities (including state agencies, school districts, and community organizations).
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
This program provides educational and career guidance for youth ages 13-21 who are blind or visually impaired. Services focus on job counseling, technology assistance, college information, and more.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Commission for the Blind
Entity Type: State Agency / Office
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
This program help out-of-school and in-school youth with one or more barriers to employment (including having a disability) prepare for and secure employment and postsecondary education opportunities. Services include tutoring; work experiences; occupational skills training; leadership development opportunities; and postsecondary education and training preparation activities.
Operating Entity: --
Entity Type: Multi-Stakeholder Project
This program provides workshops for youth with disabilities and their families focusing on a range of topics, including Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), self-determination, employment hard and soft skills, and more.
Operating Entity: AccessAbility
Entity Type: Non-Profit / Community Organization
This program includes peer-to-peer young adult leadership groups and forums, transition services delivered in partnership with schools, as well as professional development opportunities for educators and service providers.
Operating Entity: Able South Carolina
Entity Type: Non-Profit / Community Organization
This program helps prepare youth with disabilities for their transitions to work and adulthood. It includes a youth transitions program and a Peer Support Group for young adults ages 18 to 24.
Operating Entity: Walton Options
Entity Type: Non-Profit / Community Organization
Topic(s): Career Prep & Work-Based Learning
This document, which gives overall guidelines for South Carolina public schools returning to in-person instruction, also outlines the process for updating IEPs for the 2020-21 school year. It asks guiding questions for whether schools should make additional accommodations for IEP students, and specifies the importance of continued virtual, hybrid, and in-person options, based on the student's needs.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Department of Education
Topic(s): Distance Learning, IEP
This list of resources created in response to the pandemic includes links to national resources related to social-emotional and mental health and various resources for parents to help with distance learning and learning supports.
Operating Entity: South Carolina School Improvement Council
Topic(s): Mental Health
This list of resources includes material created in response to COVID-19 about coping with loss and grief, quarantine and isolation.
Operating Entity: University of South Carolina
Topic(s): Mental Health
This webpage gives general tips about what to do when feeling anxious or stressed due to the pandemic. It also links to a questionnaire with the option to talk with a counselor, national mental health resources and other local department mental health resources.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
Topic(s): Mental Health
The South Carolina Department of Mental Health and the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services started a statewide hotline for individuals who might need mental health or substance use support services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Operating Entity: SC Hopes
Topic(s): Mental Health
This Office of Student Intervention Services facilitated a series of trainings to help school staff and families address mental and behavioral health challenges for students in response to the pandemic. These trainings covered suicide awareness, addressing impacts of trauma and recognizing signs of stress.
Operating Entity: South Carolina Department of Education
Topic(s): Mental Health