Employment Resources

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During an IEP meeting with one of my intellectually
disabled senior students, the parent inquired about what the child could do
now that he was graduating in May. The parent asked, “Where do we go from
here?” My heart dropped because I did not have an answer for this very
concerned parent. Though it is the special education teacher’s responsibility
to get the child organized for graduation, I took it upon myself to get this
parent some answers. In my committed search this is what I found.

Every graduating senior should be
paired with a counselor from the Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS).
The counselor will then begin the process of getting the student ready for the
workforce with the Transition
School to Work program.

Oklahoma Department
of Rehabilitation Services

Training Resources

http://www.ok.gov/odc/Employment/Training_Resources/

Main office (Tulsa)
– (918) 581-2301

DRS Counselors

Diana Wall- (918) 508-2610

Barbara White- (918) 508-2609

The
transition school to work program will find out what interests your child and
what motivates them. They use different checklists and questionnaires to make
sure they are matching your child up with the right job.

Transition School to Work

http://www.okrehab.org/seekers/seekers-transition.htm

http://www.okrehab.org/info/publications/Transition/Transition.pdf

http://www.okrehab.org/info/publications/Transition/Transition_Checklist.pdf

Oklahoma Transition
Institute (local team members)

Owasso Area- Esther Watkins (918) 508-2608

Broken Arrow- John Hilborn (918) 259-4540 johnhilborn@cox.net

Greater Tulsa
Area- Leesa Nelson-Whitlow (918) 746-6326 whitlle@tulsaschools.org

Council Members

http://zarrowcenter.ou.edu/teams/oklahoma-transition-council-members/

These two places hire through the
DRS program. They seem to be very rewarding and also pay very well.

Goodwill Industries