Top Takeaways Fresno County has restructured its vocational training model for students with disabilities. Students now gain work experience across multiple industries. The program even trains them to become teacher’s aides in special education classes. After a recent morning rush at a Fresno Grocery Outlet, 22-year-old Elena Santos moved down each aisle to return misplaced food items to their proper places. She brought vitamins to the front of the shelves and neatly arranged hygiene products.These tasks were once difficult for her because of a cognitive disability. Santos struggles to process things, especially when overwhelmed. Knowing where to find items makes her life easier, which is what she has been doing for customers since she started gaining hands-on experience at the grocery store in October. Santos is one of the dozens of teens and young adults with disabilities working in local businesses as employees and schools as teachers’ aides through a Fresno County program that is rethinking how vocational education prepares students for the workforce. Over the past two years, Fresno County Office of Education officials have overhauled their vocational training model for students with intellectual, emotional or cognitive disabilities. There are students with varying degrees of autism and also those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The focus now is on putting students in businesses, a move away from operating a modified workplace as was done in the past. The goal of the county’s Career Adventure Program is to prepare students for competitive employment and change the perception of individuals…
