Why HS/HT
Statistics
2010 Florida High School/High Tech Statistics:
During the 2009-2010 school year, the Florida High School/High Tech (HS/HT) Program served 1,559 students with disabilities in 35 Florida counties. Students were provided transition services based on the five nationally recognized evidence-based Guideposts for Success: School-Based Preparatory Experiences, Career Preparation & Work-Based Learning, Connecting Activities, Youth Leadership & Development, and Family Involvement & Supports.
The Florida HS/HT Impact:
- The Florida HS/HT Program experienced a high school dropout rate of less than 1%.
- 86% of Florida HS/HT graduates entered postsecondary education or employment (unduplicated) as compared to the Florida Department of Education rate of 50% of graduates with disabilities (unduplicated).*
- Florida HS/HT students entered postsecondary education at over three times the rate of other Florida graduates with disabilities. Approximately 74% of Florida HS/HT graduates entered postsecondary education after graduation compared to only 24% of other graduates with disabilities in Florida.*
- Services were provided in 105 schools and alternative education settings including but not limited to foster care group homes and Department of Juvenile Justice facilities.
- 169 high school students (representing all grades) secured employment.
- Disability diversity of enrolled students includes: autism spectrum disorder, 6%; attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 9%; emotional disturbance, 6%; hearing impairment including deafness, 1%; intellectual disability, 10%; other health impairment, 5%; orthopedic impairment, 3%; specific learning disability, 53%; speech or language impairment, 5%; traumatic brain injury, 1%; visual impairment including blindness, 1%.
*Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services. (2010). 2010 SEA Profile. Retrieved July 20, 2010 from, http://www.fldoe.org/ese/pdf/2010lea/SEA.
Facts about Youth with Disabilities
While some youth with disabilities have attained successful careers without participating in a transition program, most do not have such a positive experience. A number of facts clearly demonstrate the need to improve transition outcomes for students with disabilities:
- Youth with disabilities, especially those with significant disabilities, often experience poor educational outcomes and desolate prospects for work
- One out of five adults with disabilities has not graduated from high school, compared to less than one out of 10 adults without disabilities
- 57.6 percent of youth with severe emotional disturbances and 36 percent of youth with learning disabilities drop out of high school
- Only 14 percent of youth with disabilities attend postsecondary school, as compared to 53 percent of youth in the general population
- Two years after graduation, more than 70 percent of youth with disabilities are still unemployed
- Only 26 percent of working-age adults with disabilities have a job or own their own business
- People with disabilities are nearly three times more likely than people without disabilities to be living in households with total incomes of $15,000 or less
Information cited from several sources by the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation.