Written by Mark Payne, LINK nky politics and government reporter
Under a bipartisan Senate bill, students with intellectual disabilities seeking access to funds to attend higher education institutions will be able to under the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship.
Senate Bill 94, co-sponsored by Senators Danny Carroll (R-Benton) and Dennis Parrett (D-Elizabethtown), would add an amendment to the current Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS 164.787) that says “and, for students with intellectual disabilities enrolled in a comprehensive transition and postsecondary programs, affordable access to meaningful credentials to prepare for competitive integrated employment.”
The bill passed the Senate Standing Committee on Education and will head to the Senate floor for a full vote.
“The basic point of the bill is just to allow these students access to the Work Ready Scholarship,” Carroll said. “It ties it into the CTP program, the standards it gives three years for those students to complete the program. It’s important that you understand that this program is geared toward those students gaining employment.
“It helps to allow these students to attend college with the purpose of employment in the long run,” Carroll said.
The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship’s revenue comes from the Kentucky Lottery. It allows potential students to enter short-term programs that aim to get them ready for employment. With one of the lowest educational attainment rates in the country at 49.1 percent, the Work Ready Scholarship seeks to help those looking to enter career fields in manufacturing, healthcare, construction, logistics, IT, or business.
The bill would support students in Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary programs developed by the University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute.
CTP programs support students with intellectual disabilities who hope to further their education or receive career instruction from a higher ed institution. They help find these potential students employment and independent living.
“These are programs that have been through an approval process with the United States Department of Education, and as a result of that, they can offer access to federal student aid,” HDI Deputy Director Johnny Collett said.
The focus of HDI is to enhance and improve current programs, but they also focus on potential colleges and universities. Since 2010, these programs have served roughly 100 students, with nearly 66 percent completing the program. The data from 2019-2020 shows that the six-year graduation rate for college students in Kentucky was around 56 percent, according to Collett, “so when we take a look at students with intellectual disabilities entering these programs, it appears they have a comparable persistence rate.”
“Based are on our most recent data, we know that only about six percent of students with intellectual disabilities who exit Kentucky high schools are enrolled in college or university in the year that follows,” Collett said. HDI serves as the center of this work, but other partners in the program include Northern Kentucky University, Murray State University, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College.
The General Assembly took similar action for KEES money for these students in 2013 and 2016.
