The Transition Program

Bryan Angeles, News Journalist

The transition program is a helping hand at Grant Community High School led by Joree Morris, a special education teacher here at Grant, for students in special education who have finished four years in high school and need help with independent living and job skills. The students that are in the program range from ages 18-21. 

The students begin their day at 8:30 AM, either by going to work or meeting in Room 192. The ones that go to work in the morning work at Walmart, Antioch Pizza, Walgreens, Butera, and Olive Garden. They also work at the Maravelas across from GCHS. 

When they arrive at work they meet with a coach that guides them through the day. They work for two and a half hours before they come back and start their day here at GCHS. When they get back, they go out into the community or they practice living skills at the school.

The skills they teach in the program vary from how to help and participate in a work setting with other people to how to do their own laundry, cook their own food, and clean up after themselves. Halfway through the day they switch and the first group heads off to work and the working group comes into the classroom. They end their day at 2:30 PM. 

In the next couple of years, the program is expected to grow to up to 20 students. To accommodate the number of people coming in and freeing the space up they are currently working on expanding to a new building they recently bought. In that building, they will have a different setting but with the same accommodations as the current classroom. Additionally, the new building will have a separate kitchen, office space, classroom, gym area, and locker room. 

The transition program is valuable to our school. They help students develop skills we take for granted in our everyday lives. The program is getting them ready to live independently or in a supported living situation, therefore transitioning them into the real world.