Transportation Committee

JOINT FAVORABLE REPORT

SPONSORS OF BILL:

Committee Raised Bill

Senator Mae Flexer

Representative Orange, Representative Johnson

REASONS FOR BILL:

The bill makes it optional for Student Transportation Vehicles, when transporting students age 18 to 21 who, as part of an individualized education program are taking part in community-based transportation services, to display a sign saying “Carrying School Children”

RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION/AGENCY:

None

NATURE AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT:

Senator Mae Flexer – This bill addresses a mandate required by the state Department of Education that student transportation vehicles must display large yellow signs stating “Carrying School Children” as well as large placards on the sides and rear of the vehicle stating the support agency name and phone number and vehicle fleet number.

There are concerns regarding these displays with respect to special and secondary transition education providers. The students who participate in these programs are 19-years and older – legal adults – and they do so voluntarily.

Being a student with special needs already carries with it many stigmas in our society. The yellow displays on students transportation vehicles announce the transition students are “children” and are different, undermining the notion that these students are self-motivated and capable potential employees.

She would like to see these signs and displays modified for adult learners, in order to further the mission of organizations that are working to help these students become essential members of Connecticut's workforce.

Chris McNaboe, CEO of Horizons – A Transitional Education Service provider that works with students 18 years and older – Students with special needs have battled labels and public misconceptions all of their lives. Not many people realize the skills and abilities they have until they spend time and really get to know them. Driving an adult student to a job interview in a vehicle marked CARRYING SCHOOL CHILDREN does not convey ability. It labels them, one more time as different and does not support the fact that they are adults.

Let's not label and limit the transition students as they are sent off into adult jobs and

lives.

Elisa Velardo, Executive Director, Vinfen CT - In late July 2014, their agency received an email from the State DOE stating regulations which must be followed when transporting students who have an IEP. One regulation mandates that any vehicles used in transporting these students must be marked with large yellow “CARRYING SCHOOL CHILDREN” signs on the top of vehicles and large placards on the sides and rear of vehicles identifying the provider agency. Their vehicles are used for students who are 18 and over who are choosing to stay in school to get transition education services to prepare them for jobs. Utilizing vehicles with such signage causes undue stigmatization of these young adults. Vinfen also feels that this does a disservice to these students as well as the other individuals already in their program.

It is their belief that these signs have little public safety value and serve to differentiate transition education students from other students and employees in the workplace, thus taking them away from the mission and philosophy of their agency to treat people with intellectual disabilities with the same respect and opportunities that we all enjoy.

James Oliver, Transition Education Specialist with Horizons – Their instruction is geared towards helping students acquire job skills and aims to assist them with bending into the workforce. These students frequently feel extreme anxiety about receiving supports, because their past experiences in school and in the community left them ostracized from peers and adults because they are branded disabled.

Horizon's opposes the necessity for signage on the top, sides, and rear of the agencies vehicles. These signs have little public safety value and only serve to differentiate transition education students from other students and employees in the workplace.

They ask for passage of SB 487 in order to empower transition education students by removing labels and by increasing their opportunities for employment.

Susan Desrosiers, Executive Director, Arc Quinebaug Valley –Urges support for the bill so that individuals in their programs can transition into employment in the same manner as typical students.

Casey Lenihan, Teacher with Horizons, along with Students, Heidi, Tim, Alex, and Morgan (transition education students who receive supports from Horizons on Eastern Connecticut State University's campus). The students wanted to explain their reasons for opposing the new requirements and support for this bill. Ms. Lenihan relinquished the floor to them and in their own words:

Heidi – “ We have disabilities, we don't need a sign to prove it. It's an appearance to those who see the sign on campus. They may think that we are different and always need help. We use skills that we have now so we can be independent now and in the future. We go to college classes/atmosphere, we don't need the sign on it to make us feel we aren't like one of them”.

Tim – “Carrying school children signs are degrading in my opinion. I am looked at as a legal adult by the government. I graduated high school, and I can vote. Children aren't able to vote because their frontal lobe is not fully developed therefore they do not make fully educated decisions. I am 19 my frontal lobe is indeed fully developed therefore I can make well thought out, educated decisions. I have been picked on because of the fact that I was in special Ed, because I was called out of class to do things that the other student didn't have to do. A big reason was because I was driven in by a van with a sign on it that read “carrying school children.” It's hard to maintain a good self-esteem when everyone looks at you like you are unequal and that sign on top of our van pretty much amplifies the fact that we have a “disability”. In conclusion, I have a disability, I don't even like to think of it as a disability, to me it's just an obstacle. I have to work harder to do things but that does not in any way, shape or form mean that I am a child. In fact, I think the fact that we admit to having a disability and the fact that we have to work a little harder on things is a pretty adult like thing to do.”

Alex - “Everyone is 18 years or older. Children don't vote because they are held to different standards and they might not understand how to vote or what they are voting for. We do not attend high school; we are in a post-secondary vocational program at a college. I have professional, adult expectations when I work with the maintenance crew. I don't need a sign to make me seem different because it degrades my appearance at college.”

Morgan – “We don't need the sign on our transportation because we are over eighteen and go to a college transition program. We are part of the Transition Partnership thought Horizons. We are all different including myself; but nobody likes to be treated that way.”

NATURE AND SOURCES OF OPPOSITION:

None