Partners In Progress

Brownsburg Bowl HIP Studios

Brownsburg High School's Partners In Progress program provides students with disabilities hands-on job training and experience to help them become responsible, productive employees. For the 2008/2009 school year, there were 16 young adults working at 14 local businesses. Along with job skills, students learn how to dress appropriately for work, how to interact with co-workers, how to take direction from a supervisor, load their work bus, etc. Our goal is to give these students a variety of experiences so they can grow to be as independent as possible and integrated members of society.

Listed below are a few informational tid bits about our program:

Students in the Partners In Progress program will be scheduled to take a Career Prep class one period a day taught by Miss Carter. Units covered will be tailored to each student's level. For some students, sitting in the class is not functional. In that case, Miss Carter will be scheduled to work one on one with them throughout the day on vocational tasks.
Students that want to be a part of this program must be ok with missing other classes and possible trips due to being at work. If a student wants a day off, they will be expected to fill out a "Request for Time Off" form and have his/her Job Coach and Supervisor sign off on it. If students have a cell phone and are sick that day, they will be responsible for calling work and letting them know. If the student does not have a cell phone, their job coach will call for them.
Each student will have a one on one job coach to assist in the delivery of instruction of the job task. Once we feel the student has learned the job, the job coach will slowly start fading out. Our goal is to ultimately be able to drop the student off at work and leave. If a student has a health care plan, the plan will be different and details on how that will be worked out will need to be discussed at a meeting or case conference. However, in order to get longer one on one support after school in a job setting, the student must be on a waiver. This is an important topic that will need to be discussed with the parent, student, Teacher of Record, and Transition Coordinator.
Each student will pay a fee to be in the Career Prep class. This money will go towards a collared shirt with our logo and materials they will be using throughout the year. Some students will have a work uniform provided by the employer. Some will not. If they do not have a uniform from the employer, they will be expected to wear the collared shirt with the Partners In Progress logo and khaki pants.
Students need to be encouraged by parents to communicate all needs to the Transition Coordinator, Job Coach, or Supervisor. These needs would include not enjoying the job, finding a task too difficult, the job is boring, etc. This will then lead to a deeper discussion to see what direction we need to go.
A huge emphasis is placed on attending work every time the student is scheduled. In order to make this happen, please attempt to schedule appointments around their work days and times.
If found as an appropriate activity for the student, they will participate in a token economy system to earn money as rewards for doing steps in their job accurately. This money will be recorded into his/her checkbook weekly. In order to then buy something out of the classroom store, checks must be written. This is how money skills will be incorporated. The activity will be modified to each student's level to meet their individual needs.