Fall 2017 - Human Development Institute - Research Brief - A Statewide Community Conversation about Post-School Employment for Kentucky Youth with the Most Significant Disabilities

Oct 15, 2026

Research Brief updates work of the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky on post-school employment for Kentucky youth with the most significant disabilities. It reviews persistent employment challenges despite federal attention, citing graduation-to-work rates and differences by disability severity. It summarizes Kentucky Post-Secondary Outcomes Center findings and long-term implications of employment. It also introduces the five-year KentuckyWorks systems change grant, its partners, objectives, and the asset-based Community Conversations approach to improve outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Background

KentuckyWorks

Community Conversations

Fall 2017 Human Development Institute • University of Kentucky RESEARCHBRIEF An update on HDI’s research in the field of developmental disabilities A Statewide Community Conversation about Post-School Employment for Kentucky Youth with the Most Significant Disabilities Chithra Adams, Harold Kleinert, Kathy Sheppard-Jones, Amanda Corbin & Malachy Bishop Background Young adults with disabilities face multiple challenges in obtaining successful post-school employment outcomes. This situation has remained relatively unchanged despite nearly 25 years of federal attention to the issue, including mandated transition services and a series of additional significant legislative responses. Recent research by Carter, Austin, and Trainor (2012) highlighted the severity of the situation, showing that “just 26% of recent graduates with severe disabilities were working for pay in their community up to 2 years after leaving high school” and 43% of those who were employed “held jobs in which most other workers had disabilities”(Carter et al., 2016, p. 398) . These findings are consistent with earlier research. For example, in the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 report, Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Garza, and Levine (2005) reported that among former students with disabilities, 70% had engaged in paid employment since leaving high school, but only 40% remained employed at the time of follow-up interview. This was compared to a 63% employment rate among their peers without disabilities. These outcomes are mirrored in data analyzed for the KY Department of Education by the Kentucky Post-Secondary Outcomes Center (KyPSO), in the University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute (HDI) . The KyPSO Center collects data annually on post-school outcomes for Kentucky students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) . KyPSO data suggest that among former KY students with significant intellectual (moderate and severe intellectual) disabilities who left school after the 2013-2014 school year, only 11.1% engaged in competitive employment, just 2.6% enrolled in higher education, and 58.6% reported being not engaged in any post-school activities. Among former students with multiple disabilities, only 16.8% engaged in competitive employment, 6.3% in higher education, and 47.4% were notengaged in any activity. Fig. 1: Post-School Outcomes for Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities and Multiple Disabilities These employment outcomes have important long-term consequences. Employment is referred to as a “linchpin indicator”, because of its central relationship to other life outcomes, including long-term social, health, and economic indicators. Having a job is itself linked to a higher quality of life, a sense of self-worth and greater levels of selfdetermination (Antosh et al., 2013), and is a key factor in breaking the cycle of poverty for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Nye-Lengerman & Nord, 2016) . KentuckyWorks KentuckyWorks is a five-year systems change grant project designed to directly impact post-school outcomes for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Kentucky. KentuckyWorks is a collaborative, multipartner project, including HDI (the University of Kentucky’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental continued inside | Disabilities Research, Education, and Training), the KY Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), the KY Department of Education, the KY Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, KY Protection & Advocacy, KY Office for the Blind, the Commonwealth Council on Developmental Disabilities, the KY Office of Autism, and the KY Autism Training Center. The project’s aim is to impact youth outcomes within each of the state’s 174 school districts, and the target population is defined as all KY transition-age students with disabilities with the IDEA classifications of Moderate or Severe Intellectual Disability, Autism, and M

FAQs

What employment outcomes are reported for Kentucky students with significant intellectual disabilities after leaving school?

KyPSO data indicate that among former KY students with significant intellectual disabilities leaving after the 2013–2014 school year, 11.1% engaged in competitive employment, 2.6% enrolled in higher education, and 58.6% reported not being engaged in any post-school activities.

How do outcomes differ for students with multiple disabilities?

For former students with multiple disabilities, 16.8% engaged in competitive employment, 6.3% in higher education, and 47.4% were not engaged in any post-school activity.

What is the KentuckyWorks project designed to achieve, and what is its core approach?

KentuckyWorks is a five-year systems change grant aiming to increase positive post-school outcomes for youth with the IDEA classifications of Moderate or Severe Intellectual Disability, Autism, and Multiple Disabilities by 20 percentage points over five years. It emphasizes Community Conversations, an asset-based approach intended to generate and inform efforts to improve employment outcomes by engaging employers, civic groups, community leaders, families, and others.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by WPS_1786070896