In a recent Daily Breeze article, Rob Kuzinia reported on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) having increased their focus on vocational training for special needs students. He shared the story of Claudia, an obese teenager with developmental disabilities who had a habit of acting out at her school by dropping to the floor and refusing to move for hours. However, when her school started a nail salon where the students perform manicures for each other as well as paying customers, her behaviors have all but disappeared.

Claudia is a student at Banneker Special Education Center, which, along with its sister school, the Doyle Career and Transitional Center in Gardena, is part of a new focus of the Los Angeles Unified School District on further assisting students with special needs in obtaining vocational skills along the road to independence.

The school district is implementing a model in which all of it’s 8,000 students with moderate-to-severe disabilities receive some sort of vocational training.

To read more of this article go to: Schools for students with special needs
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