United States Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon refused to defend her department’s decision in February to cancel a federal grant program for disabled teens, which enabled them to transition from high school to adulthood.
On the U.S. House floor, Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath demanded that McMahon explain the decision, but she insisted that she cannot remember every grant program that has been cancelled.
Charting My Path for Future Success allowed 1,600 high school juniors with disabilities in 13 school districts in Virginia, Georgia, Arizona and other states to learn skills for life after high school, either college or the workforce, as reported by NPR.
The research-based project, according to U.S. Department of Education Spokesperson Madi Biedermann was started “with questionable implementation” and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found that more than 50 percent of the program’s $43 million went to contractors, not the teens. A DOGE review of the program revealed “a questionable $600,000 payment for the main contractor to provide consulting services to a low performing subcontractor.”
By federal law, American high schools must provide transition planning for teens with disabilities before they graduate high school.
The goal of Charting My Path was to enable high schools to learn more about what works for students in transition planning. The 1,600 students were divided into three groups. A control group received pre-existing transition support from their school districts, or the basic help required by federal law. A second group received basic supports and attended a Charting My Path class with research-based curriculum. Students discussed their interests and life ambitions and worked in small groups on setting goals with a specially-trained instructor.
According to Newton, Mass. teacher John Curley, the program interested students and they led the way with the program while the adults involved followed.
In the third group, students received the most support available, such as students received in the first and second groups, but also one-on-one mentoring in their junior and senior years and more frequent family check-in appointments.
If continued, the program would have provided services for students until they graduated high school and collected data at least through 2028. The program was developed based on research that students with disabilities are more likely to be employed after high school when they receive quality transition services.
“They’re more likely to be enrolled in post-secondary education, and they’re more likely to identify that they have a higher quality of life,” Catherine Fowler, a special education researcher at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who was involved with the program since its contract began in 2019, said.
Charting My Path was considered one of the most promising, research-based services for building self-determination skills of students by working on their setting goals and creating plans to achieve their goals.
A PowerPoint presentation by one of the districts that participated in the program revealed goals of attending welding school, becoming a chef, or more simple goals for students with more severe disabilities of doing laundry or using a microwave.
Students were excited and optimistic about their futures.
“I was really overwhelmed with how quickly students responded to these interventions and how devastated they were when it was abruptly taken away,” Curley said.
Charting My Path’s primary vendor was the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group, which told NPR that the DOE had repeatedly affirmed it was satisfied with the research group’s work on the program. The DOE approved the rates set by AIR before the program began.
DOGE reported that $5 million of the program’s $43 million was spent and that $38 million was saved by cancelling it, but program participants told NPR that nearly $20 million had already been spent.
Curley said the program gave him hope for students with disabilities and that cancelling it was a mistake.
“I think investing in students with disabilities is investing in all of us because they’re part of our community, right? They’re our brothers and sisters, our kids, our neighbors, our coworkers,” Curley told NPR.
Waynesboro and Augusta County students with disabilities have opportunities to live at the STEP Learning Lab behind Waynesboro High School, learn skills such as washing dishes and balancing a checkbook, and obtain employment in the local community.
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Rebecca Barnabi
