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REACH for Self-Determination
by Cynthia Wetmiller

Principles of Self-Determination:

1) Freedom to live a meaningful life in the community
2) Authority over dollars needed for support
3) Support to organize resources in ways that are life enhancing and meaningful
4) Responsibility for the wise use of public dollars
5) Confirmation of the important leadership that self advocates must hold in a newly designed system

According to the Center for Self-Determination, the above five principles are essential if persons with disabilities are to have a full say in how their lives are lived. Recently, as I was researching the issue of self-determination, I pondered what role service-learning could play in helping students with disabilities learn more about what it means to live a self-determined life.

Over the years, numerous special education teachers have shared stories with the PSLA about the difference service-learning has made in helping students with disabilities become more self-confident, socially engaged, self-disciplined, civically engaged and vocal about their needs and the needs of other persons with disabilities. Such self-determination is integral to the teaching methodology of service-learning. While service-learning can hardly be considered a panacea for the lack of self-determination, it certainly is worth considering as a transition strategy in the IEPs developed for students with disabilities.
Service-learning is “student-driven.” Since students determine most aspects of the service-learning project, they determine a path that will further their education and create a positive change in the community. In service-learning projects, the teacher does not decide what community needs will be met by the students or make arrangements for community agencies to assist the students with the project. Instead, students develop a project that meets a need they want to meet in their community, while they learn a skill or develop an understanding about an educational concept essential to the curriculum.

Last year at the Council for Exceptional Children conference in New York City, I attended a workshop that focused on student-driven IEPs. The researchers and teachers that led the workshop explored various outcomes that are possible when students with disabilities were given a vested interest in their IEP. At this workshop, teachers were encouraged to have their students determine who would attend the IEP meetings, what would be on the agenda, and what the goals of the IEP should be. Many teachers were shocked that such a strategy would even be suggested, let alone be taken seriously by researchers. The same look of disbelief that I saw on the faces of many teachers in that workshop is the same expression I have seen on the faces of teachers I’ve encountered in service-learning workshops when the issue of student-driven service-learning was discussed. Teachers new to the teaching methodology of service-learning are often unwilling to even consider letting students, whether they have a disability or not, develop a community needs assessment, contact community agencies, determine the nature and scope of the service project and how the project will be a part of their grade or IEP. However, once teachers understand the importance of making service-learning projects student-driven, they begin to make the connections between service-learning and many of the curriculum and/or IEP goals and objectives, especially those relating to transition.

The REACH Chart, a training tool developed by the PSLA, helps special education teachers and students with disabilities develop meaningful service-learning projects that meet and achieve IEP goals and objectives. Just as there are five principles of self-determination, there are five essential elements of the REACH Chart:

1) Research community needs and issues
2) Educate others and yourself
3) Act positively to create community changed
4) Connect service with the curriculum and the community
5) Help others and yourself

Throughout the next five issues of the Special Ed Update, I will examine the relationship between the REACH model and the principles of self-determination. Starting with the next issue, I will examine the self-determination aspects of the “Research” phase of service-learning. Until then, reflect upon the service-learning projects implemented in your classroom over the last few years and consider the many ways service-learning has helped to promote the self-determination of your students.