Special Education

Compensatory Skills is designed to provide students with individualized remediation and compensatory skills in their specific academic area(s) of need as identified through the eligibility and IEP process.

Employment Opportunities For Youth (EMPLOY) provides special education students with skills that will facilitate their entry into suitable occupations in accordance with their individual educational needs, aptitudes, and interests.

The focus of EMPLOY 1 is career awareness. Students will have opportunities to learn about their personal preferences, interests, and a variety of careers and occupations, and begin to build their self-advocacy skills.

Employment Opportunities For Youth (EMPLOY) provides special education students with skills that will facilitate their entry into suitable occupations in accordance with their individual educational needs, aptitudes, and interests.

The focus of EMPLOY 2 is the development of employability and life management skills. Students are provided opportunities to develop communication skills, independent living skills, personal/social skills, and job search and retention skills.

Employment Opportunities For Youth (EMPLOY) provides special education students with skills that will facilitate their entry into suitable occupations in accordance with their individual educational needs, aptitudes, and interests.

EMPLOY 3 is a two-period class with periods scheduled back-to-back. The focus for EMPLOY 3 is to reinforce and enrich the goals of EMPLOY 1 and EMPLOY 2, as well as vocational exploration and the development of marketable job skills through the completion of an unpaid internship.

Employment Opportunities For Youth (EMPLOY) provides special education students with skills that will facilitate their entry into suitable occupations in accordance with their individual educational needs, aptitudes, and interests.

The focus of EMPLOY 4 is to provide students with an opportunity to apply their self-awareness, employability, self-advocacy, and life management skills in order to obtain and retain employment. During the school year, students complete a minimum of 396 hours of competitive employment.

PWCS partners with community businesses to provide opportunities for student explorers to discover their interests, preferences, and potential for successful postsecondary employment outcomes. Explorers spend most of their day engaged in work-based learning activities that provide opportunities for hands-on exploration of their career interests and preferences. In addition to acquiring marketable job skills, students learn to manage and meet the demands of competitive work, as well as develop the soft skills required of the 21st century workplace, such as responsibility, self-confidence, team-spiritedness, a good work attitude, and self-motivation and management. 

Learning Strategies 1 is designed to provide students with direct and explicit instruction on how to acquire new information, how to study, and how to express their thoughts. Students may begin to explore a variety of research-based strategies and programs and/or informal strategies that will enable the student to experience success in high school.

The focus of Life Skills is to enhance the student's social, emotional, and academic success. Students will develop and enhance communication skills, organizational/study techniques, and social intervention skills. Stress management techniques will also be taught. The students will participate in the development of a transition plan and explore skills needed for employment/post-secondary education as well as for learning and self-advocacy.

This course can replace Economics and Personal Finance as a graduation requirement for any student whose Individual Education Program (IEP) indicates eligibility for the Credit Accommodation. This course addresses the need for students to have the skills to manage personal finances and to make sound financial decisions.

The Prince William Project SEARCH is a collaborative effort between PWCS, DARS, and Didlake Inc. The Project SEARCH Transition-to-Work Program is a unique, business-led, one-year employment preparation program that takes place entirely at the workplace. Total workplace immersion facilitates a seamless combination of classroom instruction, career exploration, and hands-on training through worksite internships. Students participate in three 10-12-week unpaid internships at the Novant UVA Health Systems, Prince William Medical Center.

This course will provide students with direct instruction in specific social skills using research- and evidence-based programs and strategies. The purpose of this course is to increase academic achievement through the teaching and remediation of social skills. When completed, students will be able to demonstrate appropriate behavior in changing environments, effective communication skills, positive relationships with others, project a positive self-image, and utilize social skills in the learning process. This course may be used to satisfy the sequential elective requirement.

This course will provide students with direct instruction in a higher level of specific social skills than introduced in Social Skills 1, including anger control and decision making. The purpose of this course is to increase academic achievement through the teaching and refining of social skills. Students will be able to demonstrate appropriate behavior in changing environments, effective communication skills, positive relationships with others, project a positive self-image, and utilize social skills in the learning process. This course may be used to satisfy the sequential elective requirement.

This course is intended to address the vocational needs of middle and high school students participating in the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program. Course proficiencies can contribute in the development of the student's transition plan. Pre-vocational and vocation tasks will be the fundamental areas of instruction. The focus of this course, Transitional Work Skills, is to provide students with opportunities to develop competencies required for increased independence and to facilitate post-secondary employment. This course will be open to any student who is receiving special education services at the middle and high school level whose Individualized Education Program (IEP) indicates the need for vocational skills, to include students with disabilities who are English learners.