High School Special Education

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 and 2 are 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 prepare students who access the adapted curriculum to participate in the community and grow independence. Students will develop and enhance communication skills, organizational/study techniques, and social intervention skills. Students learn to care for their personal needs, clothing, the household, and to prepare nutritious meals. 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 builds student independence and prepares them for post-secondary life.

Methods of Study 1-4 are elective courses designed to provide general skill development in organization and study skills in addition to providing specialized instruction in a small group for each student’s specific areas of need as outlined through the eligibility and IEP processes. Students may also receive remediation and support of content coursework and may be provided necessary time to complete assignments and assessments.

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.

Reading Strategies 1-4 are cumulative elective courses that use research-based strategies and curricula to directly address reading areas of need as identified in student IEP goals. Areas addressed include phonics/decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Social Skills I - IV are elective courses that provide students with specialized instruction in the social skills they need to effectively participate in the school environment and in the community. Specific skills are identified through IEP goals and are addressed through research-based strategies and curricula.

This course is intended to address the vocational needs of 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 high school level whose Individualized Education Program (IEP) indicates the need for vocational skills, to include students with disabilities who are English learners.