Students With Disabilities Get a Chance to Work for the City

Austin ISD, long criticized for its handling of special education, is now partnering with the city on a workforce program (Photo by John Anderson)

A first-of-its-kind partnership between the city of Austin and Austin ISD is in motion and could employ hundreds of students with disabilities across four city departments this fall. With help from AISD's Department of Special Education, which already matches students with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) with businesses in Austin, the city's pilot workforce program will temporarily hire students and provide them job training so they can compete for permanent city jobs in the future.

"It's my understanding that both our HR department and AISD are working to place some of those students right away. This will become yet another recruiting tool that the city of Austin can use to build a really strong workforce," said Council Member Kathie Tovo, who led the efforts to create the partnership. The program was included in Coun­cil's recently approved annual budget as a formality, but Tovo said it won't add an additional cost for the city because the job coaches are already employed by the district.

Recent history has shown that AISD's Special Education Department could use new approaches. The district has struggled with special education evaluation backlogs, which led to a lawsuit from Disability Rights Texas, and an open records request from the Chronicle in early 2021 revealed that AISD had lost almost half of its special education evaluation staff since October 2019. Last June, AISD announced progress in clearing the backlog, but reported that 77 initial student evaluations were incomplete.

Special education job coaches also work closely with students with IDD and are responsible for helping them transition into the workforce. Now, AISD coaches will help match students to a city department based on their skills and interests. Regina Earls, the transition coordinator in AISD's Department of Special Education, expects the program to benefit AISD by giving students more career choices. "We currently employ about 100 students, and do you know when they get really excited? When they see their paychecks," she said. "They're going to work alongside other people who don't have disabilities and they get to contribute – it makes them feel good and helps give them a purpose."

Hiring people with disabilities not only strengthens and diversifies the workforce, but it can also lead to higher revenues, according to a 2018 study by Accenture, the American Association of People With Disabilities, and Disability:IN. The study also found that disability inclusion helps grow innovation and productivity because people with disabilities are naturally creative to adapt to the world around them, and nondisabled people become more aware of how to help their colleagues work efficiently.

AISD has existing partnerships with businesses around Austin, including H-E-B, St. David's, and P. Terry's, where Kim­berly Stockenbojer's son Jake started working after graduating from Bowie High. "I can't believe it's taken this long to happen; it's very exciting and having a son who went through the process, I would really hope that this is something that really gets worked on and utilized," Stockenbojers said. "P. Terry's was his first job, so now being able to branch out and try different types of jobs is really good."

Tovo's inspiration for the pilot was a magazine article she came across that featured the city of Wylie's IDD program with Wylie ISD. Her staff reached out to Wylie city officials last year for guidance, and Tovo said she hopes the partnership will create a ripple effect for other Austin businesses to join in. The pilot was co-sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter and CMs Vanessa Fuentes and Chito Vela.