Dallas community college offers programs for students with an MR diagnosis

From Dallas Disability Examiner:

Individuals with mental retardation who still wish to have a college experience may have an option open to them as El Centro College's Bill J. Priest Campus will again offer special programs that target individuals with mental retardation and severe learning disabilities.

The programs, Next Step and Moving On, target improving academic skills, particularly work related reading and math skills, basic computer skills that might be needed on the job, and work readiness which is the ability to get and keep a job.

The program has been open to people with disabilities for more than 7 years and has been met with very good reviews as students have moved on to work in very diverse occupations.

Next Step is a program for individuals diagnosed with mental retardation who read at less than 4th grade level. Individuals applying for the program must be able to get themselves to and from the campus and be independent in activities of daily living.

Moving On is the program for those with better, or improved reading skills as well as those that have completed the Next Step program, and it focuses on many of the same skills but at a more advanced level.

Both programs are now registering for fall classes. This year also marks the beginning of a new Personal Social Adjustment program which is intended to improve the interpersonal skills of people with mental retardation.

The program which meets 4 hours a day, three days a week costs $850, but grant money is available for those that qualify. Many students in the program receive funding from the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.