Hewlett-Woodmere helping students with disabilities get to college

Through its Special Education PTA program, the Hewlett-Woodmere School District has worked into helping students with disabilities preparing for the next step, college, was the topic of  a Jan. 11 virtual meeting held on Zoom.

Children with disabilities who attend or live in the school district receive support through SEPTA’s services and programs such as resource room and speech therapy. These programs are aimed at helping the children succeed in school.

The meeting, hosted by Director of Guidance at Hewlett High School Mary Harrison and SEPTA co-president Rebecca Baum, had Julie Yindra, the director of Student Access Services at Hofstra University, discuss how she assists Hofstra students and advice on how parents can prepare their children for the rigors of college. 

“There’s such a worry after high school and going to college,” Harrison said. “And preparing for that.”

Yindra, who began her career in education as a special education teacher in middle and high school, always wondered how her students would do after they left her classroom. After more than 30 years of teaching, she switched roles and worked in higher education to help students with disabilities.

Hofstra’s Student Access Services offers assistance  and resources for students with disabilities. Yindra’s role consists of preparing students with the keys to having an easy transition from high school to college, and overcoming the anxiety. 

“Every year, a student wanders up to our office door and looks both ways,” Yindra said. “To make sure no one is looking before they go through the door that says ‘Service with Students for Disability.’”

Harrison encouraged parents to guide their children in becoming aware of their disabilities and understanding their strengths and weaknesses as early as middle school.

“The sooner we help out students to feel comfortable in their skin,” Harrison said. “The better off they will be.”

Yindra said that schools in high school will not inform the university of a child’s disability unless the child or parent makes them aware of it.

In middle school, students participate in Committee on Special Education meetings, which discuss their progress in the current school year with their parents.

“Our students participate in their CSE meetings starting in the middle school,” said Laura Peterson, Hewlett-Woodmere’s assistant superintendent for Special Education and Student Support Services “Students create and present a PowerPoint of their strengths, goals and needs at a student led Individual Education Plans meeting (their annual review).”

In high school, student participation at CSE meetings is crucial as conversations about the importance of final grades and Regents scores begin. Those grades are on the transcripts submitted to colleges.. Scores of ACT and SAT exams have always been a topic of discussion for college and most recently, those scores have become optional to submit during the application process.

Disability services are available at colleges across the United States, Harrison and Yindra emphasized the importance to parents of being aware of the schools that offer such services.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported that, 37 percent of students informed their university that they have a disability In 2022.

Yindra encourages parents to have their children not feel embarrassed for who they are. “We’ve been in acculturated to believe that this ability is a bad thing,” she said. “It’s not. It’s not a bad thing or a good thing. It’s just a thing.”