College Is Possible for Students With Intellectual Disabilities

College Is Possible for Students With Intellectual Disabilities

Unlike students who pull all-nighters and cram before exams, Mount Aloysius College student Katie Apostolides has been working diligently in preparation for midterms since her first day of class. She starts papers and projects the day they are assigned, meets weekly with a different peer tutor for each of her classes, and knows to take short breaks throughout her studying in an effort to stay focused and on task. These and other strategies help Apostolides learn at a collegiate level in spite of her Down syndrome, an intellectual disability.

If Apostolides passes her classes this semester, she will receive her associate's degree. But Apostolides's success in college is the exception rather than the rule for students with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. According to preliminary results of an ongoing Department of Education study, fewer than one quarter of students with intellectual disabilities have participated in some type of postsecondary education. None has completed a degree. There is hope, however, that this will change. New initiatives started late last year will, for the first time, identify, fund, and disseminate information about programs nationwide that help intellectually disabled students gain access to college.

To date, leaders in the field know of about 150 programs, which vary significantly in rigor and structure. The ThinkCollege.net website provides basic information about each known program, but because of provisions in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (which was reauthorized by Congress last summer) and two multimillion-dollar federal grants awarded in December 2008, the number of known programs, the number of high-quality inclusive programs, and the depth of knowledge about both is set to expand dramatically. Not only does the HEOA allow students with intellectual disabilities to qualify for Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and the Federal Work Study Program for the first time, it also establishes a new grant program that will fund the development of programs tailored specifically to college students with intellectual disabilities across the country.