implement a new culinary program at Woodrow Wilson High School so students with disabilities can acquire the skills they need for careers in the agricultural, culinary and food service industries.
KIPP will use its $245,900 to prepare high school students with significant disabilities for life after graduation. A full-scale mock apartment will be constructed so students can acquire the soft skills they will need to get by as adults.
“From goal setting to getting a job and from living independently to managing money, this grant from the Camden Education Fund will support programming for ‘real life’ experiences that will help our students with special learning needs gain confidence and independence,” said Jamie Downey, the district’s director of special education, in a prepared statement.
LEAP will use its $250,000 to better support its students with autism through the introduction of applied behavioral therapy focused on social skills. It’s considered an effective treatment by the American Psychological Association, but it’s not yet widely used in schools.
At Camden’s Promise Charter School, the $235,000 will be used to provide more individualized literacy support to students with disabilities. Teachers will be trained on Wilson Fundations curriculum “in order to build confident, successful readers,” Promise’s Executive Director Rebecca Brinkmann Phelan said in a prepared statement.
Camden Prep will use its $250,000 to hire special education teachers for its high school program offering smaller classes and more individualized instruction to students with significant disabilities.
