There’s a half-billion-dollar federal program that is supposed to help students with disabilities get into the workforce when they leave high school, but most parents — and even some school officials — don’t know it exists. As a result, hundreds of thousands of students who could be getting help go without it. New Jersey had the nation’s lowest proportion — roughly 2 percent — of eligible students receiving these services in 2023.
More than a decade ago, Congress recognized the need to help young people with disabilities get jobs, and earmarked funding for pre-employment transition services to help students explore and train for careers and send them on a pathway to independence after high school. Yet, today, fewer than 40 percent of people with disabilities ages 16 to 64 are employed, even though experts say most are capable of working.
At a time when Americans have made clear that access to training and good jobs is a top priority, a program that could be providing that for one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations is, in many states, serving a fraction of the students it should. When it does reach students, the programming is often inadequate, and states like New Jersey face almost no accountability for their shortcomings.
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Senior higher education reporter Jon Marcus 
