IPSE Basics

Think College and Urban Collaborative collaborated to host this webinar about access to college for students with intellectual disability. Dan Habib facilitated a panel of experts including Brenda Barrio, Assistant Vice-President for Research & Innovation at University of North Texas and faculty lead of UNT Elevar; Carla Johnson, Regional Transition Specialist at Texas Service Center Region 11, Mary Judge Diegert, Assistant Director at Center for Disability & Education at University of Rochester, and Derrick Wesley, Education Program Director at Directed Analytics.

This guide is designed to introduce you to inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE), or college options for students with intellectual disability (ID). In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about IPSE in an easy-to-read format, with helpful tips, information, and resources from the Think College website. You will learn about what IPSE is, how colleges include students with ID, and how to find and apply to college, as well as pay for it.

This issue of Impact, by the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota, highlights critical areas of need for inclusive higher education. Accreditation holds promise for ensuring the quality experience that students and their families seek. Opening inclusive programs to a wider cross section of students is also important, as is making sure programs are truly inclusive, offering coursework that leads to competitive employment.

Podcast host Annette Hines (from Special Needs Companies) speaks with Cate Weir, program director and Debra Hart, co-principal investigator of Think College. Learning does not stop at age 18 for those with intellectual disabilities and offering those who have entered adulthood an opportunity for growth in over one hundred college programs is what Think College is all about.

This Snapshot features a big-picture view of the TPSID projects from both Cohort 1 (2010-2015) and Cohort 2 (2015-2020). The numbers of students, programs, and grantees across states is included, as well as numbers of courses taken, paid jobs held while enrolled in college, and credentials earned are shared.