Does working with Virtual Reality Job Interview Training(VR-JIT) help High School Students with Educational Disabilities?
In 2017, Dr. Smith received a grant from the Kessler Foundation (1003-1958-SEG-FY2016) to deliver VR-JIT to 1000 high school students with disabilities to help them find employment. In addition to evaluating employment outcomes, this project is also evaluating the costs needed to bring VR-JIT to schools and the optimal strategies teachers use to deliver VR-JIT to students across urban, rural, and suburban schools. As you might imagine, each school has a different vision of how services are provided and we hope to learn more about how each of these visions can help support Molly.
Dr. Smith is partnering the the State of Illinois’ Department of Human Services Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) to find school partners for this project. Specifically, DRS oversees the Illinois Secondary Transitional Experience Program (STEP). This program supports federally mandated transition services for approximately 10,000 students with disabilities from nearly 600 schools. Dr. Smith is working with the STEP network to deliver the VR-JIT to the 1000 students in his project. Dr. Smith is also actively engaging with school partners in Michigan and other states.
Our School Partners Include:
Fall 2017
- Eastern Illinois Area Special Education District
- Huntley High School
- Valley View School District
- West Aurora High School
Winter – Spring 2018
- Bethalto High School
- Champaign County High Schools
- Freeport High School
- La Grange Area Department of Special Education
- Oswego East High School
Summer 2018
- La Grange Area Department of Special Education
- Michigan Career and Technical Institute
Fall 2018
- Chicago Public Schools
- Bradley-Bourbonnais High School
- Northern Suburban Special Education District
- Granite City High School
- Plano High School
- McLean County High School
Interested in becoming a school partner?
We are looking for additional school partners to help us recruit 1000 high school students with an educational disability so that we can deliver the VR-JIT to their students during Winter-Spring 2019. If you would like your school to partner with Dr. Smith and his team, please click here to share your information with us.
Thank you for your interest!!