Field Experience

              Hello everyone my name is Matthew Cucio and I am a paraprofessional/job coach at Bremen H.S. Dist. 228. I actually work at South Suburban College in a Transition program called Jobs2 (Journeys and Opportunities with Bremen/South Suburban. The setting is a bit different than what is considered your normal classroom. As a paraprofessional I help co-teach a vocational class that mainly consists of transition students from the age of 18-21. The state of Illinois allows these students to receive school based resources until the day before their twenty-second birthday. We do have an office and have a classroom provided by South Suburban College. As a paraprofessional I am incharge of a payroll program for our students through the South West CO OP, I organize and schedule all transportation to and from work sites, on site and off site job coaching, tutoring of all sorts, administrator for a computer based program called Career Cruising, and co plan including lesson plans, and grading. I do work with a counselor, certified special education teacher and another paraprofessional. We do have outside contracted help for speech pathology, state and federal benefits, as well as Alpha bus company. The disabilities that our learners have are very diverse. With 20 total active learners in our program and the range of disabilities are Aspergers, Autism, bi-polar, Schizophrenia, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, traumatic brain injuries, sickle cell anemia (which caused stroke and brain damage), loss of hearing, and emotional disabilities.
           Students in our program are primarily grouped around the poverty line. Though because we are based out of the college and they are older than high school students they are not provided with lunch. The grade level varies as well but for an example the reading level range is 1st grade - college level of literacy. Out of the 20 active students we have 12 males and 8 females, and all of our students have a 504 or a IEP. 

For the table portion below there are a few listed but there are so many that it will take me a few weeks to target specifics throughout the student list in our program. I have completed a few and will continue to update throughout. 

Special Education Category	Number of Students	Accommodations, Modifications, and/or Pertinent IEP Goals
Learning Disability	Example: 10	Close monitoring, follow up, one on one test reading and follow up with current college teachers as well.
Emotional Disability	Example: 6	Open door policy with counselor and other staff members, regular counseling check ins, and open communication at all times.