Rehabilitation & Disability Services Adds Two New Fieldwork Sites

The Rehabilitation & Disability Services program has finalized fieldwork placement agreements with a regional independent-living center and a county workforce development agency, adding to the roster of sites where students complete their required practicum. Both organizations had previously hosted individual students informally through faculty contacts; the new agreements make placement capacity and supervision expectations formal for the first time.

The practicum places students directly with clients under a licensed supervisor for a full semester before graduation, and is the piece of the program alumni most often point to when asked what actually prepared them for the job. Faculty said the two new sites were chosen specifically to broaden the kinds of casework students see beyond the traditional vocational-rehabilitation-agency placement — independent-living work leans more toward long-term accommodation planning than return-to-work coordination.

The program plans to add a third site, focused on transition-age youth services, before next fall's practicum placements begin.