Each student in special education has an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). Mandated at the age of 14, each IEP is required to address a transition plan for the student, and how the student, parent, teacher, and school system will prepare the student for graduation. Graduation will take them directly into the work force, as college is not an option for these intellectually disabled students.

At the high school level, these students must focus on functional academics and valuable vocational skills in order to obtain gainful employment and independent or semi-independent living after high school graduation. The Serving Up Success, Inc. program provides an avenue of options for those students who are not college-bound.

Serving Up Success, Inc. program is radically different from many curriculums available today. These curriculums offer videos, worksheets, board games, role playing ideas, textbooks and workbooks to teach these transitional skills for special needs students in the classroom.

The Serving Up Success program teaches school-to-work skills by having the students actually deal with real customers, real money and real on-the-job scenarios. What better way to prepare a student for “real life” but to have them “employed” at a “real business?” What better way to meet the legal obligations of the IEP transition plan, but to establish a real work environment at the school?

Program

The Serving Up Success program enables special education teachers to create a school-based business in which their students practice real life transitional, financial, vocational and social skills. The school-based business is student-designed and operated coffee shop for teachers and students. The first model of this program is The Mountain Top Café at Kennesaw Mountain High School.

Additionally, the Serving Up Success program provides special needs students the opportunity to gain the skills required to obtain gainful employment after high school. At the same time, however, it also affords regular education students an opportunity to develop and improve entrepreneurial and managerial skills. For example:

• Graphic Art students created a logo to give the coffee shop an identity;
• Interior Design students created design boards for the coffee shop layout and décor;
• Business Education students manage inventory, finances, scheduling of the coffee shop.

The program includes:

• A step-by-step timeline with instructions on how to get your coffee shop open for business;
• Utility site requirements;
• Sample menus and how to set prices;
• Tips on logo design;
• Grading system including a paycheck check reward system;
• Sample proposals and letters to parents, soliciting donations, etc.;
• Job descriptions, application and job interview activities;
• Banking activities, IEP objectives and contacts for setting up fundraising, coffee service and grant money.

In essence, the Serving Up Success program creates a mini-economy. The student-based business allows the students to:

• Work for a “paycheck”;
• Deposit their “paycheck”;
• Pay their bills;
• “Purchase” items available in the classroom store via writing checks.

The vocational skills learned through Serving Up Success includes:

• Restocking
• Greeting customers
• Making eye contact
• Operating a cash register
• Interview skills
• Conversational skills
• Delivering coffee
• Following written and verbal multi-step directions
• Counting money and making change
• Following a recipe
• Dressing for work

Not only are students learning valuable vocational skills, but the program aims to instill four core values:

• Promptness/time management
• Responsibility
• Initiative
• A “Can-Do” Attitude

Serving Up Success, Inc. believes that these core values are necessary to ensure success in life. The student-based business model provides students the opportunity to receive a grade as well as a “paycheck.” Both are directly related to showing on-the-job initiative. All students can acquire and demonstrate these attributes and qualities, regardless of IQ.

Rationale

The critical need areas for educating special needs high school students, are…

• Teaching special needs students transitional work skills in a safe environment;
• Providing opportunities in high school for special needs students to interact with their regular education peers; and
• Providing an avenue to involve special needs students as a vital and integral part of the high school.
• Lower functioning students (IQ range 40-70) have significant problems learning skills in one setting and then transferring them into another. Special education teachers need an environment outside of the classroom to teach vocational skills. Special needs students who are taught work-related skills in a classroom and then asked to “practice” those skills in the real world often fail. For example, skills taught in the classroom via role-playing, written board activities, worksheets, or board games often do not transfer when a student is asked to “perform” the same skill out in the community.

The gap between the mental age of these students and the chronological age widens significantly by the time they reach high school; therefore, it becomes difficult to find appropriate opportunities and classes for social interaction with regular education peers. For regular education students, electives serve to promote areas the students might pursue after graduation. For low functioning students, the purpose of electives often becomes social interaction, not the mastery of the course.

A program is needed to provide social interaction along with a vital and important role for these students in the school environment. While regular education students have the skills necessary to participate in extra-curricular activities, many special needs students lack these skills. Often special needs students are isolated, making it difficult to feel like an integral part of the school. It is necessary for these students to find a niche in order to feel successful and connect with the high school community. The Serving Up Success, Inc. program meets these needs.

Program Benefits

• Fundraising opportunities.
• Teachers enjoy a steaming hot cup of coffee delivered to their classroom.
• Scholarship opportunities for various students’ financial needs, school clubs and organizations.
• Promote philanthropy by donating profits to a charitable organization.
• Provides an arena where special needs students are constantly interacting with their regular education peers.
• Available funds to purchase necessary classroom items.

The Serving Up Success curriculum is now available. Please contact Stephanie Barber or Kelly Bramblett if you are interested at servingupsuccess@bellsouth.net or at 770-424-9419.