The River Bend Education District W.O.R.K. Program provides academic, social, and transitional skills education and assessment in a small group environment. Our purpose is to work with students that are in need of learning life and work skills.

The program is designed to help students gain skills to effectively function in the work environment, and society, or to learn their skills and interests for a career. These students will receive an academic education that is designed to help them prepare for life after graduation, as well as an opportunity to learn how to be successful in employment. The IEP will need to be formulated to address the needs of each student.

Referrals will be accepted from school administration in conjunction with parents and IEP teams. The school will need to complete the one page referral form. The students must meet certain criteria in order to be considered for the W.O.R.K. Program. The students that are considered will be on an IEP under LD, EBD, OHD, or ASD, but other disability categories may be considered. Students in the program will need to meet behavioral expectations in order to be accepted and to be allowed to remain in the program.

The W.O.R.K Program has two ways students can be enrolled. The first is part-time, which is to use the PAES lab. This is a comprehensive assessment program that is 90 minutes per day for one semester. This allows students to learn their interests and skills in order to plan for their transition needs. After one semester the IEP teams will have valuable information, from the data collected in the PAES lab, to help address transition needs of each student. The second way is to be a full-time student, where students would spend their entire day in the W.O.R.K. Program, where students would use the PAES lab, but also work on daily living skills, job skills, and have work experiences.

Click here for a Work Program Overview