BOCES & Transition Consortium Host 2nd Annual Transition Fair

The Rockland Transition Consortium and Rockland BOCES teamed up on Friday to put on the Transition Fair for Life After High School.

The fair had 40 tables with representatives from colleges and organizations that can help people with a wide range of disabilities transition out of high school, whether that means going onto college or out into the world.

“We wanted to show that there are a number of options available after getting out of school, and there are a lot of different agencies that can provide assistance,” said Mary Ellen Doremus, a transition coordinator with BOCES and co-chairperson of the Rockland Transition Consortium.

Doremus and Dawn Kitz, the other co-chairperson for the Consortium, organized the event, bringing in representatives from colleges, organizations that assist the physically disabled, organizations that help people with disabilities live on their own and more. The Rockland Transition Consortium is a group of school districts and agencies that work to educate students and families about how to transition from school to post-secondary programs or work, from children’s services to adult services and more.

Kitz said the organization holds weekly meetings are various locations, as well as numerous workshops dealing with different issues facing the community, such as transitioning from high school to college, relationship issues, transitioning to adult life for students with mental health needs and others.

“We have a variety of agencies that can help with a variety of disabilities,” Kitz said. “We’re open to anyone and everyone.”

Kitz added that the workshops and fair are also a place for parents or other family members of people with disabilities to come and learn about options for their loved ones. The fair was held at the Hilton Garden Inn on Route 59 in Nanuet, and students from all over the county, as well as some from New Jersey, were bused to the fair, Kitz said. Doremus estimated that more than 150 students were at the fair.

The colleges and organizations represented weren’t only from Rockland, though, as some were located in New Jersey and Connecticut. Of the numerous colleges in attendance was Nyack College, which offers counseling, exam accommodations, self-advocacy training and much more to students with disabilities.

“I will sit with students and discuss with them academically what worked for them in the past, and then I will let their teachers know what accommodations they need,” said Elona Collins, coordinator of disabilities support services at the college.

Collins added that she’ll make sure if a student needs to go to tutoring or a writing lab, they know where to go and that they actually do go.

“I’m also just an ear for the students,” she said. “I listen to what they’re concerned about, or what they’ve enjoyed doing, just anything they want to talk about.”

She said she sees students with with ADD, autism, blind students and more. She said there are maybe 60-70 students with disabilities out of the roughly 1,000 enrolled in the school.

Collins said events like the fair are important for a bunch of different reasons.

“When students come from high school to college, they don’t always know the laws are different. They don’t know that they have to get what they need by advocating for themselves because they don’t get that information all the time,” she said. “That’s what’s great about this kind of fair, is that we can talk to students and parents and let them know what they can expect at college. Plus, it’s good for us at the schools and agencies to learn about what each other is doing. There are a few groups here that I never knew about that I got to learn about while walking around.”