Older students struggle for footing amid transitions
Justin Murphy – Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY NETWORK – in the D&C on 10/4/21
Qi’shon Joyner’s transition from school to work already was going to be difficult. His mother, Tianna Johnson, spent sixteen years arguing and advocating for her oldest son, trying to get the services he needed for Asperger’s syndrome.
The timing of his 18th birthday didn’t help. March 11, 2020.
“He already had a learning gap,” Johnson said. “Then COVID hit, and it was like: ‘This kid can’t get a break.’” Joyner, now 19, belongs to a group of students for whom the pandemic has been uniquely disruptive: those aged 18 and older who were in the process of transitioning from special education programs and into post-secondary jobs or other placements.