Careers in Special Education and Human Services

Printable verion of the Entire Careers Unit

There were two primary purposes in setting up this website. One was to provide teachers with resources they can use in a peer tutoring program. The other was to give you--high school students--accurate information about possible careers in special education and other fields that work with people with disabilities. The pages linked with this one will give an overview of the range of career options in the human services.

Most students in your school see and are aware of special educators working with students who have disabilities; however, many students are unaware that there are a wide variety of potential careers working people with disabilities outside of teaching. These range all the way from what are called “paraprofessional” positions (teaching assistants) that require two years of college to highly specialized professions that require years of graduate study. Many fields like nursing and psychology have specializations working with people with disabilities, while in community services there are entire fields like job development or residential support that deal exclusively with people with disabilities.

The term "Human services" is often used to describe work with people with disabilities. Other careers that involve working with individuals who have disabilities may be described as social services. This idea of human services is very appropriate because many of us come into this field because we are genuinely interested in working directly with people. This direct personal connection makes up for the fact that human services do not pay as well as the business world. And yet, as you review the information on these web pages you will see that human services is a business which employs many people and involves a great deal of money.

It is important for people in these human service fields to remember that they are paid for working with people. We are not being paid for shuffling paper, putting cans on a shelf, or selling cars. There is nothing wrong with these jobs, but in human services the bottom-line is people. As you explore some of the units on this web site, you will look back on the history of how society has treated people with disabilities. One of the important lessons of this history is that bad things happened to people with disabilities when the folks working with them forgot the simple fact that they were working with human beings.

The Human Service Career Network (http://www.hscareers.com) is intended to bring together Human Service agencies and professionals across the country to meet employment needs, provide useful tools, share "best practices", and communicate trends for the advancement of the people with whom they work. In addition to job referrals and articles about human service organizations the, "Good Works" section showcases inspiring stories happening every day in the field of human services.

*ACTIVITY* Read at least two of the articles under the Good Works section and then write a paragraph about each article reflecting on what it means to be a human service worker. On the same web site click on the link at the top called “Career Center.”  Check out all the links on this page. Make a list of at least four things you learned about getting a job and /or the field of human services. Marla H. Moley is a human service worker, a direct support professional, at an agency called "On Your Mark" in Staten Island, New York.  Read what she says about the realization of her desire to work with people with disabilities in an article entitled a "Dream of Direct Support" on page four of the Fall 1998 issue of the Frontline Initiative.  http://rtc.umn.edu/downloads/fi2-4.pdf What led Marla to want a career in human services? Read the other articles in this issue on Professionalism to see what it means to work with people—what it means to be a true human service professional.  Based on what you read, what do you think it means to be a professional?

You notice we keep talking about “careers,” and not just getting a job. There are a large number of people who get jobs working in human services only because it is what’s available to enable them to support themselves and their families. For some of these people, this first job becomes a career, while others move on. What is the difference between a job and a career? The career is a long term plan for what you want to achieve in life. It is a roadmap of increasing skill and responsibility. It starts now—when you are young—and stretches on for some people even into volunteer work after they retire.

*ACTIVITY* Review the ten steps to planning you future for middle and high school at http://www.mapping-your-future.org/MHSS.  Base on this activity what did you lean about career planning? What did you learn about yourself?

There are a number of other websites to help young people work through the process of planning. For example, http://www.careerperfect.com provides on-line tools to help you explore career interests and options. Check out some of the resources under “online career planning and testing.” Some other places to explore tools for career exploration are “career exploration” at http://www.careernet.org or The Career Key http://www.careerkey.org/english. We hope you find these sites interesting and helpful.

To get back to our bottom line, we would like you to consider a career in special education or another human service. The other web pages in this section on careers will provide with a variety of information on:

• special education as a profession;
• career opportunities in community services for adults with disabilities.
• the range of other professions that work with people with disabilities in the schools; and
• university programs in Kentucky and sources of financial aid for college;

Link to next section: Careers in Special Education