Purpose

This Intervention Efficacy study focuses on an internship program called Start on Success (SOS) that incorporates a Career and Technical Education (CTE) course followed by paid work experiences for high school at-risk youth with disabilities.

Overview

Start on Success (SOS) was founded in 1994 by the National Organization on Disability as a model to provide early training and paid work experience for YWD. Despite the expansion of this promising practice to nationwide sites, no empirical Randomized Control Trial (RCT)studies exist to determine its efficacy on the postschool outcomes of at-risk (e.g. poor attendance, not graduating on time, dropping out) YWD. This study will conduct a RCT of 2 urban and 1 suburban SOS programs to provide evidence of its efficacy on the employment and PSE outcomes of at-risk YWD.