Mentors and Students with Disabilities

Mentors can improve a student's academic performance and reduce the risk that the student will abuse drugs. Unfortunately, few current mentor programs intentionally promote the need or means to provide mentors to students with disabilities. Creating Mentoring Opportunities for Youth with Disabilities: Issues and Suggested Strategies (published by The National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, Institute on Community Integration in December 2002) discussed these issues. In addition to outlining the benefits that mentors can offer any student, the particular needs of students with disabilities is discussed. The publication also includes suggestions for preparing mentors to successfully align themselves with those students.

They suggest the need to consider the following questions:

• Does the student need accommodations in order to participate?
• Is the mentor prepared to foster development in a young person who may have significant academic limitations or barriers, social problems, boundary issues, or medical complexities?
• What disability-related information does the mentor need?
• How should mentoring programs handle the issue of whether or not to disclose the disability?
• How can mentors acknowledge the needs of youth with disabilities while encouraging excellence, and help them develop an orientation toward success?

The brief includes some suggestions for some simple practices and an inclusive attitude toward all youth that are important for successful mentoring of students with disabilities.

Creating Mentoring Opportunities for Youth with Disabilities is available online at www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=704 or from the Institute on Community Integration.

National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota, 6 Pattee Hall, 150 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis MN 55455, 612.624.2097 (voice), 612.624.9344 (fax), www.ncset.org (web), ncset@umn.edu (e-mail).