Steps to Success

How Dublin City Schools’ PATHS program empowers students

For young adults, graduating from high school and transitioning away from the structure of school is daunting, and for those with disabilities, the transition can be even more difficult. Luckily, postsecondary education is designed to bridge the gap.

Based out of Dublin City Schools’ Emerald Campus, the Postsecondary Access to Transition after High School (PATHS) program serves students who choose to defer their diplomas, bringing students of all backgrounds under one curriculum. With support from intervention specialists as well as paraprofessional job coaches, PATHS students hone developmental skills focused on independent living.

The program, which was launched under the name POWER Plus in 2008, originally served six to eight students in one classroom. Today, it serves 30-38 students across three classrooms.

Shawn Heimlich, a student services coordinator for Dublin City Schools, says the PATHS experience is customizable. Students can focus on a variety of skills –daily living, social, behavioral, vocational and more – in ways that best suit their unique circumstances. Different aspects from the tiers can always be blended if needed, Heimlich says.

“Our goal isn’t just to simply meet the standard provision of services under the law, but really to develop, design and implement programs like PATHS that provide individualized and specialized instructions and services based on identified student needs,” Heimlich says.

As the program’s first and only job training intervention specialist in 2008, Katie Sochor has watched the program change over time. She says watching PATHS expand over the years has been exhilarating. She says it now builds a sense of community and interpersonal intelligence alongside hard skills.

“Classroom culture is really important to me,” Sochor says. “We’re all thinking similarly, we’re all planning similarly. We all have the same kind of goal in mind.”

PATHS also aims to increase students’ general employability, giving them a taste of professional life through hands-on visits to local businesses. Nestlé Quality Assurance Center (NQAC) Dublin, a food and beverage testing facility, and Friendship Village of Dublin, a retirement community for older adults, are just a couple of collaborators. Those visits aren’t beneficial for just the students, Sochor says.

“We’re always ready to educate employers and educate businesses on how to diversify their workforce,” Sochor says. “I think that is really key.”

Fellow PATHS intervention specialist Joshua Graham agrees.

“That’s our bread and butter,” Graham says. “There’s only so much you can teach in a classroom.”

Graham, who works with students with the most immediate needs, says forging deep bonds with PATHS students and their families is the highlight of his job.

“We try to pull back supervision of staff as best we can, but usually our individuals are going to continue to need that extra supervision to remain safe, to make good choices and just to make sure their overall day goes well for them,” Graham says.

Dublin City Schools administrator Mark Eatherton says PATHS instructors are deeply grounded in their work. Eatherton says he looks forward to seeing how PATHS continues to growth with and for its students

“The opportunities for a 22-year-old or 23-year-old person in the world now look very different in 2023 or 2024 than it did in 2000 or 2010,” Eatherton says. “So we have to be able to evolve as a program right along with that.”

Lucy Lawler is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com

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