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1007 Mumma Road, Suite 100 Lemoyne, PA, 17043

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The Arc of Pennsylvania
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Include Me

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​Include Me is a school-based initiative for students with significant disabilities. The goal of the program is to build the capacity of local school districts across Pennsylvania to inclusively and meaningfully educate students with significant disabilities in general education classrooms and school community.

Include Me provides:

  • On-site technical assistance and consultation for student teams
  • Parent training, and,
  • Professional development

Include Me services are free of charge to participating school districts and parents. Our Include Me School Age Program Overview provides more information. Or email us at [email protected].

Include Me is an initiative of The Arc of Pennsylvania. Funding for the project is provided by The Pennsylvania Bureau of Special Education The Arc of Pennsylvania is grateful to our funder for allowing us the opportunity to serve school-age children with disabilities throughout Pennsylvania.

 

Resources and Training Opportunities

 

eLearning courses – Our courses cover a wide range of topics related to supporting students with disabilities. These courses are open to anyone. Educators can receive either a certificate of completion or ACT 48 continuing education credits for completing the course. Courses are available in English and in Spanish.

Training Courses – The Arc of PA offers a variety of professional trainings for direct service providers working in community participation support, supported employment and customized employment. We offer professional certificates in ACRE, Customized Employment, and Intentional Teaching. Scholarships are available for educators and parents/guardians of students with disabilities in Pennsylvania.

 

Student Engagement


Include Me Connection Club – Our Include Me Connection Club is an online creative outlet for all students ages 10+ and are designed for all learners. Students engage in interactive games and activities that help them increase their self-expression and self-advocacy.

Book Studies – Our “Disability Acceptance through Literature” virtual book study for students helps foster disability acceptance. Students read and discuss books that explore disability through the perspective of school age protagonists. We run multiple book studies – each designed for different age groups.

Include Me PA’s News and Tools

Subscribe to our Include Me program newsletter to get the latest on our program!


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NEW Module Just Arrived - Trauma-Informed Care. Visit our E-Learning Module Series. This series provides information and strategies for teachers, families, and paras to support the education of all students.

The Arc of Pennsylvania’s Making Employment Work course is an ACRE Basic Certification Training. In order to receive certification, participants must attend a 3 day, in-person training and then complete a self-paced, online curriculum. Completing this certification course will qualify individuals to provide Supported Employment services with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Office of Developmental Programs. Our training combines lessons learned from traditional Supported Employment and Customized Employment techniques.

Arc Discovery Employment Transitions (ADEPT) is The Arc of Pennsylvania’s customized employment program. The Arc of Pennsylvania supports individuals with significant impact of disability to seek and maintain customized employment in their community. As a result, The Arc of Pennsylvania’s consultants are trained and nationally certified by Marc Gold & Associates, a national leader in customized employment, to provide Discovery, Customized Employment Job Development, and Systematic Instruction to individuals with disabilities in Pennsylvania who are seeking employment. In addition to providing customized employment services, The Arc of Pennsylvania hosts several certification courses with Marc Gold & Associates for individuals and organizations interested in national certification in Discovery, Job Development, and Systematic Instruction.

Include Me is a new model for inclusive education and gaining meaningful employment for Pennsylvania’s students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Arc of Pennsylvania and Include Me believe all individuals with significant impact of developmental and intellectual disability deserve equal educational and competitive employment rights. Our mission, build and strengthen the inclusive education capacity for all public-school students, and discover meaningful employment opportunities meeting Pennsylvania employee and employer needs. Include Me strives to ensure all impacted students have equal access to all aspects of life and the community throughout their lifespan.

Include Me is an initiative that was part of the agreement on final terms between the plaintiffs and the Pennsylvania Department of Education in the Gaskin Settlement Agreement. We were initially assigned to work with school districts with the lowest inclusion rates. After the initial success, we have grown in reputation among school districts. Currently districts voluntarily chose our services, which are provided free of charge to the district. In addition to our School Age services, we offer transition-age services to help teams plan a path to customized employment for students transitioning from high school.

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect?
    When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide
    We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number, and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys.
    If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information
    Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
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    Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information.
    Employee Access, Training, and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies, and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?
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  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties?
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