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Fernando Herrera, 21, discards a box at Grocery Outlet during his shift in Fresno County\u2019s work-based program for teens and young adults with disabilities. Mike Ruacho, a county education office paraeducator, accompanies student workers and offers guidance, depending on their level of independence. <\/p>\n
Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n
Top Takeaways<\/p>\n
Fresno County has restructured\u00a0its vocational training model for students with disabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students now gain work experience across multiple industries.<\/p>\n
The program even trains them to become teacher\u2019s aides in special education classes.<\/p>\n
After a recent morning rush at a Fresno Grocery Outlet, 22-year-old Elena Santos moved down each aisle to return misplaced food items to their proper places. She brought vitamins to the front of the shelves and neatly arranged hygiene products.<\/p>\n
These tasks were once difficult for her because of a cognitive disability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Santos struggles to process things, especially when overwhelmed. Knowing where to find items makes her life easier, which is what she has been doing for customers since she started gaining hands-on experience at the grocery store in October.<\/p>\n
Santos is one of the dozens of teens and young adults with disabilities working in local businesses as employees and schools as teachers\u2019 aides through a Fresno County program that is rethinking how vocational education prepares students for the workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, Fresno County Office of Education officials have overhauled their vocational training model for students with intellectual, emotional or cognitive disabilities. There are students with varying degrees of autism and also those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The focus now is on putting students in businesses, a move away from operating a modified workplace as was done in the past. The goal of the county\u2019s Career Adventure Program is to prepare students for competitive employment and change the perception of individuals with disabilities, officials say.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they\u2019re placed in community businesses where they\u2019re employees alongside everybody else,\u201d said Liza Stack, who oversees the program. \u201cThey\u2019re building skills and contributing to the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Elena Santos, 22, scans a Fresno Grocery Outlet parking lot, watches for parked vehicles and retrieves a cart to return it to the corral at the store\u2019s entrance on March 25, 2026. Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n
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Elena Santos brings over-the-counter medications to the front of a shelf at Grocery Outlet, where she works as part of the Career Adventure Program for students with disabilities. Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n
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Elena Santos remains focused on organizing tissue boxes at a Grocery Outlet.Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n
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Working at a Fresno Grocery Outlet, Fernando Herrera, who has Down syndrome, informs an employee of an opened item he found during his two-hour shift on March 25, 2026.Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n
Previous model wasn\u2019t preparing them for a workplace without modifications\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a shift from job training at Kids Caf\u00e9, a restaurant where students with disabilities work in an environment adjusted to their needs. There, students used visual task cards with pictures, color-coded towels for specific cleaning tasks and a modified register in which \u201c4C\u201d signaled four slices of cheese, for example.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over time, county officials realized that the program didn\u2019t help students transition to a workplace without modifications, Stack said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Kids Caf\u00e9, there was no outcome for hire,\u201d she said. Integrating students into existing businesses \u201cincreases the likelihood that maybe a business would actually hire them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kids Caf\u00e9 closed in 2024. It had high operating costs, at times incurring a $300,000 deficit, and requiring the county to transport students across the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The education office began to partner with more local businesses to expand vocational training opportunities.<\/p>\n
Now the county places students at 26 different worksites. Under the program, the county office trains and hires the students. At businesses, employees and students work side by side until they learn the job. For the two- and three-hour shifts during the week, the county pays the students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For students with severe disabilities, there are five school-based work experiences, including coffee bars, snack shacks and a produce stand, said Christina Borges, the executive director of special education for the county office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fresno County students, ages 16 to 22, who experience intellectual, developmental, emotional or cognitive disabilities or are deaf or hard of hearing are placed in local businesses or schools and receive training for the workplace under the restructured Career Adventure Program.<\/p>\n
Job placements<\/p>\n
Students work at businesses throughout the county or at schools as teacher\u2019s aides, janitorial workers and concession stand employees for paid work experience\u00a0<\/p>\n
Costs: Over $72,000, reimbursed by the Department of Rehabilitation, went to student workers last school year
\nPartnerships: 26 businesses across Fresno County and five campus worksites
\nNumber of students: 71 in 2024-25, up from four in 2021-22 with initial partnerships<\/p>\n
Paraeducator pathway<\/p>\n
Students participate in six training sessions focused on skills to help them be successful educators. They complete a paid internship and take their paraeducator exam.<\/p>\n
Costs: A part of the job placement reimbursement
\nPartnerships: Four classrooms this school year
\nNumber of students: Currently five either in training or in the classrooms<\/p>\n
Workforce readiness\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students explore career and post-secondary education options and receive workplace readiness training.<\/p>\n
Costs: Teachers provide $200,000 worth of time that the Department of Rehabilitation, in turn, grants over $350,000 in funding\u00a0
\nPartnerships: Department of Rehabilitation
\nNumber of students: Currently 108\u00a0<\/p>\n
Different work experiences teach different skills<\/p>\n
Vocational programs for students with disabilities have traditionally focused on the restaurant industry. The Fresno County program includes restaurants but has expanded beyond that, offering opportunities for an array of businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some students stock and sort goods at the Garcia Supermarket and CVS Pharmacy. Others assist custodial staff at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and care for plants at Lotus Gardens. Some tag products at Ace Hardware and enter weather data for the United States Geological Survey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The county provides workforce-readiness training to students, focusing on soft skills such as communication, interviewing and self-advocacy.<\/p>\n
Those classes have been key for students learning to become teacher\u2019s aides.<\/p>\n
\u2018A sense of purpose\u2019<\/p>\n
The Career Adventure Program offers a paraeducator pathway to train students with disabilities to work in the county\u2019s special education classrooms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alex Navarro, 17, who has an emotional disability, said she hadn\u2019t considered becoming a paraeducator before joining the program. The training and hands-on experience have taught her the skills she needs in any classroom, she says, including her position working with students with severe needs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In March, during an extensive support-needs class at Ramacher Development Center, Navarro guided a student\u2019s hand to glue pictures to match words. She sat with another student on a mat on the floor to repeat the same exercise. Even though the students couldn\u2019t respond verbally, Navarro offered encouragement, saying, \u201cGood job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s not afraid to work with the kids,\u201d said Matthew Elliott, who teaches in the special education classroom where Navarro assists. \u201cShe just jumps right in. Even if she\u2019s having a hard day in her class, when she comes in here, she\u2019s able to reset and just work with the kids with a smile.\u201d<\/p>\n Navarro passed the paraprofessional exam and can become a teacher\u2019s aide when she graduates from high school this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt gave me a sense of purpose,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m getting set up to have a really good career doing something that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n Changing perceptions\u00a0<\/p>\n There are other examples of vocational training that put people with disabilities in workplaces<\/a>\u00a0to increase their visibility. Starting in 2022, Merced County\u2019s education office placed students in the housekeeping field<\/a>. In the same year, the state Department of Rehabilitation created a pilot to employ people with disabilities in allied health care, clerical and manufacturing jobs. The program, in partnership with the Institute for Workplace Skills & Innovation America, launched statewide late last year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Such programs show employers that workers with disabilities can do the job, said Nicholas Wyman, president of the institute, a national workforce development organization that specializes in skills-based work. Lately, however, he said businesses are not prioritizing employing these people, who are able to work, even if it requires additional steps to achieve the same result.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In Fresno, Ferdinand Gonzalez, co-owner of the downtown Grocery Outlet, said he is contemplating hiring workers with disabilities, especially during peak hours. \u201cIt would be worth it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A program graduate was recently promoted to a supervisor role at a local business, a sign that the experience can lead to employment and fast-track advancement, said Stack with the Fresno County program.\u00a0<\/p>\n As students with disabilities work in schools, stores and offices, the community sees what they can contribute.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s that experience,\u201d she said, \u201cthat really changes perception.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Herrera, 21, discards a box at Grocery Outlet during his shift in Fresno County\u2019s work-based program for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-272267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/edsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_8743-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a>For a climate lesson on March 25, 2026, Alex Navarro, 17, tells a student that she likes foggy weather. Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n<\/a>Trained as a teacher\u2019s aide, Alex Navarro and another paraeducator provide hands-on help with an activity. Credit: Lasherica Thornton\/ EdSource<\/p>\n