Rep. Allison Tant (D-Tallahassee) has long been a disability rights advocate. Now, she's using her new role as House Representative to draft a bill aimed at helping young adults with disabilities gain more work and life skills.
Tant says her bill would require Florida schools to have what she calls "meaningful transition programs."
"It can't be a babysitting program," Tant says. "It can't be a [Community Based Instruction] classroom in a traditional school where they just check a box and say, 'I took the kids to Target today. That's a life skill.' That's a field trip. That is not a life skill."
Tant says schools are currently required to offer classes for students with disabilities until they're 22 years old. But she says she'd like to see those classes do more to prepare students for independent living.Tant says she wants to see schools teaching students how to complete tasks they'd need to know to live alone.
"Learning to grocery shop for food to prepare for a meal that you're going to prepare for yourself when you're living on your own—that is a life skill," Tant says.
Tant also wants to see schools focus on helping students with disabilities build job skills. She says getting a job is an important step toward living autonomously.
