NH Work-Based Learning and Customized Employment for Students with Disabilities

For students with disabilities in New Hampshire, the path to employment after school doesn't start with a job application. It starts with structured work experiences during school — real workplaces, real tasks, real feedback. But the programs that provide these experiences are scattered across multiple agencies, and most families don't know they exist until it's almost too late to use them.

Work-Based Learning Through the School

Work-based learning is exactly what it sounds like: learning that happens in a work environment instead of a classroom. In New Hampshire, these experiences can be built into the IEP as transition services and may include:

• Job shadowing: A student follows an employee for a day or series of days to observe what the job involves
• Internships: Structured work placements with defined learning objectives, often unpaid and time-limited
• Community-based instruction (CBI): The student practices functional skills — grocery shopping, using public transit, navigating a library — in real community settings rather than simulated classroom exercises
• Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs): New Hampshire allows districts to award academic credit for structured learning experiences outside the traditional classroom, including workplace placements

These experiences should be part of the IEP transition plan by age 16, and ideally referenced in the Course of Study starting at age 14. They provide the assessment data that feeds into measurable postsecondary employment goals.

Pre-ETS Work Experiences Through VR

VR New Hampshire's Pre-Employment Transition Services include work-based learning as one of the five mandated activity areas. Students with an IEP or 504 plan can access these through VR starting at age 14 without a formal VR application.

Pre-ETS work experiences are short-term and introductory — designed to help a student explore career interests, not to train for a specific job. They might include paid work trials at local businesses arranged by VR's Student Transition Specialists or through Community Rehabilitation Providers like Easterseals New Hampshire.

Project SEARCH: The Full-Immersion Model

Project SEARCH is a workplace immersion program where high school students with disabilities spend their entire school day at a host business, rotating through three different internship placements over the course of a school year. Each rotation lasts about 10 weeks and involves real job tasks with systematic instruction.

Project SEARCH operates in New Hampshire at select host sites. The program is typically available during the student's final year of school (ages 18–22 for those on an alternate diploma or certificate track). Students receive daily instruction from a special education teacher embedded at the worksite, plus job coaching from VR or an employment provider.

Outcomes are strong. Nationally, about 70% of Project SEARCH participants secure competitive employment within a year of completing the program.

Customized Employment

Customized employment takes a fundamentally different approach from traditional job placement. Instead of trying to fit a student into an existing job description, a job developer works with an employer to create or restructure a position around the student's specific strengths and interests.

This might mean:

• Carving specific tasks out of an existing role that the student does well
• Combining tasks from multiple positions into a new hybrid job
• Negotiating flexible schedules, modified duties, or specialized equipment

Customized employment may be supported by VR New Hampshire during the initial employment placement and by BDS Area Agency supported employment services for long-term, ongoing support after school ends. The process involves a discovery assessment — a detailed exploration of the student's skills, interests, conditions for success, and ideal work environment — before any job development begins.

Job Coaching

Job coaching is the hands-on support that makes employment sustainable. A job coach works alongside the student at the worksite, teaching specific job tasks, helping them navigate social dynamics, and gradually fading support as the student builds independence.

Two funding sources cover job coaching in New Hampshire:

VR New Hampshire funds job coaching during the initial employment placement. This is a time-limited service tied to the IPE.

BDS Area Agencies fund long-term job coaching through the Developmental Disabilities Waiver for individuals who need ongoing support to maintain employment. Unlike VR coaching, this is intended as long-term, ongoing support.

The critical coordination point: VR funding should seamlessly hand off to BDS funding. If the IPE and the Area Agency service plan aren't aligned, there's a gap where coaching stops and the employee loses support. This is one of the most common — and most preventable — service failures in the transition system.

Putting It Together

The most effective employment trajectory starts with school-based work experiences and Pre-ETS at 14–16, moves into standard VR services and IPE development at 16–17, and includes an intensive work placement (like Project SEARCH or a customized employment discovery process) in the final school years. Job coaching carries through the VR-to-BDS handoff so the young adult maintains employment continuity after school ends.

The New Hampshire IEP Transition to Adulthood Guide maps this entire employment trajectory with specific timelines for each agency handoff, plus a communication log template for coordinating between school, VR, and the Area Agency — so the job coaching doesn't disappear at the worst possible moment.

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