The Kentucky Senate has approved a joint resolution, in hopes peer mentoring for students with special needs can expand across the Commonwealth.
The Kentucky Peer Support Network Project is piloted in some ten school districts.
Paducah Senator Danny Carroll, the father of a special needs daughter, said he believes such programs help both the special needs child and the mentor.
“Sometimes it can a student that may be having other struggles themselves at home or at school, for that matter. And we all know how it makes us feel when we have the ability to help others.” Carroll said.
Carroll said the project also included activities outside of class.
“It gets the students with severe disabilities more involved in the daily activities of school, outside of the classroom and even outside of the school day in developing friends and going to ballgames and other aspects that any typical student would attend.” Carroll said.
Carroll told his Senate colleagues the resolution calls on the Kentucky Department of Education to collaborate with programs at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville to work to secure grant funding.
Carroll said grant support through the state Council on Developmental Disabilities has run out.
