Arlington Heights, Ill.-based Northwest Community Hospital is hoping a recent field trip to the facility by a group of local special education students is a first step that will lead to providing more jobs for special education students, according to a Chicago Tribune report.
The hospital recently hosted the students, from Miner School in Arlington Heights.
"We wanted our students to understand what it's like to go to the hospital, and what they can expect to see if they were to come here during an emergency," Christopher Schmidt, a teacher at Miner School, a therapeutic day school program for students age 5 through 22 with a wide range of special needs, told the Chicago Tribune. "We also wanted to give our students a perspective of the types of jobs that are available to them at the hospital, both skilled and unskilled, and an understanding that the employees here are not just doctors and nurses."
Currently, the hospital has nine employees with disabilities working in its environmental services department, and officials said they hope the recent field trip will lead to more jobs for special education students like those at Miner, according to the report.
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