The Vocational Program prepares students ages 14 (or in 8th grade) to 22 for future employment. Students are involved in on-and-off site training. The on-site training occurs in the vocational workshop and throughout the school building. In the workshop setting students engage in materials-handling activities along with sorting, assembling, and packaging tasks. Students also operate school-based businesses:

Key Center Print Shop - Students print, collate, fold, label, and staple newsletters from the community and other schools

Bone Appetit - students bake and package homemade dog bones. Proceeds from Bone Appetit are used to support our Animal Assisted Instruction Program.

Key Center Custom Cuts - a classroom-based production activity which offers several consumer products that can be customized to suit your taste.

Students also complete a variety of in-school jobs such as folding pool towels, collecting cans, plastic bottles, and paper for recycling, and stocking the snack machine. Students also receive training in the community to reinforce work readiness skills such as following directions, staying on task, asking for help when necessary, and completing assigned tasks. Our community work experience sites include:

• Comfort Inn
• FCPS-Instructional Program Support Center
• FCPS - Office of Monitoring and Compliance
• Key Middle School Clinic
• The Journey Church

Middle School students participate in a Pre-Vocational Program. This program involves on-site training in the vocational workshop and throughout the school building. Some of the in-school jobs that the students complete include delivering mail and office supplies to classrooms, collecting box tops for education, and vacuuming classrooms.

Elementary students participate in structured simulations in their classrooms to help develop and reinforce skills used in everyday life. Students practice various activities of daily living such as folding laundry and sorting silverware. Each student has an in-class job and/or an in-school job that they complete on a regular basis.

For detailed information about Vocational services with Fairfax County, visit the FCPS Career and Transition Services site.