https://doi.org/10.1177/2165143417747225 Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals 2018, Vol. 41(3) 166–174 © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2165143417747225 cdtei.sagepub.com Article People with disabilities in the United States experience higher rates of unemployment (10.7%) compared with those without disabilities (3.8%; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Many times employers will not hire people with disabilities because they are not well informed on what it entails and might not want to pro- vide all the accommodations that the person might require (Kaye, Jans, & Jones, 2011). According to a survey of ser- vice providers conducted by researchers from the Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative (Jain, Conway, & Choitz, 2015), nearly 6.7 million young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 years are out of school and out of work. The April 2017 unemployment rate for youth with disabili- ties, 16 to 19 years old, was 27.4% compared with a rate of 14.1% for youth without disabilities, and for those 20 to 24 years old, the rate was 21.1% which is 3 times higher than the national average of 7.3% for youth without disabilities of that age (U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, 2017). The period of transition from high school to the work- force is even more difficult for minority youth, particularly for African American young adults, who have an unem- ployment rate of 20.7%. The situation in Chicago is critical. A report by the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC; Cordova, Wilson, & Morsey, 2016) concluded that in 2014, for the 16 to 19 years old in Chicago, only 12.4% of Blacks, 15.0% of Hispanic/Latinos, and 24.4% of Whites (non-Hispanic or Latinos) were employed. These rates compared with the national average of 28.8% suggest that youth in Chicago are less likely to be employed. In addition, 47% of the 20 to 24 years old Black men in Chicago were out of school and out of work in 2014 compared with 20% of Hispanic men and 10% of White men in the same age group. A recent review of trends in high school dropout and completion rates found that in 2013, young adults with disabilities had a lower high school completion rate (81.3%) than their peers without disabili- ties (92.4%; McFarland, Stark, & Coi, 2016). During the 2012–2013 school year, the national adjusted graduation rate for White students (87%) was 16 percentage points higher than the national rate for Black students (71%) and 747225CDE XX X 10.1177/2165143417747225Career Development and Transition for Exceptional IndividualsBalcazar et al. research-article 2018 1 The University of Illinois at Chicago, USA 2 DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA 3 Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, Indonesia 4 Utah State University, Logan, USA Corresponding Author: Fabricio E. Balcazar, Department of Disability and Human Development, The University of Illinois at Chicago, MC 626, 1640 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60608, USA. Email: Fabricio@uic.edu Jobs for Youth Program: An Intervention to Improve Transition Outcomes of Former Dropout Minority Youth Fabricio E. Balcazar, PhD 1 , Jessica Awsumb, PhD 2 , Shawn Dimpfl, MS 1 , F. L. Fredrik G. Langi, MD, PhD 3 , and Jazmin Lara, BA 4 Abstract This study describes an intervention developed to implement several best transition practices with a high risk/high need population. In all, 116 students with disabilities from a charter school for dropouts participated. All students were interviewed at different points in time to track their progress as they completed the program. Records of participant’s activities and outcomes were collected. Results suggest a positive impact on students’ graduation rate (95%), enrollment in vocational rehabilitation (100%), proportion of students obtaining certificates for employment (56%), and paid internship (37%). Overall, 35% of the vocational rehabilitation cases were closed successfully with students meeting the 90-day employment requirement after graduation. Results inform future work on the implementation of interventions designed to help low-income minority youth with disabilities. Keywords transition intervention, transition outcomes, minority youth with disabilities