LSU Program Opens Doors to Independence for Students with Intellectual Disabilities and Engagement for All
February 23, 2026
Historically, young adults with intellectual disabilities have had limited pathways to build independence and fully participate in college life. LSU’s Integrative Community Studies Program, or ICS, is opening doors to Louisianans and providing these individuals a supported, inclusive college experience that builds life, academic, socialization, and career skills.
ICS is a two-year certificate program where students gain social and work-readiness skills and attend academic courses alongside other LSU students. Program staff aim to support participating students in growing in confidence and independence, leaving the program ready to contribute to the Louisiana workforce.
“The value of the Integrative Community Studies program is that it brings people together who generally haven't been together on this campus,” said Paul Mooney, co-founder and faculty advisor to the ICS program and a professor of special education. “There are mentors from across the university, there are faculty members, and there are departments that are actively and collaboratively engaged in this program.”
While the program is housed in LSU’s College of Human Sciences and Education, staff and students partner with professionals in other departments on campus, including kinesiology and theater. Capable and caring faculty and administrators adapt the curriculum so that program students can meaningfully audit traditional courses. ICS students participate in courses that range from traditional academic to workforce exploration and recreational courses. Experts from across campus help create a well-rounded experience, while LSU students serve as peer mentors and build meaningful connections.
Peer mentors work with students as a supportive friend, helping them get to class and take notes, acclimate to campus, exercise, and eat with.
“I think the LSU experience is a chance for students to build a community themselves," said ICS program manager Leanora Hernandez. "They make friends that can support them, and really just feel like an integrated part of the LSU family."
ICS students live on campus in groups of four, with an independent living assistant who is a traditional LSU student in an apartment with three program students. The support person, who could be thought of as an in-apartment resident assistant or RA, is there to support and develop students’ individual academic, living, socialization, career, and recreational readiness.
ICS student Cole Ruttley said he appreciates the kindness, respectfulness, understanding, and willingness of his college friends and peer support system, as well as the program's efforts to help him be successful.
“It's like a guarantee for our fate,” said Ruttley. “It's going to help us reach our fate of being independent and having the same life skills as normal people, but we'll still remain different in a good way.”
“These programs improve the quality of life for our students as mentors as well as students who receive these services, as they improve the quality of our campus by being here."
Roland Mitchell, Dean of the LSU College of Human Sciences & Education
Earning National Recognition
The LSU ICS program was recently awarded $2.2 million from the U.S. Department of Education. The program was one of 27 awardees – two in Louisiana – for the Model Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSID) program.
Co-authored by Mooney and Allie Boquet, the five-year Empowered to be Gainfully Employed: Co-Developing Industry-Based Credential Curriculum and Technology in a Comprehensive Transition Program award will be a systemic and collaborative initiative designed to expand postsecondary training options for young adults with intellectual disabilities who have exited secondary transition programming and are interested or enrolled in postsecondary education. All of the funds will be directed at developing curricula, training materials and practices, and meaningful credentials. Mooney and Boquet will partner with experts in fields such as pharmacy, hotels, hospitality, emergency preparedness, financial literacy, and technology.
“It will be amazing to see what the team of collaborators we’ve assembled will accomplish over the next five years,” said Allie Boquet, co-principal investigator and Lutrill and Pearl Payne School of Education special education programs faculty member. “By working hand-in-hand with our community partners, we can ensure that students gain access to meaningful, credentialed training that leads directly to gainful employment. This grant allows us to extend the reach of ICS well beyond campus.”
The project is in collaboration with 12 community and industry partners, who will co-develop training models, provide applied learning opportunities, and support students in navigating inclusive career pathways.
Partnerships include local school districts, department of education professionals, workforce development boards, and employers across multiple sectors, reflecting a commitment to both statewide impact and sustainable career outcomes. By the end of the five years, it is expected that a stronger connection will exist between secondary transition programs and postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disabilities and their families.
Louisiana Board of Regents Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Innovation Tristan Denley said programs like this “dovetail with the needs of the state from an economic perspective to make sure that we are educating the folks are are then going to fill the jobs that Louisiana employers need to be able to grow our economy in the ways that we all want Louisiana to prosper.”
“The ICS program allows all LSU students to be able to contribute to the development of a more independent Louisiana through all of their involvement in the activities that our ICS students are engaged in, all with the goal of allowing greater independence in these young adults as they move out of the program and move forward,” Mooney said.
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