Programs & Degrees

The RHS major prepares students to work in diverse human service settings that serve people with disabilities. Students in this major work with a variety of clients (children, adolescents, adults, older adults) who often experience problems in physical, personal, social, educational, and vocational aspects of their lives. RHS professionals assist these individuals to improve each person's quality of life. 

Professional skills that RHS students acquire include how to: identify and support client goals, advocate for others, assess client needs, conduct educational and related support groups, consult with other professionals from other agencies and settings, develop client and family treatment plans, identify and use appropriate community resources to address client problems, interview clients, family members, and other support personnel, manage client caseloads, and resolve conflicts.

The Special Education program is housed in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education in the College of Education at Penn State. Our goal, shared with our colleagues in the Department, is an educational system in which families, communities, and educators share responsibility and commitment for preparing future citizens to live independent, responsible, productive, and personally satisfying lives to the fullest extent of their capabilities in our evolving society.

The minor in Rehabilitation and Human Services (RHS) supplements the educational needs of students across disciplines who wish to gain advanced knowledge and skills related to health, disability, and interpersonal interactions. In today’s society, due to medical advances and an aging population, more people are living longer with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and many jobs require advanced interpersonal skills and knowledge of health, disability, and human service skills.

From the earliest proposals for public schooling in the U.S., researchers and practitioners have relied on comparative and international perspectives to illuminate the field of education. Today more than ever, in an era of information technology and an interconnected global economy of skills and ideas, scholars need to understand how the processes of schooling and learning vary across societies and what implications these variations have for education in the world today.