The jobs at the Cool Beans Café are full and the seventh-grade special needs students filling them are getting practical experience as they sell coffee, tea and cocoa once a week to the school’s teachers and staff.
Heather Hopkins, the teacher at Poquoson Middle School in Virginia who started the café and helps run it, told the Newport News Daily Press that the five special needs students learn job skills and social interactions outside the usual classroom environment.
Hopkins now just offers occasional advice to her young workers as they take care of the café.
"They really get a lot out of this," Hopkins told the Daily Press. "They can do this. It was kind of a sad day when they didn't need me anymore."
Hopkins told the Daily Press that she started the coffee shop program this school year with Virginia Department of Education grant totaling $1,600. The grant is designed to give students a chance to practice self-determined behavior and independence.
She said she wanted to give students a chance to build skills they will need once they are finished with school. They had to apply for jobs at the café and reapply again when they change jobs.
She said the program also give students the concept of wages and paying rent so they get to make a connection between work and how people live.
According to the middle school's website, the students picked out the name "Cool Beans" for their business.
Patrons preorder their coffee by an electronic sign-up, indicate what they would like and select what condiments they would like with each cup.
The students are assigned an individual task that assists them with learning life skills, problem-solving, resilience, optimistic thinking, character strength development, emotional intelligence, self-confidence, and social skills, the website said.
Some of the money raised by the café funds field trips like to places like Chick-Fil-A to learn about school skills at restaurants, along with some fun things like movie trips, the Daily Press reported.
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