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PACE

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Important Community Update about PACE Program – December 2024

For over 25 years, the PACE Program has provided specialized programming for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to grow through life skills, technology and job readiness classes. We have a dedicated team of faculty and staff who have been devoted to this program, have worked diligently to address challenges, and have been consistently striving to make it better. PACE has been a valued part of the Spokane community and Spokane Community College is proud of this legacy.

Despite this impactful history, after a thorough program evaluation, Spokane Community College will not continue offering PACE classes after the 2024-25 academic year. PACE classes will continue through the Winter and Spring quarters, but no new students are being accepted into the program. The last day of PACE classes will be June 12, 2025.

The PACE program was carefully reviewed with consideration of the many benefits of the program as well as the following:

  • Logistical challenges in a higher educational academic setting
  • Student safety
  • Legal compliance
  • Budget and resource concerns

The decision to discontinue the program was not made hastily or without great consideration of these and other issues.

While there are currently no similar educational programs offered in Spokane, we have been engaging in active conversations with several community partners to see how they may be able to offer programs tailored to PACE students and families, in an effort to support students as they transition from the program.

We will update this page with further details about our community partners, as information becomes available. Thank you.

Student Responsibilities

  1. Students enroll in classes to make progress towards earning the PACE Certificate.
  2. Students are encouraged to take classes back-to-back and to not have more than a 1 hour break in their class schedule.
  3. Do your best, do homework, and prepare for class every day.
  4. Come to class every day. Tell your teacher if you are sick or have an emergency.
  5. You may attempt a course 3 times. Your teacher will help you if you can’t pass the first time.

PACE Certificate

The PACE Certificate is designed to build workplace readiness skills which can be applied to a future career, volunteer work, or other community engagement activities. The Certificate is designed to help students achieve the following four outcomes:

  1. Apply critical thinking skills to form opinions and conclusions.
  2. Demonstrate leadership and teamwork skills.
  3. Demonstrate workplace readiness skills.
  4. Develop and use digital literacy skills.

Across these four outcome areas, the PACE Certificate is composed of 90 credits. To earn these 90 credits and graduate with a PACE Certificate, students have the opportunity to complete a total of 30 three-credit classes. A student taking a full-time courseload (15 credits per quarter) can earn the PACE Certificate in approximately two years or six academic quarters.

Looking for information about SEER?

Contact the SCC Counseling Center at 509-533-8647 or ronda.hain@scc.spokane.edu.