Transition...
To Life After High School
by Richard Haines - Lake Washington School District - Redmond, Washington
Transition is simply a passage from one stage of life to another. For students, one significant life passage is moving from the known entity of high school toward living, learning, working, and playing in their communities as young adults. This is an important transition for all young adults, but has significant implications for students receiving special education services.
Students (and families) dream about how they would like their lives to look as young adults. For some, these dreams might include continuing their education in a community, technical, or four-year college. For others, their dreams might be working in the trades or entering the military. Still others might target full or part time employment, supported employment, or volunteer work in the community. Beyond their careers, students also dream about where and how they might live, what kinds of friendships and relationships they can build, and how they can become involved in their communities.
Planning is the key to helping students make successful transitions beyond high school and toward these dreams. For students with disabilities, this planning is required by law (IDEA) and is becoming a new high school graduation requirement for all students. It should be at the core of the IEP process for students in junior high and high school.
Entitlement vs. Eligibility: It’s a New Ball Game
Another way of thinking about transition is the move students make from services based on entitlements to those based on eligibility. Special education services are entitlements. Schools are required by law to provide special education services to students up to and including the school year in which they turn 21 (or have met their requirements for a high school diploma). However, once students exit the school system, they are entering a world where services are based upon eligibility and availability, i.e., they are not guaranteed.
When students leave school, they are
leaving a system of entitlements,
and are entering a world where
services arenot guaranteed.
Students must meet eligibility requirements to receive most adult services. Even if eligible, funding or service availability issues may interfere with receiving desired services. In other words, even though a person with a disability may qualify (“be eligible”) for services designed to help move toward his/her dreams, those services may not be available in a timely fashion, if at all. Considering this change in availability and access to services when leaving the school system, effective transition planning becomes an even more critical component of a student’s special education service.
Goals of Transition Planning
The primary goals of transition planning are to help students (and their families) plan and prepare to move toward one or more of the following post school outcomes:
• Post-secondary education
• Employment (including supported employment)
• Continuing and adult education
• Community participation
Characteristics of Effective Transition Planning: Asking What’s Next
Effective transition planning plays a vital role in helping students achieve their desired goals after leaving school. This planning does not take place in isolation and has several key characteristics.
- Person centered: Transition planning should be based on what makes a student “tick,” i.e., upon his/her unique dreams, gifts (capacities and strengths), preferences, and support needs. This information can and should be systematically captured throughout a student’s school career, especially at the secondary level.
- Process oriented: Transition is a process. Transition plans are not set in concrete. They need to be flexible and responsive to the changing needs of an individual student and his/her family. A transition plan needs to be reviewed on a regular basis and at a minimum once per year. This usually takes place as part of the IEP meeting. It is best practice to start IEP meetings with a discussion of transition plans. IEP goals and objectives should be written with these plans in mind. The transition planning process can be guided by posing and answering the following simple, but critical questions:
- What’s next? Today, tomorrow, and down the road?
- What do you need to do to get there?
- What do you need from members of your transition planning team?
- Who else might help you plan and prepare?
- How can we (i.e., your transition planning team) support you along the way?
It is best practice to start IEP meetings
with a discussion of transition plans.
IEP goals and objectives should be
written with these plans in mind.
- Long term: Transition planning can begin at any age. The earlier it starts the better. According to regulations stemming from IDEA and the Washington Administrative Code, planning must begin by the time a student turns 14 years of age and should become progressively more intentional, focused, and refined with time. From age 16, specific transition activities should be incorporated into a student’s school experience.
- Teamwork: Effective transition planning requires active teamwork by a number of key players. To be effective, it needs to include people and agencies that represent both ends of the “transition bridge” from school to the community. In addition to the student and his/her parents or guardians, a transition planning team might include a number of different players who could be helpful in this process:
- Education personnel (general, vocational, special, counselors, and related services such as OT, PT, SLP)
- State and local agency representatives (e.g., DDD, DVR)
- Adult service providers or vendors (e.g., employment or residential services agencies)
- Post-secondary personnel (e.g., Disabled Student Services representatives)
- Representatives from apprenticeship programs or military recruiters
- Anyone who might be helpful or interested
- Outcome focused and future oriented: Effective transition planning has tangible or “real” goals that reflect what a student plans to be doing after leaving school. Where will she/he be living, learning, working, and playing? What types of support will be needed? Who will provide those supports? How will they be funded?
Transition services in school should include:
- Development of post school objectives
- Specialized instruction in areas of need (including academic and daily living skills, when appropriate)
- Employment and/or career and technical experiences
- Functional vocational evaluation - when appropriate
The earlier transition planning
Key Transition Activities
Transition activities can be viewed as a process that is on-going and evolving over time. There are three main functions: planning, preparing, and connecting.
- Clearly identifying a student’s path towards graduation including specifying graduation standards and anticipated graduation date
- Helping students dream (e.g., person centered planning) and then translating those dreams into possible post-school outcomes
- Developing a coordinated plan of activities designed to help a student move toward those dreams and outcomes
- Providing students with a variety of career and technical (i.e., vocational) employment, and community experiences
- Building core academic skills
- Identifying and using accommodations and adaptive strategies
- Helping students identify and “capture” their unique capacities, strengths, preferences, and support needs (functional vocational evaluation)
- Nurturing the development of self advocacy skills: Preparing students and their families to assume the responsibility for accessing desired services, supports, and accommodations after leaving the school system
Helping students and their families link with appropriate community resources, including:
- Federal, State, and local agencies (e.g., Division of Vocational Rehabilitation; Development Disabilities Services; Social Security Administration)
- Post secondary institutions and supports
- Specialized service providers (i.e., vendors) for employment, residential, recreation, and other services
- Generic service providers for employment, residential, and other services
Transition Pathways: Where are YOU Headed?
Depending upon desired post school outcomes, a student and his or her family may find it helpful to think in terms of “transition pathways.” Although many parts of the transition planning process are similar across pathways, there are some activities that are unique. For example, if a student is planning on heading directly to work after graduation, there are several things that s/he can be doing in high school, at home, and in the community to help prepare for that transition. Likewise, if a student is planning on supported employment or going to college, there are activities and connections that are unique to those outcomes as well.
Although it is the job of a transition team to help chart the path for an individual student, it can be helpful to start with a general road map. Listed below are a handful of arbitrarily defined pathways. They are not intended to be inclusive of all possible pathways, but can provide a template from which to individualize planning.
Four Year, Community, or Technical Colleges
Work, Military, Apprenticeships, or Further Training
Leaving High School Before Graduating
Other Considerations and Resources
To find the Transition Pathways on the Internet, go to the URL: www.lwsd.org and then click through district programs, special services, and finally transition to life after high school. The “home page” for the entire web site is the portal through which you can access information on any of the pathways. After an introductory narrative, each of these sections is organized with the following questions in mind:
- What can be done or supported at school?
- What can be done or supported at home?
- What resources or other connections might be helpful?
- What can be done along the way to help prepare for transition?
- Forms, checklists, and related documents can be found by clicking the button by that name. Transition checklists can be used as a simple guide to transition planning activities beginning at or before the age of 14.
- Links to resources: One of the characteristics of this web page is the ability to link directly to related resources. These links are highlighted in blue. With a simple click of the mouse (and maybe holding the control key on occasion) you will be taken to far off places? Hopefully, the information found at the other end of the link is current and useful.
As with any document, this one is a work in progress. Please feel free to contact the author with your comments and suggestions. The material is borrowed heavily from other resources. Many of the sources should be fairly evident (e.g., the sections on DVR and Job Corps), but please look at the bibliography at the end of the document for some of the other sources.
Happy transitions to you!
Richard Haines
Special Services and Transition Liaison
Lake Washington School District
Redmond, Washington
425.861.3452 (office)
rihaines@lwsd.org
