Type Of Transition Services A Student Needs example essay topic

The completion of high school is the beginning of adult life. Entitlement to public education ends, and young people and their families are faced with many options and decisions about the future. The most common choices for the future are pursuing vocational training or further academic education, getting a job, and living independently. For students with disabilities, these choices may be more complex and may require a great deal of planning.

Planning the transition from school to adult life begins, at the latest, during high school. In fact, transition planning is required, by law, to start once a student reaches 14 years of age, or younger, if appropriate. This transition planning becomes formalized as part of the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP). Transition services are intended to prepare students to make the transition from the world of school to the world of adulthood.

In planning what type of transition services a student needs to prepare for adulthood, the IEP Team considers areas such as post secondary education or vocational training, employment, independent living, and community participation. The transition services themselves are a coordinated set of activities that are based on the student's needs and that take into account his or her preferences and interests. Transition services can include instruction, community experiences, the development of employment and other post- school adult living objectives, and (if appropriate) the acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational assessment. The student and his or her family are expected to take an active role in preparing the student to take responsibility for his or her own life once school is finished.

Where once school provided a centralized source of education, guidance, transportation, and even recreation, after students leave school, they will need to organize their own lives and needs and navigate among an array of adult service providers and federal, state, and local programs. This can be a daunting task one for which the student and his or her family need to be prepared. This Transition Summary provides ideas and information on how students, families, school personnel, service providers, and others can work together to help students make a smooth transition. In particular, this document focuses on creative transition planning and services that use all the resources that exist in communities, not just the agencies that have traditionally been involved. This publication also provides: o definitions of some terms used in transition planning, o lists of individuals and agencies that can help the IEP Team create a successful transition plan, o guides to finding the groups and agencies that provide transition services, o examples of creative transition plans, and ways to improve the transition system by working at the community level. Back to top Brief Legal Overview If students are to mature into independent, productive adults and become increasingly responsible for their actions and accomplishments, they need to acquire the skills that are of value in the world of adulthood.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) acknowledges this and contains provisions meant to encourage student involvement and shared decision making. Since 1990, transition services have been a requirement of law for students who are 16 years or older, or younger if deemed appropriate by the IEP Team. The services are planned at the IEP meeting to which students must be invited. Thus, the 1990 IDEA legislation provided students with an enormous new opportunity to be involved in planning their own education, to look into the future, to voice their preferences and concerns and desires, to be heard, to share in making decisions that so directly affect them. Now, under the latest reauthorization of the IDEA in 1997 (IDEA 97), this involvement has been expanded. In addition to transition services beginning at age 16, a statement of transition service needs is required at age 14.

At this time, and updated annually thereafter, the IEP Team looks at the child's courses of study (such as advanced placement courses or vocational education programs) and determines whether or not those courses of study are leading the student to where the student needs to be upon graduation. What other courses might be indicated, given the student's goals for life after secondary school? Beginning to plan at age 14, with an eye to necessary coursework, is expected to help students plan and prepare educationally. Then, at age 16, or younger if appropriate, transition services are delivered in a wide range of areas.

IDEA 97 has also outlined procedures for the transfer of parental rights to the student when he or she reaches the age of majority under State law. Both the parents and the student must be notified of any transfer of rights that will take place at that time. Students are to receive the notification at least one year before they reach the age of majority. A statement must be included in the IEP that the student has been informed of the rights, if any, that will transfer to the student on reaching the age of majority. After the student attains the age of majority, if rights transfer, the school must provide any notice required by the law (e. g., procedural safeguards notice, notice regarding an upcoming IEP meeting) to both the student and the parents. In states where rights transfer, all other rights accorded to the parents transfer to the student.

(If the student is determined incompetent under state law, then the rights remain with the parents.) Many students, however, may not have the ability to provide informed consent with respect to their educational program, although they have not been determined under state law to be incompetent. To protect the interests of these children, IDEA 97 provides that each state that transfers rights needs to establish procedures for appointing the parents (or another appropriate individual, if the parents are not available) to represent the student's educational interests. This transfer of rights is obviously an enormous step forward toward empowering students as adults and encouraging them to inform themselves about and become deeply involved in their education and particularly in planning for their future. Educators will need to provide additional training and opportunities for students to understand the impact of this responsibility. ( ) This legal overview was taken directly from the approved O SEP IDEA 97 Training Package, Module 9, pp. 9-11 through 9-13.

This document is available from NICH CY. Back to top Transition Teams This section looks at ways to create effective transition teams. Collaboration between team members and participating agencies is an essential part of the process [see section below entitled What is Collaboration? ]. What is Collaboration? There are basically four ways in which people can interact to establish or improve services and plan for young adults preparing for transition from school to post-school activities.

Let us look at these methods briefly. Through networking, people gain an awareness of available resources and discover how to access or refer individuals to those services. An example of networking might be a transition coordinator talking with local business owners to identify possible job training sites for students. While networking is an essential step in collaboration, it will not be enough for students who have complex transition service needs. Service coordination assists in the selection and scheduling of services. In coordinating, people arrange for a student with disabilities to receive specific services from different agencies (for example, one agency making a phone call to another agency to determine their respective roles and to schedule activities).

With cooperation, people look for ways to support and complement one another's transition services. For example, an adult services agency may accept a student's recent test results from his or her school to determine the student's eligibility for services. This would prevent the student from being tested twice and would save the adult services agency time and expense. Collaboration begins with networking, coordination, and cooperation and then requires team members to share decisions, responsibility, and trust. It requires that team members invest time and energy to come up with options and design strategies for carrying out these plans.

Because collaboration requires lots of time and energy, it is impossible to make all decisions collaboratively. In some instances, the desired result can be achieved through networking, coordination, or cooperation. Working together, or collaboratively, invites participation of multiple service providers and the use of multiple resources. See the Student Stories below for examples of collaboration in action.