Tuesday's Transition Tips for Teachers is a weekly email for teachers, administrators, parents, counselors, and vocational rehabilitation staff. "Tip" topics include quality and compliant Transition IEPs, transition assessments, drop-out prevention strategies, work-based learning, academic and life skill instruction, family involvement, working with Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation, and much, much more.Creating a Seamless Secondary Transition for Students
Indiana’s Department of Education and Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services hope to increase the number of individuals with disabilities in competitive integrated employment from 23% to 38% by 2027. One important way to prepare for that is during secondary transition.
Transitioning from high school to adulthood can be elegantly seamless rather than piecemeal. Important elements of a Seamless Transition, according to TransCen, a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of youth and young adults with disabilities, include the following:
- Establish a Vision
- Believe that students with disabilities can earn at least minimum wage in an integrated setting (one that includes people with and without disabling conditions) with businesses in the community.
- Create a Positive Personal Profile(PPP)
- Use a PPP as a transition assessment to focus on skills, preferences, and passions over labels and deficits.
- Take a look at a sample PPP.
- Explore Employment Options
- Create relationships with employers in your area.
- Offer multiple opportunities to explore employment.
- Set a goal: Employment on the last day of school will be the same as the first day after graduation.
- Build Successful Interagency Teams
- School staff
- Employment service providers, like Pre-ETS and VR
- Student/Families
- Promote Family Engagement
- Interview parents and students to identify hopes, dreams, expectations, and challenges.
- Take a look at a sample parent interview form.
Resources
- Employment First framework, Office of Disability Employment Policy, Department of Labor
- Seamless Transition modules, IRIS Center, Peabody College Vanderbilt University
- Writing a Strong Vision Statement, Make Special Education Work