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Champions for Children with Disabilities
Preparing for Employment: On the Home FrontThis Parent Brief describes ways in which youth and families can help youth effectively explore work-based learning outside of school settings.
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Transition Planning and Employment
From the time your child begins receiving special education services, an Individualized Education Program (IEP) guides his or her education. During the transition years, your son or daughter's IEP must contain specific transition services defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) and its regulations. IDEA requires that by age 16 the IEP team must determine what instruction and educational experiences will help students prepare for the transition from school to adult life. IDEA requires that parents and students be involved in all aspects of transition planning and decision-making.
Transition planning generally involves three major activities: 1) coaching students and family members to think about goals for life after high school and to develop a long range plan to get there; 2) designing a high school education that ensures students will gain the skills and competencies needed to achieve their desired goals; and 3) identifying needed post-school services and supports, and linking students and families with them before they leave the special education system. Teachers and families support students in identifying post-school goals and the steps needed to achieve their goals through ongoing discussion, assessment, instruction and work-based experiences.
Successful transition planning and implementation is student focused. School activities identified in a student's transition plan must be directly linked to each student's post-school goals. A transition plan must reflect a student's individual choices, preferences, and needs in the areas of education and training, employment, adult living arrangements, and community experiences. Self-determination and advocacy are critical skills that help ensure student-focused planning and implementation. Students can practice applying these skills by taking increasing responsibility for planning and conducting their IEP meetings.
Transition Planning Links
- NCSET/PACER Parent Brief "IDEA 1997 Transition Issues: The IEP for Transition Aged Students" (July 2002)
- PACER's Mapping Your Dreams series, a series of booklets exploring key areas of transition for youth with disabilities: community, education, employment, home living and recreation.
- PACER article, Transfer of Rights at Age of Majority
- Interagency Collaboration and Transition
- Self Determination, fact sheet
- Student-Led IEPs: A Guide for Student Involvement , a 2001 publication developed by The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration
- "Student-Led Individual Educational Plans," a PACER newsletter article from Point of Departure, Vol. 4, No. 2
- Healthy and Ready to Work National Center
- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 Transition Requirements; A Guide for States, Districts, Schools, Universities & Families, from the web site of the Western Regional Resource Center
- National Center on Secondary Education and Transition
- Technical Assistance Guide: Helping Students Develop Their IEPs, from the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
- Transition Coalition
- Transition Planning for Adolescents with Special Health Care Needs and Disabilities: Information for Families and Teens, from the Institute On Community Inclusion, Boston
- NCSET/PACER Parent Brief Person-Centered Planning: A Tool for Transition (February 2004)
- Transition: The Passage from Youth to Adulthood
This manual developed by the Florida based Advocacy Center provides an overview of services and information that can make transition a success for young people with disabilities between the ages of 14 and 22. Although some of the information it contains is specific to Florida, most information applies to the transition experience throughout the United States. It is also available in Spanish. For an alternative format of this document call 1-800-342-0823.
PACER's site offers many PDF files for download, which require 
