Summertime is good time to work on transition planning & with your child on how to participate more in his or her IEP meetings. This will teach self-advocacy skills & your child’s IEP meetings will be more student-directed. Prepare & practice a key role your child can have in planning & preparing for his or her next IEP meeting. To prepare try role-playing to practice for the meeting. To see if your child is prepared to participate in his or her IEP meetings click the links below to different Transition Planning tools such as a Student Rubric for IEP Participation.
Transition planning is at the heart of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), whose purpose is, “to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living.
Transition planning is a formal process to help students with IEPs figure out what they want to do after high school. It is a process that should help ensure student happiness, success, and satisfaction after high school and onto further work, future education, and adulthood. Transition services must be discussed in the first IEP that the student turns 16. Transition planning really should begin before the student turns 16. In Texas & other states transition discussions begin at age 14.
All students with disabilities should receive transition planning as part of their IEP meetings. The student and his or her IEP team create a vision for the future and then each year specific goals, coordinated set of activities, and services are identified to work toward that vision. Transition services (e.g. who, what, where, when, how) necessary to implement post-secondary goals and coordinated set of activities are determined after the IEP goals and objectives are agreed upon.
Transition services means a coordinated set of activities for a student with a disability that is designed to be within a results-oriented process that is focused on improving the academic and functional achievement of the student with a disability to facilitate the student’s movement from school to post-school activities, including:
- Post-secondary education
- Vocational education
- Continuing and adult education
- Integrated employment (including supported employment)
- Adult services, independent living, or community participation
IEP committee should use different methods to obtain the student’s preferences and interests.
- Informal assessments
- Parental input
- Teacher input
- Student input
Transition Planning Tools
1. Virtual IEP Meeting Skills Checklist https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/virtualiepstdntchklst
2. I’m Determined-Student Rubric for IEP Participation https://www.imdetermined.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/studentrubricforiepparticipation-1.pdf
3. I’m Determined-Self Determination Checklist, Self-Assessment for Student https://www.imdetermined.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/selfdeterminationcheckliststudentself-assessment.pdf
4. I’m Determined-Self Determination Checklist, Parent Assessment of Student https://www.imdetermined.org/wp content/uploads/2017/10/selfdeterminationchecklistparentassessment.pdf
5. *I’m Determined-IEP Meeting Exit Survey for Student https://www.imdetermined.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/exitsurveystudent.pdf
6. *I’m Determined-IEP Meeting Exit Survey for Parent https://www.imdetermined.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/exitsurveyparent.pdf
* These tools should be looked at from a perspective of skills necessary to prepare to participate in an IEP meeting as well as a way to to measure the experience of participating.