The Road to Transition Presented by: Wendy Byrnes

1. The Road to Transition Presented by: Wendy Byrnes

2. Post-Secondary Transition • Importance of Transition Planning • Transition Checklist • Implications for the Future

3. Why is planning so important? Transition from high school includes 3 important domains (or areas) that a student needs to prepare for in adult life. • Independent Living, • Academics, • Social and Emotional Growth and/or Spiritual pursuits. Students that remain unprepared for transition may have negative experiences including: • Higher rates or underemployment and unemployment than those in the broader population. • Their standard of living lags well behind those who do not identify themselves as disabled. • Self-determination is limited

4. College and the world of work brings new challenges • Students with learning challenges are sometimes unprepared to manage their new-found independence and freedom • They may struggle with navigating the new terrain of a college or vocational/work environment • They may lack self-awareness or self-confidence • They may be more fragile emotionally and socially • They may shoulder much more anxiety than their typical peers • They may fail to possess the necessary self-advocacy skills to access supports or know how to self-select for supports • They either lack or lag behind their peers in independent living skills • They lack organizational and time-management skills

5. GOOD NEWS! Planning can make the road leading to transition much smoother. There are many good resources available that can assist families in gathering information about the jump into the post-secondary environment. Some questions to ask and consider may be: • Who was I before or where did I start? (helps to see progress to date) • Who am I now? • What am I becoming? • Where do I want to go? (short-term vs. long-term) • How will I get there? • What will I need to learn beforehand in order to go forward….

6. HOPES AND DREAMS MATTER! What is the goal and motivation behind selecting and attending a post-secondary program including those with additional supports? • Is it the parent and not the student? • Is the goal to learn specific skills or to graduate with a vocational certificate or degree? • What is realistic? • What will happen when the student is finished? • Does the student need to develop more independent living or self-advocacy skills first? • Will students move on to further independence or will they need on-going assistance?

7. Gather plenty of information to make informed decisions • Visit colleges, vocational programs of interest or shadow someone with a job or career you think may be exciting. • Meet with disabled student services on college campuses and know the staff and the college’s policies and procedures (ask for written information provided to instructors and be frank when discussing the culture of acceptance for students needing accommodations.) • Students should obviously look for schools with a course of study that truly interests or motivates them. • Programs that offer a willingness for flexibility and can address a student’s unique needs should be important considerations when selecting potential placements. • Select a program that can provide supports such as academic liaison/advisement services, tutoring, residential supports if needed and ongoing moral support etc.

8. MORE ON SEARCHING FOR OPTIONS… • Start with researching options online with regard to admissions, disability services, course loads etc. (some colleges are more progressive than others) • Use a college counselor or consultant that is familiar with supportive options but make sure they are current with suggestions they may offer • Be knowledgeable about admission requirements for colleges or other programming selected • Attend college information fairs • Investigate Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies to see if a student may qualify for services • Understand costs for premium services and financial aid • Request data to verify student success and efficacy • Get references

9. VERY IMPORTANT: BECOME THE BEST SELF-ADVOCATE YOU CAN Teaching Students to become confident Self-Advocates whenever possible is critical in order for them to access services and supports that may be available to them. • Have a current, psycho-educational assessment that characterizes the student’s disability and accommodations they may be entitled to. • If you haven’t already…encourage students to practice articulating what kinds of accommodations they will need to request ahead of time. Remember that colleges and their supportive programs will be dealing with the student as the adult and not the parent (even with a release of information signed and on file) • Help students understand and articulate the particulars of their disability using appropriate diagnostic terms • Requesting accommodations is a repeated process and may require students to renegotiate requests each semester so working with supportive student services will be key • Students may want to create a written learning profile to use

10. If you are headed to college or vocational training • You may benefit from attending tutoring or study groups and should know how to locate them • You will need to practice and be aware of course placement testing if you have not taken ACT/SATs • You will need to know how to communicate electronically with instructors and use appropriate email etiquette • You may choose not to disclose a disability for a specific course if accommodations are not needed • You should feel comfortable asking for help when needed!

11. What Legal Protections Exist Beyond High School? • Public Schools are required to offer special education services to those that qualify. Once a student starts college, there are important changes to note. • Colleges are not required to offer special education services and they do not have to modify the content of a class that is taught. They are not legally mandated to provide paraprofessionals to stay with students or to provide tutors. • Instead, they offer disability services under two main laws. One is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the other is Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

12. What does this mean exactly? • The ADA and Section 504 are civil rights laws that were designed to provide “access” and “reasonable accommodations.” Discrimination based on disability is prohibited. “Otherwise qualified” students with disabilities (those that have equal skills and qualifications as their non-disabled counterparts) are supposed to receive equal access through the provision of accommodations or auxiliary aids to the full range of educational programs and activities offered to all students on the campus. • Decisions regarding accommodations are made on an individual basis and the college may select the aid or service it is to provide as long as it can show it to be effective. • Colleges and universities can still require potential students with disabilities to meet the school’s standards for admission, course content and graduation. • THE STUDENT MUST SELF-IDENTIFY. • THEY MUST ALSO PROVIDE DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE OF THE DISABILITY and NEED. • THEY MUST REQUEST ACCOMODATIONS BEFOREHAND, NOT AFTER THE FACT, IF THEY FAIL. Abstracted from “Guiding Teens with Learning Disabilities” by Arlyn Roffman, Ph.D

13. Skills Development…more to think about…are you ready? • personal responsibility • social competence • interpersonal relationships • physical and mental health • independent living • employability skills • recreation and leisure skills • consumer skills • community participation • mobility • communication • grooming • and occupational awareness

14. Transition Planning should mean … • Crafting goals that are relevant and then making progress toward goals in any such a plan; • Meaningful participation of students and those involved with the student • Appropriate intervention and instruction; • Long-term planning that starts before 16 (if needed • Appropriate and sufficient accommodations; • Appropriate training of those providing transition planning

15. Planning for the FutureFinal Thoughts and Suggestions for Transitioning Youth • Get adequate support from appropriate systems to make it work. • Listen, respect and appreciate the student’s desires. • HAVE FUN! Guide students so that they are ready to commit to a plan that includes responsibility for academics, independent living skills and social and emotional self-management to the best of their ability Help to create an atmosphere of hope and realism.

16. Available Resources: • www.ncset.org – National Center on Secondary Education And Transition • www.pacer.org/tatra - Pacer Center’s Technical Assistance Project • www.ldonline.org – Learning Disabilities Assoc. • www.dredf.org – Local Parent Training Center • www.rceb.org – Regional Center of the East Bay • www.rehab.cahwnet.gov – Dept. of Rehab • www.ssa.gov – Social Security • www.db101.org – Disability Calculator from World Institute on Disability • www.wrightslaw.com – Wright’s Law for Special Education • All these websites have specific information relating to transition