What is Transition?

What are Transition Services?

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) defines secondary transition as:

[A] coordinated set of activities for a child with a disability that (a) is designed to be a results-oriented process, that is focused on improving the academic and functional achievement of the child with a disability to facilitate the child’s movement from school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation; (b) is based on the individual child’s needs, taking into account the child’s strengths, preferences, and interests.

Transitioning from high school to the adult world can be a challenging time for students, especially those with disabilities, as they enter a world of unfamiliar routines, new environments, and novel experiences. To ease these transitions and make them as smooth as possible, teachers and school personnel, along with others (e.g., families, community agencies), should assist students with disabilities in the process of selecting appropriate goals and developing the requisite skills to achieve these goals in three main areas:

• Work: A job they want and are good at

• Living: A place they want to live

• Community involvement: Activities they undertake to become a part of their community after they finish high school and throughout adulthood

Though secondary transition planning is a part of the IEP process, it is not intended to be a static activity that only occurs annually during a student’s IEP meeting. Ongoing transition planning helps students develop independence, which in turn helps them to reach their career and adult-living goals. Transition planning must be in place when the student turns 16, though he or she can be younger if the IEP team deems it necessary. It often occurs near the end of middle school as the student begins planning his or her high school course of study.

“What Is Secondary Transition?” IrisCenter, www.https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/tran/cresource/q1/p01/. Accessed October 25, 2021.