Secondary Transition Assessment

As soon as consent for evaluation is obtained, send TRAX survey to necessary team members. Follow these directions to send a TRAX survey: Click Here 

The determination of which TRAX survey to use with a particular student should be based on the student’s goals for postsecondary education, employment, and independent living, as well as input from IEP team members.

• Mild Disabilities Survey: Generally used with students who have (1) a specific learning disability that causes the student to struggle in reading or math, (2) a speech impairment where the student needs speech therapy for pronunciation issues, or (3) a physical impairment, like a hearing or visual impairment, where the student might just need a hearing device or visual accommodations to succeed in the classroom.

  • In school, students are successful in the general education classroom with minimal assistance, appropriate equipment, and necessary accommodations.

  • In life after high school, it is anticipated that these students will work full or part time in a competitively job and live independently on their own or with minimal or no support.

• Moderate Disabilities Survey: Generally used with students who have a disability that hinders them from managing themselves or succeeding on their own for a prolonged period of time.

  • In school, students are supported by the special education staff most of the day in either the regular or special education classrooms. Their curriculum consists of a modified version of the general ed. curriculum and life skills.

  • In life after high school, it is anticipated that these students will work part time in assisted employment and live in a supported setting.

• Severe Disabilities Survey: Generally used with students who have disabilities that preclude them from participating in the general education curriculum.

  • In school, students are supported by the special education staff all day in either the regular or special education classrooms. Their curriculum is heavily influenced by learning basic life skills.

  • In life after high school, it is anticipated that these students will work part time on simple, repetitive tasks in situations that are continually supported.

• Autism Spectrum Survey: Generally used with students demonstrate characteristics associated with the autism spectrum, but have maintained reasonable success in the regular education curriculum.

  • In school, students who are on the autism spectrum are in the regular education classroom and receive assistance and support from special education.

  • In life after high school, it is anticipated that these students will work full or part time in a competitively job and live independently on their own or with minimal or no support.

• Autism Spectrum Survey for Students with Moderate Disabilities: This group generally have disabilities that hinder them from managing themselves or succeeding on their own for a prolonged period of time, plus possess characteristics associated with the autism spectrum.

  • In school, students are supported by the special education staff most of the day in either the regular or special education classrooms. Their curriculum consists of a modified version of the general ed. curriculum and life skills.

  • In life after high school, it is anticipated that these students will work part time in assisted employment and live in a supported setting.

• Autism Spectrum Survey for Students with Severe Disabilities Survey: Generally used with students who have disabilities that preclude them from participating in the general education curriculum.

  • In school, students are supported by the special education staff all day in either the regular or special education classrooms. Their curriculum is heavily influenced by learning basic life skills.

  • In life after high school, it is anticipated that these students will work part time on simple, repetitive tasks in situations that are continually supported.

Follow these directions to view TRAX results: Click Here

Once you have results up, click the “Display by Group” green button at the top. This will organize the results by the different categories (workplace skills, responsibility, interacting with others, basic academic skills, habits of wellness, planning for success, and computer and internet skills).

Review the results and determine one to two categories that are relative strengths for the student and one to two categories that are relative weaknesses for the student. List these in the table in the template.

1. Strength categories will have the most raters marking skills as strengths or as okay.

2. Weakness categories will have the most raters marking skills as needs.

Note — Some raters have a tendency to rate every item as a strength or weakness without leaving them blank to indicate the skill is okay. You may need to follow up with survey takers to determine which skills they are actually worried about and which ones they believe to be strengths. If you need to do this, you should put a statement in the validity section of the template stating the survey participant did not understand the directions and results were gained by a follow-up interview.

Once relative strength and weakness categories are determined, list a few skills from that category in the table in the template. This helps readers understand the types of skills the student is either good at or may have a relative weakness in.

Finally, consider the results of the survey in conjunction with other information you know.

• Relative Strengths: In what area(s) does the student do well? How is this observed in the school and/or community setting?

• Relative Weaknesses: How do the student’s skills in this area compare with same age peers? Does the student need to engage in any activities or receive any instruction to assist with building skill in this area? If no, it is appropriate to state "XXX's skills are deemed to be age appropriate. There are no needs in this area at this time."

IDEA (Section 1414 (d) (1) (A) (i) (VIII)) clearly states that postsecondary goals must be based on transition assessments (plural). Thus, at a minimum, we must complete at least two transition assessments to meet the legal requirement.

Minnesota state statute 3525.2900 specifies  that "Secondary transition evaluation results must be documented as part of an evaluation report."

We must obtain consent (initial) or attempt to obtain consent (re-eval) for comprehensive evaluations that will determine special education eligibility. However, we can still use individual evaluation tools (e.g., CBMs) to inform our teaching and to update our IEPs. For example, we don't get special permission to give students an ORF probe to update their IEP goal. The big difference is how we are using the data. In an evaluation, that data is used to make a decision about eligibility or continued eligibility while between evaluations we use data to inform our teaching and update our IEPs.

You might wonder, 'Does that mean that I could administer, say, an IQ test between evaluations in order to update an IEP?' Ethically, standardized assessments (e.g., IQ tests, WJ-Achievement, ABAS, BASC, etc.) would not fall under use outside of an evaluation, as the main purpose of standardized norm-referenced assessments is to compare skills to a nationally normed base in order to support eligibility determinations. Compared to CBMs, transition assessments, etc., standardized norm-referenced assessments do not provide useful information for program planning or IEP goal development, and you wouldn't use them as progress monitoring tools.

Once educational needs have been identified through a comprehensive evaluation, they must be addressed in the IEP. Because you have identified transition needs via the 7th or 8th grade evaluation, the IEP must begin to address those needs. Click here for more information on addressing secondary transition in an IEP.