Transition Assessments

According to the Massachusetts DESE, “Transition assessment enables the IEP Team to understand the gaps between the student's current skills and the demands of the student's intended future environment, and to plan how best to lessen or eliminate them. Depending on the individual needs of each student, examples of questions that can be addressed in post-secondary domains might include:

• If the student would like to attend college, does the student have necessary academic, social, and functional skills?
• Given the student's vision for employment, what experiences and educational opportunities does the student require now in order to be successful in that future occupation?
• If the student currently lacks skills necessary to fulfill a postsecondary goal of independent living, and the Team determines this is an area of need, how will those skills be acquired?
• If the student does not require an independent living postsecondary goal on his/her IEP, does the student nonetheless require functional IEP goals, perhaps involving the use of assistive technology, that will support the development of skills in areas such as financial literacy, healthcare, and/or self-help?”