History
When Congress reauthorized and revised the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, in 2004, they had several goals. One was to do something proactive to change historically low graduation rates and correspondingly high dropout rates among children with disabilities. The idea of a transition plan had been introduced in the 1997 re-authorization of this act and had been fairly effective in some areas; however, those regulations did not seem to make any impact on the two rates in question. Students with disabilities graduate at a rate of slightly higher than 50 percent, as compared to the 76 percent of their peers without disabilities who graduate; this rate is often pointed out by critics of the expense of special education. Likewise, the dropout rate is also much higher among students with disabilities.
What is Secondary Transition?
Secondary transition is defined in IDEA as “a coordinated set of activities that may address, among others, the assessment, planning process, educational and community living and leisure activities.” The goal of transition is to help students nearing high school completion to understand their disability and choices that define their future career. So, what exactly does that mean? The law mandates that as each student turns age 16, his or her IEP should have a transition plan in place. Transition requirements need to be addressed at the annual review of the IEP or another IEP meeting preceding a student’s 16th birthday, and the IEP must be amended by the time the student turns 16. This transition plan stays in place as amended until the student graduates or exits school at age 21.
Unfortunately, some students with IEPs do not get anything other than a plan on paper. For example, the closer a student is to performing normally academically, the less likely his or her transition plan will have any real programming attached to it. This is probably due to the other details that are emphasized surrounding high school graduation.
The provisions in 300.230(b) of IDEA requires that transition plans include these elements:
- Postsecondary goals that are measurable, appropriate and based upon age-appropriate transition assessment.
- Transition assessments including training, education, employment and independent living skills where appropriate.
- A course of study listing and describing transition services to be provided.
- Transition services that include things that will assist the child in reaching those measureable postsecondary goals.
Thus, there are three basic parts to the transition plan that needs to become a part of each student’s IEP by his or her 16th birthday:
- Appropriate transition assessments (aptitude, attitude, jobs skills, skills for post-secondary education, etc).
- Measurable goals for education, future employment, training and, if appropriate, independent living skills.
- A description of transitions services that will be put in place, including a course of study for transition.
It is possible for state departments of education to require more than is required by IDEA.
Questions About Secondary Transition
- Who writes the transition plan? The IEP Team has this responsibility as it does for all other parts of the IEP.
- Is it OK to wait until the student is already 16 to add transition planning to the IEP? No. Once the student has turned 16 and there is no transition plan in place, the district is considered out of compliance and the student is being denied his or her free, appropriate public education.
- What if I have a student on my caseload who has a transition plan, but gets no activities during the school day as a result? It is OK if the activities are completed after school hours or off campus, depending upon individual needs and whether or not the goals can be measured; however, remember there should be an appropriate course of study, not just some unconnected activities.
- Have dropout rates and graduation rates gotten better as a result of this change in 2004? Not at first. The law was passed in 2004, but the regulations were not released until 2006, meaning there were no clear guidelines to work from until 2006. Rates stayed about the same until the past couple of years, when we have seen a slight increase in graduation rates and a slight decrease in dropout rates. The changes thus far have not been determined to be statistically significant.
- Should we stay on this course if it is not working?I personally do not think we know if it is working at this point. In my experience in working in a state department of education and in a college training program supervising practical experiences and student teaching, I have not seen a real effort to make these plans engaging and effective. Often they are written as a legal requirement with little or no real concern if the student has actually gained knowledge of his or her skills, or the transition after graduation; however a transition plan works very well when it focuses on these elements. Unfortunately, just monitoring paperwork does not make transition services a priority. Understand that I may not be seeing schools where it is well done, so perhaps my sample isn’t very valid. An example would be a plan I saw a few weeks ago where the employment goal for the student was selected by the student. He said he wanted to be a professional basketball player; however, a review of his information found that he hadn’t even played on an organized team. The student was allowed to select his own employment goal, but the team didn’t query whether or not it was an APPROPRIATE employment goal. If the student had the skills to be a great janitor, and wanted to be that, it would make more sense as he could focus his activities on something realistic. This is one example of why transition plans don’t always work.
I find it great that my district adds transition planning to a student’s IEP during 9th grade when most students are 14-15 years old, this gets the students to start thinking about their transition after high school and enjoy participating in the transition activities.