Transition Services

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) seeks to ensure that all students with disabilities are prepared for adult life: post secondary education, employment, community participation and independent living.

Transition planning – which includes the student, the IEP team, the parent, and in some cases, community organizations – is a formal process of long-range cooperative planning designed to assist students with disabilities as they move from school into the adult world. Planning must begin at age 14, or sooner.

The law defines transition services as:

“a coordinated set of activities designed to be within 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 post-secondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, and community participation.”

Transition services must be based on the your child’s individual needs, and must reflect his/her strengths, preferences and interests. Services can be provided at school, in the community, on a job site, and/or at a local college. They can include instruction, related services, community experiences, training of employment skills, social skills, mobility skills, daily living skills, and more.