How can students be actively engaged in transition planning?
Page 3: Student Involvement in the IEP Process
Recall that in person-centered transition planning, students are actively engaged in developing, communicating, and evaluating their progress toward meeting meaningful postsecondary goals. This process directly aligns with IDEA, which requires:
- The involvement of students and parents, along with general and special educators, in the IEP planning process
- Student attendance at IEP meetings when transition will be discussed
- Transition services that are based on student strengths, preferences, and interests
However, students with disabilities are often only minimally involved in the annual IEP process. Though these students are considered members of the IEP team, too often the adults in charge of coordinating IEP meetings do not plan for students’ full and active participation. Meetings are held, progress is discussed, and decisions are made, but students either rarely present their perspectives or are otherwise not prepared or encouraged to take an active role in this critical process of life planning.
A study of more than 6,000 students ages 14 to 22 revealed that about 79% of these youth had attended an IEP meeting in the last two years. Among those students, though, their role in the meeting was often limited (as illustrated by the graphic below).
Source: Adapted from Johnson et al. (2022).
Pie chart on IEP meeting participation for students with disabilities ages 14 to 22: 45% provided some input during meetings, 40% participated little or not at all, and 15% took a leadership role.
Research Shows
An investigation of students receiving special education services in the United States found that transition-aged students with the most significant cognitive disabilities were less involved in their own IEP meetings than their peers with other disabilities. Specifically, these students:
- Were invited to meetings less often
- Made fewer contributions when they did attend
- Were less likely to take a leadership role
(Johnson et al., 2020)
Despite the current status quo, experts agree that placing students with disabilities at the center of their transition planning is crucial for achieving positive post-school outcomes. Educators have the power to shift the experiences of their students away from a process that happens to them toward one that they actively contribute to or even lead.
When implementing person-centered transition planning, educators must be proactive and intentional. Empowering students to plan their own future requires more than simply inviting them to an IEP meeting. Instead, it involves a commitment to helping them exercise self-determination and take on as much ownership and leadership as possible. Although this will look different for every student, students can become more meaningfully involved in the IEP and transition planning process by:
- Participating in assessments and goal development
- Assuming a leadership role in IEP meetings
- Evaluating their own progress toward meeting their goals
In the first interview, Erik Carter describes several reasons why students are often not involved in their own transition planning meetings. Next, Holden Boully discusses what it’s like to take a leadership role in his own IEP meetings.
Erik Carter, PhD
Executive Director, Baylor Center
for Disability and Flourishing
Baylor University
(time: 1:59)
Transcript: Erik Carter, PhD
The involvement of students either being present at their own planning meeting to actually being deeply involved varies widely from state to state, from district to district, from school to school. It’s very uneven. I think part of it’s an expectation issue. I think a lot of teachers and parents may wonder what a student would really bring to that conversation. They wonder whether they’ll be able to contribute in meaningful ways. And so part of our efforts need to be on raising those expectations that a student would have something important to contribute to this particular area of planning, even though it will take a little bit of work to prepare the student to do that. So I think expectations is one.
Opportunity is another. I think the way we do meetings and when we choose to meet and the logistics of those sometimes squeeze out student involvement. We think our role is done when we invite the student, rather than really encouraging their presence and their participation. I think preparation is also a reason why it doesn’t happen very often, and we struggle to find the time during a school day to prepare students to be part of their own transition planning meeting. And so when they do come, they have little involvement, and they make few contributions, and then we chalk that up to either their inability to do so or a mismatch between their presence in the meeting—when really it’s that they weren’t really well prepared to be part of that meeting. If you think back to the first time as a teacher you ever went to a IEP meeting, how uncertain you were about what was going to happen, maybe you practiced what you were going to say and what you were going to share. And students need that same kind of preparation and practice as well. I think at the end of the day, we let the business of our school day and all the competing priorities say this is not the most important thing to do. And at the end of the day, it may be one of the most important things because the students aren’t aware of their own transition plans and aren’t fluent in those and didn’t have a voice in those. Then all the other business that we’re invested in is not well aimed and well focused in moving the student forward.
Transcript: Holden Boully
For a student to be involved in their transition process, it is like a day and night difference. How I was involved in my IEP meetings is that I try to do student-led IEPs. I open, and I am usually speaking probably the most, honestly. Giving goals, giving future plans, giving all of that. And I close it. I’m basically talking the entire time.
How I usually talk about the progress is I have to give it straight up, honest. I can’t lie and be like, “Yeah, I’m doing really good at reading.” But my reading could be, like, two grades below. I have to give it honest so that everybody can be on the same page as me. I personally struggle a lot with reading, so reading has always been in my goals to get better at it. So whenever we talk about reading or writing, I’m like, “Well, writing is going a little bit better. But I still need to do better. It’s going good, but not good enough. Reading’s going good, but not good enough. I still have these goals for a reason.”
The rest of the team are usually very open to the idea of me leading it because basically every single person in that IEP meeting I have personally invited and told them how it’s going to go. If it’s a problem class, I’m like, “I have an IEP meeting on this day at this time. If you could make it, that’d be great. I’m going to be doing student led.” And then I’ll explain that. And then while the meeting’s going, I will be like, “Hey, now we’re talking about classes. Could you tell me how am I doing on the teacher point of view?”
Returning to the Challenge
Reflecting on what he has learned about person-centered planning, Mr. Longoria realizes that he has made assumptions about his students’ abilities to participate in their own IEP processes. He recognizes that Nia’s involvement has been minimal up to this point and that he has not had high expectations for Jeremy’s involvement as an IEP team member. Select each student’s photo to learn more about their current participation.
Nia
Although Nia has attended all of her IEP meetings since she started high school, Mr. Longoria now realizes that she only listens to what others say in the meeting without offering her own opinions. Because Nia is so good at math, her grandmother (who is her guardian) thinks that she should find an office job that does not require significant interaction with coworkers, like data entry. While Mr. Longoria knows that Nia wants a career in fashion design, she has never brought this up in an IEP meeting. Mr. Longoria realizes that he hasn’t made much of an effort to help Nia share her vision and future goals.
Jeremy
Jeremy will attend his IEP meeting for the first time during his freshman year. Given Jeremy’s communication differences and support needs, Mr. Longoria has expressed concern that he would be able to understand or contribute to the meeting. However, he now realizes that these concerns were based on his misguided assumptions about Jeremy’s capabilities. Jeremy’s mother has shared that she wants Jeremy to live independently one day and that she sees his participation in IEP meetings as a way for him to learn to advocate for himself. Mr. Longoria recognizes that it’s his responsibility to teach Jeremy the self-determination skills he will need to participate in a meaningful and positive way, such as communicating his goals and support needs to others.
