How can educators help support students in the transition planning process?
Page 4: Student-Focused Planning
The first component of transition programming is student-focused planning, sometimes referred to as student-centered planning. It underscores the importance of a personalized plan based on a student’s strengths, interests, and preferences. This component involves:
- Using transition assessment data to develop the transition plan
- Supporting the student’s participation in their own IEP and transition processes
Using Transition Assessment Data
Because transition planning is ongoing, educators should collect data regularly to ensure it is current, relevant, and reflective of the student’s growth over time. IEP teams should use information from a variety of assessments to develop the student’s postsecondary and annual goals and to determine transition services. These transition assessments should:
- Be appropriate based on the student’s age, academic abilities, cultural and linguistic background, and postsecondary ambitions (e.g., college, employment, independent living)
- Allow for accommodations or the use of assistive technology
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assistive technology (AT)
Any device-ranging from low-tech (e.g., pencil grip) to high-tech (e.g., voice recognition software)-that can be used to address barriers related to developmental, functional, or learning skills; it also includes services necessary for using a device (e.g., training, repairs). These supports are a type of accommodation for individuals with disabilities.
- Help the student answer questions such as:
- What are my talents and interests?
- What are my abilities?
- What do I want in life now and in the future, and what school and community opportunities will prepare me to do these things?
- What are the main barriers I might encounter as I work toward achieving my goals?
- Reflect information and perspectives from multiple sources (e.g., the student, parents, educators, employers, service providers)
Furthermore, IEP teams should conduct both formal and informal transition assessments. Examples of each type are listed in the tables below.
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career aptitude test
An assessment that suggests work fields based on a person’s strengths, interests, skills, and personality.
adaptive behavior
The performance of age-appropriate, everyday life skills, which includes communication, self-care, social skills, home living, leisure, and self-direction.
curriculum-based measurements (CBM)
A type of formative assessment (more specifically, progress monitoring) used to evaluate and track student progress across the entire year’s curriculum by administering frequent measures. The resulting data can be graphed to observe change over time and can provide feedback to students about their progress and to educators about student progress and the effectiveness of instructional methods. Sometimes referred to as progress monitoring or general outcome measurement (GOM).
For a compiled list of assessment tools and resources, many of which are available for free, review this resource from NTACT:C: Tools and Resources
Returning to the Challenge
Learn how Carly and Omar’s IEP teams used their transition assessment results to help develop their goals.
Before the first IEP meeting where the team would discuss transition, Carly’s special education teacher administered a series of assessments—an interest inventory, an interview, and an adaptive behavior rating scale—to help Carly identify her current strengths, needs, interests, and future goals. Carly’s parents also completed a questionnaire about their vision for her future. These assessment results helped the IEP team develop the goals in Carly’s transition plan.
Throughout Omar’s high school years, his IEP team has used a variety of transition assessments to inform his transition plan. When Omar was younger, he expressed an interest in pursuing a career in either engineering or veterinary science. However, career aptitude tests helped him identify his passion for mathematics and problem-solving; accordingly, his transition plan was updated to align with this new ambition. In preparing for Omar’s final year of high school, the IEP team makes sure to review his school performance measures—including GPA and PSAT scores—to gauge his readiness for college-level coursework and inform his goals.
Did You Know?
Per IDEA, students must be invited to attend their own IEP meetings beginning at age 16 (or younger if required by their state). However, student participation in the IEP process can and should begin much sooner. The earlier a student begins attending their own IEP meetings and contributing to the development of their IEP, the easier it will be for them to assume more responsibility and leadership during the transition process.
Supporting Student Participation
Another vital part of student-focused planning is the meaningful involvement of the student themselves, such as including them in the development of their IEP. But simply inviting a student to attend their IEP meeting is not enough. Instead, the student should be treated as an essential member of the IEP team whose input is sought out and valued. As noted in the table below, educators can collaborate with and empower students to participate before, during, and after an IEP meeting.
| Opportunities for Student Participation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Activity | Example |
| Before IEP Meeting | Planning | The student and educator meet to discuss the student’s strengths and needs, explore long-term visions, consider options for the future, and prepare materials to present the student’s future goals to the IEP team. |
| Before IEP Meeting | Drafting | The student and educator work together to draft portions of the IEP that reflect the student’s strengths, needs, interests, and preferences. |
| During IEP Meeting | Meeting | The student shares their progress, preferences, and goals with the IEP team independently or with assistance. |
| After IEP Meeting | Implementing | The student and educator collaborate to monitor the student’s progress toward meeting the goals identified in the IEP. |
In these interviews, Karen Gross discusses student participation before, during, and after the IEP meeting. Next, Myriam Alizo shares how her daughter, Veronica, participated in her IEP meetings.
Karen Gross, EdD
Transition Coordinator
Public School Administrator
Myriam Alizo
Associate Director | Data Management,
Center for Parent Information and Resources,
Assistant Project Director, RAISE Center, Bilingual
Family Centered Services TA Specialist/Coach, NEPACT
Transcript: Karen Gross, EdD: Student Participation Before the IEP Meeting
Students participating in their IEP meetings has to be one of the most important aspects of a student’s success for their postsecondary outcomes. So when we’re going into an IEP meeting, sometimes educators might not realize, or they might forget, how intimidating a meeting can be for a student—but how important and essential it is for that student to be in that meeting and not only attend it but to be an active participant in that meeting. So I think that preparing a student prior is essential. So going over that transition assessment with the student, I think, is extremely important. Sometimes students take them and they don’t even understand what the outcome is, like doing a career interest inventory and then at the end it actually gives examples. So it’s not saying they have to go that route, but it’s giving examples like “You came up with math as an interest. Maybe you want to go into engineering. Maybe you want to go into the medical field. Maybe you want to be a math teacher.” Going over different opportunities for the student. But also going into the meeting discussing what the meeting is going to be about. Who’s going to be at that meeting? Because students come in sometimes, and when they’re not prepared, it’s a little shocking. They don’t know that meeting is for them and is going to be instrumental in their success after they graduate high school and that what is talked about in that meeting is going to define and outline how they’re learning, what their test accommodations are going to be, what they need to be successful in school so that it can make them successful for when they leave school. So I think going over it, kind of discussing what the format of the meeting’s going to be, go over some questions that they might have because they might get nervous, have them write it down, kind of think it out with you prior to the meeting. Spending that 15 minutes, half hour with that student might seem like a lot of your day, but that might change their life that’s going to continue for decades after they leave high school. And also, I think it’s important to talk to the student about their disability. So we talk about leveraging what their strengths are with their disability. I think that a lot of times students don’t realize that because of their disabilities, they are actually building strengths in other areas and they are compensating in different ways. It is really fun to see the shift when you’re going from what is considered negative into what’s considered a positive.
Transcript: Karen Gross, EdD: Student Participation During and After the IEP Meeting
So in the meeting, I think one of the things that’s really important for me is making sure that you’re talking to the student and not about the student. This is their meeting, so we need to be speaking to them and be respectful of that and to make sure that they’re engaged. I think it’s empowering for them to be at that meeting and to be having those discussions. And I think that starting a meeting positive also plays a pivotal role because I think sometimes you go right into what’s not working or what the student’s not doing, what they can’t do. And I think that just sets the tone for the meeting. I think as a meeting starts, asking questions like “What’s working for you? What’s not working for you?” and then going over what’s really working well, what the student is doing well, and then maybe talking about areas that we need to work on and grow, and then talk about different opportunities to do that.
Afterwards, making sure that you’re checking in with students, progress monitoring, having discussions with the students. If we’re setting up goals that the students worked on in the meeting with us, then they have buy-in. So I think that it’s really important for them to have a discussion afterwards about that and to have them involved with that as well.
Transcript: Myriam Alizo
As soon as a child has an IEP, even though they are young, they should be invited to the IEP meeting. In many cases, they are approached with that concept of transitioning when they are in the last year of high school or the last few years of high school. And that’s something that has to be started from the very beginning. Have them express how do they feel, because sometimes things are discovered during the IEP meeting when students are invited and maybe the student says, “Everything is good in the class, but when I go to the cafeteria, I don’t feel as good because I don’t have any friends, I am alone.” And so that gives an opportunity to explore other areas, like the behavior, the academic, the social, and the emotional part. We have to consider the student as a whole. So that is what is important for them to be there from the very beginning when they have an IEP and continue to strengthen that involvement as they grow older, as they move to middle school and high school.
With my own daughter, Veronica, we invited Veronica to the IEP meeting, and Veronica participated in those meetings using a document that is very simple. It’s one for the student, one for the teacher, one for the parents, and one for the IEP team. It’s a document to bring to the IEP meeting to talk about the child, focusing on the strength of the child and the weaknesses of the child planning for the goal and what works and what might be needed. Veronica brought it to every IEP meeting. So there was a way for Veronica to bring her input: “This is my feedback, my goals, what I want to see happening from my perspective for the next year.” So it was a way for Veronica to feel that it was about her.
Educators can help promote active student participation by teaching students how to exercise self-determination (e.g., make decisions, self-advocate, set goals). Below are free resources that educators can use to foster self-determination and prepare students to participate in their own IEP meetings.
SDLMI can be used by educators to help students set personal goals and learn, practice, and apply an array of skills related to self-determination (e.g., self-awareness, problem-solving, self-efficacy). The model includes three phases: set a goal, take action, and adjust the goal or plan. The following resource is offered by the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities:
SDTP is a comprehensive set of teaching materials, activities, and assessments that helps educators prepare students to participate in their IEP meetings. It includes eight lessons to teach students about the transition planning process and to facilitate partnerships among students, their families, and educators. The SDTP Lesson Package is available from the Zarrow Institute on Transition & Self-Determination.
In this curriculum, the educator serves as a facilitator, instructor, and advocate to help students develop self-determination and prepare for IEP transition meetings. The curriculum contains 36 lessons for one-on-one or small-group instruction. Curriculum materials are available from the Zarrow Institute on Transition & Self-Determination.
Returning to the Challenge
Learn how Carly and Omar participate in their IEP meetings.
Previously, Carly had not been involved in her own IEP process in any way. Therefore, Carly and her high school special education teacher work together to increase her IEP involvement. To begin, Carly creates a brief presentation about what she enjoys about school, her strengths, and her dreams for the future. She shares this presentation at the beginning of her first IEP meeting in ninth grade, and the team refers back to the ideas she shared as they draft her IEP.
Omar has been an active participant in his own IEP meetings since he was 12 years old. He regularly offers insights into his preferences and provides feedback on proposed strategies and accommodations. After the development of his IEP at the beginning of his senior year, Omar begins monitoring his own progress toward his time management goal by tracking whether deadlines are met, regularly meeting with his special education teacher to review his performance and making adjustments based on feedback.
To learn more about student-focused transition planning, view the IRIS Module:
