Define, Overview, Regulations

• A transition plan is the section of the individualized education program that outlines transition goals and services for the student.
• The transition plan is based on a high school student's individual needs and strengths, skills and interests.
• These transition plans are used to create goals that the student needs to complete during the school year.
• It is something that helps them transition better and accomplish the goals that they need to get done throughout the school year.
• Transition planning usually begins when the student turns 16 the transition plan must be addressed and figured out in the IEP.
• Transition services must be included in the students IEP when they turn 16 years old.
• This applies to all to all public schools where IDEA applies.
• they have three mandated areas which include 1. Instruction 2. Community experiences. 3. Employment and other post-school living objectives.
• You must have a transition plan for all students with IEP once they turn 16. If it is not provided you can get the school into a lot of trouble. It is not an option you must address it once the child turns 16.

Three Main Components of transition.

Instruction

• Explicit instruction is needed by most LD students in behavior control, teacher pleasing and study skills including test taking.
• It is very important to give great amount of instruction to make sure everything is clear and easy to understand.
• More instruction is better than less instruction in many cases.

Independent living

• You want to give students the ability to have enough knowledge to live on there own.
• Finding there strengths and preferences so that you know how they will learn effectively.
• You can base it on students individual needs.

Employment

• This is helping your students with post-school and adult living.
• You want your students to be ready for employment once they are done with school.
• Help them reach there goals on getting a job that they want after they finish school.

How transitions are Recorded on an IEP

• Transition services must be included into all IEPs when the student reaches the age of 16.
• Transition services are allowed to be added to a younger students IEP if deemed appropriate by the IEP team.
• transition services are a big thing to help students dropping out of school.
• It helps students get better involved in the classes they are taking and better adjusted.
• It is added to the IEP as students individual needs, they are added in as the student needs them rather than having them all the same.
• Each students transition plan is different and how they need it to help them.
• Not all students need a transition plan added into the IEP, but it must be stated in the IEP that they have decided that it is not needed and will be implemented when need be. To make sure that they know it was implemented but not needed at this time.

Legal Ramifications.

• You must present a transition plan to a student with an IEP by the age of 16, you may do it earlier if appropriate.
• You use the three steps, 1. Instruction, 2. Independent living and 3. Employment.
• You want to make sure the goals that have been set are met during the school year.
• You must state in the IEP if the students doesn't have a transition plan, you must state why and when it was decided.
• If you do not state why they don't have a transition plan you can get into a lot of trouble if that comes up.

Court Case

Yankton School District v. Schramm

• What Happened: Harold and Angie Schramm sought transition services for their orthopedically impaired daughter Tracy, to assist her passage from high school to independent living at college. She cannot function independently in her personal life. She needs help in getting dressed, putting on her shoes, pouring beverages, cooking, and cleaning. She is part of the schools IEP program when she was just in preschool. She cannot participate in the regular classrooms environment. Once Tracy turned 16 they met with the IEP team to set up a transition plan. The family received limited information on the plan, but they signed the paper. They came to find out that most of the plan had fallen under there responsibility. At the end of her ninth grade year the district had decided to drop Tracy out of the special education program under IDEA. The family filed a due process hearing because they did not agree with having there daughter being dropped out of the special education program. The schools fight on it was that although Tracy has a orthopedic impairment, a regulation adopted under IDEA forecloses her eligibility because her impairment does not adversely affect her educational performance.
• What came of it: Tracy remains eligible as a disabled child under IDEA for transition services and other benefits until she graduates from high school or reaches the age of 21.
• What I think: I don't think that this should have ever become a problem. She wasn't able to do most things by herself why would they think that it is okay to drop her out of special education. I think that the school should have researched more into the laws of IDEA before saying that she did not qualify.

Legal Ramification of Transition Plans from the perspective of a district Director of Special education.

• If they are not given the transitional plan when they are supposed to and don't document why, they can get taken to court and that does not look good on the school or community.
• It can put the district in a tough spot trying to find out what they need to do to clean up the mess that was made.
• The school can end up having to fire people because they didn't take the time to do things as they were supposed to.
• When going to court things like losing your job can happen depending on who wins the case.
• Time spent in court figuring things out is time they could have spend working with students and making sure that things are done correctly. Money and time is being wasted when things like this happen.

Applying transition and it's use to your classroom as a teacher.

• Transition can be a very big part of your classroom and you need to pay close attention to what is going on.
• Knowing what is going on in the transition plan is very important. Because you as a classroom teacher are there to help with the process.
• As a teacher is it very important to make sure you are helping with the process as much as you can.
• Knowing what to do and how to help is a very good thing to know. You don't want to not know what you can do to help a student.
• I think the most important thing that you can do as a classroom teacher is be extremely involved and supportive. It will help things go a lot smoother.

Pitfalls to Avoid & Troubleshooting, handling complaints.

Proactive Steps to avoid Pitfalls

• Learn from yours and others mistakes.
• Learn from things that others and yourself have done wrong.
• Don't be afraid to realize you are wrong and fix it.

Do your research

• Make sure you know exactly what needs to be done.
• Make sure you have found and have an answer to most things that may be asked.

Have A plan

• Have a list of everything that needs to be done.
• Make a checklist of things you have and haven't done yet.

Communicate

• Talk with others to make sure everything is getting worked out correctly.
• If you need help or are confused on something talk to others that have experience.

Steps to avoid noncompliance

• Create a calendar
• Make sure you write all the planned meetings, conferences you know you have.
• Any parent meetings keep it on there.

Document everything

• Make sure you write everything down in case some non compliance arises you have it.
• Helps avoid disagreements when it is written down.

Keep up with the changes

• If something comes up and you must change plans do so.
• Make sure you are flexible.

Trust

• If you trust the parents and the people you work with it helps avoid problems
• Make them trust you so they don't question your judgment.

References

• http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/transition-planning-for-students-with-ieps/
• http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.legal.bateman.htm
• http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.legal.bateman.htm
• http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.index.htm
• http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.legal.bateman.htm
• http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.legal.bateman.htm
• http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/case_yankton_IDEA_504_8thCir.html
• http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-ways-to-avoid-mistakes-during-project-development/
• http://www.complyglobal.com/blog/6-ways-proactive-compliance-helps-avoid-noncompliance-risks