Postsecondary Transitions

When students receiving special education services enter high school, conversations and planning begin for life afterward pertaining to additional education/training, employment, and (if needed) independent living. By age 16, a student’s Transition Goals and Services become an essential and required part of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). It includes appropriate measurable postsecondary goals that are annually updated and based upon an age-appropriate transition assessment and transition services including courses of study that will reasonably enable the student to meet those postsecondary goals. In order to determine progress on the postsecondary goals, a student’s IEP team meets annually to review progress toward achieving goals through the IEP process.

 

Each student's IEP team begins with meaningful conversations with students, families, and others important to that student's success, to assess the student’s interests and skills. From those assessments, goals can be developed for life after a student graduates as well as goals for the step-by-step process to help students achieve their ambitions for life after graduation. Service providers including educators, staff, and outside agencies are linked to the annual goals, provide services to meet the goals, and track student progress through regular progress monitoring. Finally, the coordination of services in school and in the community brings each student’s goals into action to ensure that all students receiving special education services are intentionally being prepared for real life after high school in a purposeful and individualized way.