Career Exploration and Employment Readiness
These measurable goals describe what a student plans to do after high school in areas such as employment, education, or training.
What are postsecondary goals?
Unlike high school, in postsecondary education, students are generally responsible for requesting these supports and providing documentation of their disability.
What are accommodations?
These programs help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities access long-term supports in community settings and often involve lengthy waiting lists.
What are Medicaid Waiver Programs?
This skill involves making choices, setting goals, and advocating for yourself to achieve desired outcomes.
What is self-determination?
"After graduation, Maria will enroll in a two-year community college nursing program" is an example of a postsecondary goal in this area.
What is education/training?
Research from the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition identifies this in-school experience as one of the strongest predictors of competitive employment after graduation.
What is paid work experience during high school?
This transition planning requirement ensures that postsecondary education or training goals are based on information about a student's interests, strengths, preferences, and needs.
What is age-appropriate transition assessment?
Under IDEA, transition planning must address this area, when appropriate, to help students live, work, and participate in their communities.
What is independent living?
A student identifies a career goal, develops action steps, monitors progress, and adjusts plans when challenges arise. This process reflects this key self-determination component.
What is goal setting and self-regulation?
IDEA requires measurable postsecondary goals to be based on information gathered through this process.
What is age-appropriate transition assessment?
This federal law requires transition services to be included in a student's IEP beginning no later than age 16, though many states begin earlier.
What is IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)?
These programs provide students with hands-on instruction in a specific career field, such as welding, cosmetology, or automotive technology.
What are Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs?
This document summarizes a student's academic achievement and functional performance and must be provided when a student graduates with a regular diploma or ages out of special education services.
What is the Summary of Performance (SOP)?
This evidence-based practice allows transition specialists to directly assess self-determination while simultaneously building it.
What is student-led IEP development and participation?
This phrase helps distinguish a postsecondary goal from an annual IEP goal.
What is "after high school graduation" (or after exit from school)?
These are abilities such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving that are valuable in nearly every career.
What are soft skills?
Under IDEA, transition planning must include consideration of this postsecondary area, along with employment and, when appropriate, independent living.
What is education and training?
This federal program provides health insurance coverage for many individuals with disabilities who meet eligibility requirements.
What is Medicaid?
Transportation difficulties, lack of work experience, and limited self-advocacy skills are examples of these.
What are barriers to goal attainment?
"After graduation, James will work full-time as an automotive technician" is an example of a measurable postsecondary goal in this domain.
What is employment?
During transition planning, this person must be invited to the ARD/IEP meeting whenever postsecondary goals and transition services are being discussed.
Who is the student?
This federal law prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in colleges, universities, and training programs receiving federal funding.
What is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act?
Medicaid Waiver programs often provide supports that help individuals with disabilities participate in their communities rather than living in institutional settings.
What are community-based supports and services?
This University of Kansas self-determination assessment can be completed by students, parents, and educators to gather multiple perspectives.
What is the Self-Determination Inventory (SDI)?
A student wants to attend culinary school and become a chef. The IEP includes a culinary arts course sequence, job shadowing experiences, and a food service internship. These activities are examples of this transition-planning component.
What are transition services (or coordinated transition activities)?