What is a Transition Plan?
“The term transition refers to a vast, dynamic field about which much has been written. As amended in 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), in part, defines transition services to be:

A coordinated set of activities for a child with a disability that is designed to be within a results oriented process, that is focused on improving the academic and functional achievement of the child with a disability to facilitate the child's movement from school to post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, [and/] or community participation.

Section 602 (34)(A)

A good working definition of transition that recognizes current thinking about its practice and implementation was prepared by the Council for Exceptional Children and, in part, states:

Transition refers to a change in status from behaving primarily as a student to assuming
emergent adult roles in the community. These roles include employment, participating in
postsecondary education, maintaining a home, becoming appropriately involved in the
community.
CEC, 19991

Ferguson et al., distinguished between three important aspects of transition that need to be considered in post-secondary transition2:
  • status transition – events directly involving the student, such as turning 21, leaving high school, getting a job, beginning college, changing living environment;
  • family life transition – changes or disruptions in the family’s established routines and responsibilities that make daily life manageable;
  • bureaucratic transition – the shift from public school special education services to the adult service delivery system.

The IDEA requires parents to be invited to participate in the development of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and the student must be invited if the purpose of the meeting will be
consideration of transition services.

The example below related to career exploration is informative in terms of the secondary transition process:

Career Awareness→        Career Exploration→        Skill Training→        Work Experience→  

Throughout the high school experience, the goal is to move from the general to the in-depth, while guiding students from the school outward into the community and larger world. Expanding knowledge, socialization and life skills assists this process. The progression is directed toward gradually assisting the student, in all areas, to move toward the most suitable preparation for further learning, work, independence, self-support and successful community living. It is these
goals that are addressed in the IEP section on Transition.

1 Chapter 9, Guidance and Career Counselors’ Toolkit, GWU, HEATH Resource Center
2 Blacher, Jan, Transition to Adulthood, “American Journal on Mental Retardation,” 2001, Vol. 106, No. 2, 173-188