Identified best practices addressing skills needed by students include competencies in self-determination, academic and vocational education, relationship building, consumerism, and self-maintenance. Best practices in processes needed to support transition programming include community experiences, individualized planning, family involvement, and interagency coordination. One example of a curriculum addressing skills needed for transition and life is comprised of 22 competencies grouped under the three headings: daily living skills, personal and social skills, and occupational guidance and preparation skills. The competencies include such skills as maintaining personal relationships, obtaining specific occupational skills, making adequate decisions, getting around the community, managing personal finances, and exhibiting responsible citizenship. Another curriculum for life skills instruction lists six domains: employment and education, home and family, leisure pursuits, community involvement, physical and emotional health, and personal responsibility and relationships. Examples of competencies listed within these domains are the ability to seek and secure a job, maintain a budget, prepare to go on a trip, understand legal rights, plan a nutritional diet, and establish and maintain friendships.

Although both these curricula were developed for use with students with diverse learning needs, they are appropriate and easily adapted for all learners. Transition and life skills are taught through infusion into existing curriculum as well as in separate career-related classes and lessons. Learning takes place in schools, in the community, and on work sites. Students receive individualized transition services based on their interests and needs as outlined in their IEP. Some students will require minimal transition supports and services. Their programs occur in fully integrated high school settings with a college preparation course of study leading to entrance into a 4-year university. These students graduate with standard diplomas, are able to function in the community, and hold jobs without supports. In school they may need limited academic or behavioral supports. Other students will need a higher level of supports and services, receive more intensive specialized services focusing on daily living skills and community-based instruction, and are less likely to enter general high school programs. Upon leaving school they receive nonstandard diplomas or certificates. In both work and the community, they are able to function independently or semi-independently with ongoing necessary supports. Between these two ends of the continuum are programs with various levels of independence and supports within the school, community, and employment settings.

School-based and community-based supports and services are crucial to successful transition programming. Within the school system teachers, transition specialists, and related personnel work with the students to provide academic and vocational education, transition assessment, life skills education, and on- and off-campus job training. Community-based personnel from agencies such as vocational rehabilitation and children's medical services provide services to eligible students as designated by the mission of the agency. These might include support to clientele in integrated employment, vocational evaluation, living arrangements, physical or mental health, and adaptive equipment. Linking students with these agencies while they are still in school aids in a smooth transition into these services when they are adults.

As students with disabilities reach the age of majority, changes occur in their legal rights and the provision of agency and postsecondary educational services. Changes include, in part, issues related to guardianship, lessening of services received as a child, provision of services based on eligibility, not entitlement, and self-identification of disability in order to receive accommodations in employment or education.

It is important for young adults with disabilities and their families to be aware of these changes before they occur to ensure a smooth transition. An interagency council comprised of individuals with disabilities, family members, secondary and postsecondary educators, employers, community-based organizations, and agency representatives help facilitate the provisions of these services.

Evaluation of transition programming and services is ongoing. One method of identifying best practices is looking at student outcomes and evaluating the impact of the services and programs students received on these outcomes. As the field grows, it is crucial to use these evaluations to identify and support needed changes.

References:

1) Alwell, Morgen and Brian Cobb. 2006. "A Map of the Intervention Literature in Secondary Special Education Transition." Career Development for Exceptional Individuals 29:3-27.

2) Kochhar-Bryant, Carol. 2007. What Every Teacher Should Know about Transition and IDEA 2004. Boston: Pearson.

3) Repetto, Jeanne. 2006. The Middle School Experience: Successful Teaching and Transition Planning for Diverse Learners. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

4) Sitlington, Patricia and Gary Clark. 2006. Transition Education and Services for Students with Disabilities. Boston: Pearson.

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