Overview

Transition planning and services at the Bi-County Collaborative focus on preparing all students to lead successful and fulfilling adult lives. Success and fulfillment may look different for each individual student; however it is the goal of the transition team to work with each student to ensure that they are working towards all of their post-secondary goals.

Bi-County Collaborative transition services are aligned with the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) that clearly states:

• Transition services are “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”. 

Process

Transition services begin during the IEP period in which a student turns fourteen and are focused on helping students determine and achieve their post-secondary goals. The process starts with an age appropriate transitional assessment that is updated yearly for the student’s annual review or re-evaluation meeting. These assessments can be formal or informal and serve to explore student’s interests, strengths, and needs throughout the years. 

Student IEPs include appropriate measurable post-secondary goals related to training/education, employment, and where appropriate, independent living skills. Transition planning also includes transition services, including courses of study and services needed to assist the student in reaching his or her goals.

The transition process and discussion for each student will address and answer some of the following questions:

• Who am I?
• What are my personal strengths and interests?
• What do I want in life, now and in the future?
• What are some of life’s demands that I can meet now?
• What are my options in school and the community for preparing me for what I want, now and in the future?
• What, if any, are the main barriers to getting what I want from school and my community?

Bi-County IEP team members including teachers, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, transition staff, physical therapists, behaviorists, counselors and other classroom staff, along with parents/guardians and families work together to assist each student in determining their interests, preferences, areas of strengths, needs, and long term goals.

Students continue their learning in traditional academic subjects and special interest areas. However, embedded within their learning are self-determination skills, independent living skills, social and communication skills, as well as vocational and educational exploration.