Postsecondary Employment

Postsecondary employment (PSEmp) is a mandated component of the IEP. For many students PSEmp means working in a job for pay once they have graduated from public school with a diploma, or by exiting public school by aging out. PSEmp can vary widely depending on the needs of the individual and may include competitive employment, supported employment and/or volunteer work.

Competitive employment means working in a job for pay without additional support. Key characteristics of competitive employment include market driven jobs, equal opportunity, market driven wages and benefits, inclusive environments, and advancement opportunities. Essentially it is a job where individuals compete to be hired, receive at least minimum wage, work in the environment associated with the position, and have the chance to move up the ladder through additional training and/or experience.

Supported employment means that the individual is receiving support in some form from, usually from a third party like an agency that serves adults with disabilities. Supported employment can look exactly like competitive employment where the individual works alongside nondisabled peers doing the same job for at least minimum wage but with some level of support. Support can be in the form of a job coach that assists the person to perform the job through supervision and training, with the overall outcome of the individual becoming independent in the job.

Supported employment can also take place outside of the mainstream workplace and offer fewer distractions and flexible expectations, enabling the individual to work successfully while earning at least minimum wage. Supported employment also includes “sheltered workshops” in which individuals with disabilities work in environments outside of the mainstream work place, performing work tasks for less than minimum wage. In 2010 sheltered workshops were challenged as being discriminatory and in direct violation of the ADA. Disability rights groups have deemed that sheltered workshops are discriminatory and exploitative and over the years many states have enacted legislation to eliminate them altogether and to move toward the attainment of community based employment for individuals with disabilities.

The elimination of sheltered workshops has been controversial; many individuals with disabilities, parents, and legal guardians have been against terminating them as they present the only opportunity for some people to be employed and earn money. Realistically, not everyone is able to work in a competitive job on a regular basis for a specific number of hours with or without support due to the impact that their disability presents. For those individuals who are capable of working at their own pace in a smaller, separate environment, the closing of sheltered workshops eliminated the only opportunity that they had to be successfully employed in a manner that was meaningful and purposeful to them. Shutting workshops down also presents the dilemma of how the person should fill the time that had been spent working. It was hypothesized that by eliminating sheltered workshops, people would receive training that would enable them to become employed in the community, which as mentioned, is not realistic for many people.

For people who cannot find or who are not able to work in competitive employment, volunteer opportunities are often the answer to postsecondary employment. Volunteering has many benefits including the opportunity for a person to develop and demonstrate characteristics or skills that can eventually lead to competitive employment. For others, volunteer opportunities provide an environment in which the individual can contribute meaningfully to the community, develop social relationships, and gain personal satisfaction.

Postsecondary Education/Training: What’s It All About?

Postsecondary Education/Training (PSEd) is a mandated part of the IEP. Every student who has reached or will reach the age of 16 (or younger depending on state regulations) during the course of the IEP year must have a post-school outcome goal and an annual goal with objectives in this area. When people read or hear the term postsecondary education/training, they usually think it means college or trade school, and preparation for attending some type of higher education becomes the goal for many students. So what constitutes PSEd for students who will not be going to college or a trade/vocational school?

PSEd is an all-inclusive term for life-long learning and includes a wide range of opportunities and experiences. While some types of PSEd will take place in a classroom setting, many opportunities will not. Students who will not be going on to higher education can continue their learning in community-based settings like adult day programs that focus on employment and daily living skills. Other more structured opportunities exist in the community as adult/continuing education and include options to learn new things like computer skills, mixology, or a foreign language; others lead to specialty certificates. Special interest and recreational offerings like learning country line dancing, exploring travel destinations, DIY home improvement, yoga, etc. are all examples of PSEd. Brick and mortar aside, don’t leave out the internet which offers almost infinite possibilities for learning. So next time you are stumped when it comes to writing goals for PSEd, think life-long learning.

Post-School Outcome Goals

I have found over the years that post-school (aka postsecondary) outcome goals are frequently misunderstood by IEP teams when (to me) they seem to be pretty straight forward. Often they are confused with annual goals/objectives. Here’s how they differ: post-school outcome goal statements answer the question “what will the student be doing one year after exiting public education (post 21)?” Annual goals and subsequent objectives answer the question “what will the student be doing one year from today that will lead him/her to attaining the post-school outcome?

The litmus test for a true and correct post-school outcome statement is this, it MUST contain language specifying that the outcome will be measured after exiting the domain of public education (e.g. graduation, aging-out.) Like all goals contained in an IEP, post-school outcome goals must be measurable, observable and must describe an action, not a process.

The following statements are examples of acceptable post-school outcome goals in the area of postsecondary education/training:

  • After graduating with a diploma, student will attend college to earn a degree in his/her chosen field of interest.
  • After exiting public education student will participate in community-based learning activities.

The following is a non-example of a post-school outcome goal:

  • After finishing high school student will explore options for further education or training in a field of interest.
  • After exiting public education student is interested in learning about options for continuing education located in the community.

The first examples of acceptable post-school outcome goals describe an action that is observable and measurable and can be answered “yes or no” after graduation or aging out. The second non-examples describe a process that is not measurable or observable (expressing interest, exploring, pursuing, etc.)

In most cases, IEP annual goals and objectives are intended to span one-year. Progress must be monitored and reported at the same rate as non-disabled peers; usually this is 3-4 times each year. Annual goals may change annually; when the annual goal does not change, the objectives leading to the attainment of that goal must change annually. For example, if the annual goal is for the student to acquire the skills necessary for attending college, it may remain unchanged throughout high school. In that case, the objectives must change to specify the skills that the student will develop each year. Post-school outcome goals may or may not change on an annual basis. What is critical is that the annual goals in the IEP align with and support the attainment of the post-school outcome goals.

Welcome 2024/2025 School Year

It’s hard to believe that what we envision in May as an almost endless summer is coming to a close. Schools will reopen across the country during the coming month with students older (and hopefully wiser) and one year closer to the end of high school. The importance of the question “what’s next?” comes back with a vengeance, imposing a range of emotions on parents and students from excitement and anticipation to worry and panic as the inevitable exit from high school comes closer on the horizon. What to do? When to do it? How to do it? Who does it? are critical to transition planning and these questions need to be visited and revisited at least annually once a student becomes “of age.”

As students progress through the transition planning years, the conversations about outcomes should be increasing in frequency and specifics. The first and most important question to be decided is when will a student leave the domain of public education, and how will they do so? The second part of the question is easier to answer since the options for exiting are clearly defined as graduation with a diploma, or by aging out of IDEA entitlement services. For some students, the exit ramp from public school is identified early on; typically, it is anticipated that students who have significant disabilities and who will qualify for adult services will remain in public school until they age out. For other students, however, the question may not be so easily answered, and quite possibly may become the silent elephant in the room at annual reviews, with parents assuming that their child will remain a public school student, while the team is anticipating graduation with a diploma at the end of 12th grade.

It’s not only important for the IEP team to ask parents and students to share their thoughts on long term outcomes, it’s the law that they do so. Long term outcomes, aka post-secondary outcome goals, must be identified by considering a number of factors including student and family preferences, student strengths and abilities, and through age-appropriate assessment. Once identified, the post-secondary outcomes are documented annually in the student’s IEP. These post-secondary outcome goals then serve as the infrastructure of the transition plan and drive the development of the annual goals and objectives in the IEP. Essentially, the annual goals and objectives in the IEP must be developed to move the student toward attainment of post-secondary outcomes.  

So, circling back to where I started, beginning no later than the IEP that addresses the transition from middle to high school, parents and student should state what the post-school outcome is that they anticipate, specifying the path of graduation or aging out, that the student will take to get there. Once stated, the team should be asked if they are on board with the plan. Unfortunately, every spring I receive calls from the parents of seniors distraught over the news that they just learned that the plan developed by the team is to have their child graduate at the end of the school year, while they frantically proclaim that their child is not ready for the adult world.  Ask sooner rather than later so that you don’t find yourself in this situation. Wishing you all a great new school year!

Present Level of Performance in Transition Planning

A comprehensive transition planning evaluation will gather information to identify a student’s present level of performance in the transition planning areas. When a student has a disability that impacts the ability to make progress academically, we identify an appropriate course of instruction by determining that student’s present level of performance in the area of difficulty. For a student who is struggling in math, we don’t simply say, “well let’s teach him/her place value” likewise, when a student is not progressing in reading we don’t just arbitrarily decide to teach phonemic awareness. Rather, we assess what skills the student has and identify the skills that need to be taught for the student to reach a specified outcome. It is the skills that a student already has that determines the present level of performance. These skills must be identified in each of the transition planning areas in order to develop a student’s IEP and provide a free appropriate public education.

There are a number of ways that skills can be assessed in the transition planning areas. Essentially we need to determine the student’s knowledge of and exposure to the transition planning areas. What do they know about the world of work? Have they ever had a job? What are the skills that they already have that will serve them successfully in postsecondary education? Can they follow a schedule, manage time, take notes? What are the skills that they have to support independent living? Can they be left alone safely? Do they understand money, cost, value? What do they know about the community? Can they access it independently? Do they know what is available and when it should be accessed?

It is not until present levels of performance in the transition areas are determined that an appropriate IEP can be developed. There are a number of standardized and criterion referenced assessments that can be used to establish a present level of performance. Sources of information include the student, parents and members of the educational team who know the student well enough to speak to his/her strengths and needs. It is a process that takes time and expertise on the part of the evaluator to analyze and integrate the findings to produce a plan offering measurable outcomes. Planning the transition to adulthood is not a “one-size-fits-all” event.

Parent Participation

Every comprehensive transition evaluation should include direct input from both the student and the family (as well as the school team). Parents, in many cases, will serve as the exclusive “agency” for students with disabilities who do not qualify for adult service funding and support. Therefore, it is very important to discuss with the parents what they see as the trajectory for their child. In over 25 years of working in special education I have never once had a parent state that the vision for their child was to have him/her at home, sitting on the couch, playing video games, eating junk food and endlessly trolling social media platforms. Yet, unfortunately some variation of the above worst case scenario comes to pass all too often.

From the beginning of my foray into the black forest of transition planning, I have always started off with a parent interview. For many years, this was done in person, since the alternative back then was a phone conversation. One of the life altering changes of the pandemic was that we became both knowledgeable and comfortable with engaging face-to-face over the internet. For the most part, this switch to meeting virtually has made things easier in terms of scheduling and coordinating parents/guardians to be available at the same time. To make the best use of everyone’s time, I use a semi-structured interview to gather the most important information and to help keep everyone on track. Prior to this meeting, I initiate a phone conversation to explain the evaluation process so that parents know what to expect; often parents assume that they will bring their child to my office for some sort of testing, which is not the case at all (I don’t even have an official office).

So here’s what’s important to learn when meeting with parents. Essentially, what is the end goal as they see it? This gives me insight into what parents are thinking and offers the opportunity to assess what track they think the train is on. Next I ask parents to describe their child’s strengths; often this leads to a pregnant pause followed by a recitation of a number of character attributes. This is usually the shortest part of the conversation. I follow that by asking for concerns, although at this point I have probably heard the headliners. When I get the sense that the end game is just a tad short of a total transformation (e.g. cure) I ask the parent to identify the two most important areas to be addressed going forward. This helps to put things into perspective for myself and often for the parents. At some point in the discussion (sooner rather than later) it’s important to ask the parents what they hope to learn from the evaluation, this way you can clear up any notions that you are not able to address.

In addition to the parent interview I also send parents a number of assessments to complete. Some of my “go-tos” are:

The Parent Transition Survey offers a structured format for parents/guardians to provide general information about their thoughts/preferences for their child’s future. Available in both English and Spanish . This is a free resource from The Transition Coalition It is suggested that the parent complete this and return it prior to the interview to help guide the discussion.

Enderle-Severson Transition Rating Scale yields information on the student’s knowledge of and exposure to the transition planning areas. There are several different versions available for various levels of disability from mild to significant. Some forms are suitable for self-assessment. See website for specifics and pricing.

I also include adaptive rating scales such as the Vineland Adaptive Rating Scales or the Adaptive Behaviors Assessment System however, these instruments require training and have restrictions on the level of clinical training necessary to access them.

To sum up, parent input is important and should not be overlooked. To do so can cause problems down the road when it comes time to make programming recommendations and decisions.

Let The Record Show…

A record review is one of the building blocks of a comprehensive transition evaluation. Since transition planning begins (in most cases) around the time a student is moving into high school or is already there, it is reasonable to expect that a small forest of trees has already been expended in documenting the student’s escapades in special education. I am a firm believer in “less is more” so I start with the most recent info and work my way back as necessary. For the student who is now a senior, I don’t need to see the pre-school report card. I start with collecting the current IEP and any progress reports to date associated with that IEP, followed by the same (IEP and final progress reports) for the previous two school years. Next I request the most recent round of triennial testing as well as any interim evaluation/reports (e.g.FBAs, BIPs, AT, health, etc.), along with IEEs or private evaluations completed within the past 5 years. And most importantly I ask for the current contact info for parent(s) and guardians. I have had too many experiences where the info on the IEP is not accurate and I end up having to track parents down.

I start with reading the evaluations cover to cover, from oldest to most recent. I watch for recurring themes of strengths, abilities, preferences, etc. as well as potential barriers to success in the adult world. Additionally, one can sometimes gain additional information about the student’s educational history which may be chronicled in a record review done by other evaluators. I go back a second time and highlight key points and look to see what/how recommendations have been implemented.

I am not one for rewriting history, so I tend to either briefly summarize key points that are pertinent to the substance of the evaluation, or I skip a summary all together and include a list of records reviewed as an appendix with a notation that key points that are relevant to the evaluation and subsequent recommendations will be referenced as appropriate.

After the reports I tackle the IEPs, focusing most intently on the transition areas. For me, one of the most important parts of the IEP are the postschool outcome goal statements (PSOGS). These are intended to be measured after the student exits public education, providing the data for longitudinal monitoring of the transition planning process at the state and national level. At a minimum each student must have a PSOGS for postsecondary education/training and one for postsecondary employment. When deemed necessary, a student may have a third PSOGS in the area of independent living. PSOGS are often overlooked and misunderstood, but I’ll save that for another post. One thing to remember is that the PSOGS are the horses and the annual goals/objectives are the cart. Annual IEP goals/objectives must relate to the attainment of the PSOGS; however all to often the cart gets put before or sometimes miles away from the horses.

So here is my pet peeve as a “consumer” of evaluations, progress reports, or any other document crafted by an individual that will remain part of a student record. Let’s call it Report Writing 101: What Goes on Page 1! Here goes: The title of the evaluation, student’s name, DOB, date of the evaluation, date of the report, YOUR NAME. Yes it may sound elementary, but I cannot tell you how often this info is not there and I have to go looking to see if (please god) there is a signature page with a date! Additionally, it is very helpful if you number the pages in the format of page number/total number of pages.

One last thing, if you don’t understand something or you want more info, get releases from the parent to speak with any outside evaluators. Often you can get more up-to-date info that way and have your questions answered.

Lets Get Going

Identifying student needs in the transition planning areas is really no different from identifying student needs in academic areas. If a student is below grade level in any core academic area, reading for example, an evaluation will be done to determine a baseline, aka “present level of performance.” This evaluation is done according to what has been determined to be best practice and the end result produces a measurement of knowledge and skill in the “Big 5” areas of reading. As required by IDEA a student will be evaluated in all areas believed to be impacted by the disability. We would never automatically ascertain that a student who was two grade levels behind in reading would also be two grade levels behind in math. Likewise, when following best practices, we will take that measurement into consideration along with other information that may be obtained through other methods.

Information on best practices in evaluating students for their academic learning needs is readily available and school districts have established protocols for doing so. However, this is not the case for students who will remain in special education beyond the age of 12th grade.

In general a transition planning evaluation should identify a student’s knowledge of and exposure to the transition planning areas. In other words, what does the student know about postsecondary education, employment and independent living, and what have they had experience with? If a student is headed toward postsecondary education at the college level, do they have the skills necessary to be successful in a college class? If the student is headed toward employment at the entry level, has he/she ever had a job or any type of job experience? In looking at independent living skills, is the student able to take care of him/herself at a level that is commensurate with age? Additionally, a comprehensive transition planning evaluation will generate information on behavioral characteristics that can serve as both strengths and barriers to success in the adult world. For some students it is necessary to dig a little deeper and to formally assess areas such as problem solving and personal safety.

Regardless of a student’s level of disability, a comprehensive transition planning evaluation will gather information from a number of sources. An evaluation should start with a thorough review of student records. Another source of information will be from third party providers, usually school personnel who know the student well enough to identify strengths and needs; additionally information will come from parents; and last but certainly not least, information will come from the student. It is critical to gain information from all of the stakeholders. As this blog continues, each one of these components will be examined in depth. Stay tuned!

So, Where To Start?

Okay, you have reached the day in which mandated “transition planning” is required under IDEA. This process usually commences at the annual review when the student is 15 years old, and the IEP being developed will be in effect when that student turns 16. Depending on certain factors, transition planning may take place earlier as states can opt to start transition planning prior to this time, or IEP teams can elect to do so before the the student turns 16. In my state, transition planning for students identified with autism must begin when the student turns 14. The IEP developed for the period of time in which the student will turn 16 must contain postsecondary outcome goals identifying what a student will do after graduation, along with annual goals/objectives leading to the attainment of those postsecondary goals. At a minimum, the transition planning areas that must be included in the IEP are postsecondary education and postsecondary employment. This aligns with the goal of general education which prepares non-disabled students to be college or career ready by the time they graduate. IDEA also requires schools to prepare students with disabilities for independent living if deemed appropriate to do so.

At some point you may begin to hear about “Indicator 13” which is an IDEA compliance indicator designed to ensure that states are indeed taking transition planning seriously. Specifically, Indicator 13 focuses on the long-term side of transition planning and requires states “to provide students aged 16 and above with an IEP that includes appropriate measurable postsecondary goals that are annually updated and based upon an age appropriate transition assessment, transition services, including courses of study, that will reasonably enable the student to meet those postsecondary goals, and annual IEP goals related to the student’s transition service needs.”  Indicator 13 contains additional requirements including the provision of evidence that a student was invited to the IEP meeting (for a full description of Indicator 13 please see ( 20 U.S.C. 1416(a)(3)(B)). Indicator 13 puts the spotlight on postschool outcome goals, clearly identifying them as the ultimate objective of transition planning.

Keeping this in mind, it becomes clear that to provide a student of transition planning age with a free, appropriate public education teams must start with the end in sight. More importantly, the student becomes central to this process and must be given a part in determining his/her own fate.

So how to go about ensuring that the student along with his/her family is included in this person-centered process? With Person Centered Planning (PCP) of course! While there is no single definition of PCP, there are common characteristics that resonate in defining it. For starters, it is a process for creating a shared vision by identifying the hopes/dreams that a person has. This step can be considered articulating what may be possible (e.g. going to college, having a career, marriage, family, living independently). This information can be used to guide the development of postschool outcome goals. From there the process moves to establishing what is probable; in other words, extracting the reality from the dream. More specifically, what will have to be accomplished for the person to attain the desired outcome? Additionally, PCP will move on to identify the persons strengths/skills (what we have to work with) as well as the persons challenges/barriers (what needs remediation, what needs accommodation, what are the long and short-term supports that will be needed?) This information can be used to guide the development of annual goals/objectives. Lastly, an action plan of next steps is developed and identifies the person/agencies responsible for ensuring that the action plan gets implemented.

There are a number of formal processes for conducting a PCP session. At this stage of the game, I prefer to use a method that starts out by identifying the desired outcome (start with the end in sight). There is no shortage of information available on the internet on the topic of PCP; a preferred resource of mine is listed below. What ever method you choose to use, remember that the goal of PCP is not to have a stellar plan, but to have a stellar life.

https://www.pacer.org/transition/learning-center/independent-community-living/person-centered.asp

It’s Been a While

I had the best intentions of getting this blog off the ground quite a while ago. But as the saying goes, “life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” So after many changes in my life during the past few years, I am rededicating myself to sharing my thoughts, ideas, knowledge, whims, hopes, dreams, etc. on the topic of transition planning. My goal is to put up a weekly post, but I’ll be satisfied with a biweekly accomplishment to start. I plan to cover as many topics as I can think of, and I am hoping that in time this endeavor will grow to become a resource to assist in meeting the needs of students, families, and professionals alike. So feel free to suggest topics going forward.

So where to start?? Ah yes, we had a pandemic that sent the entire world into a tailspin and took a toll on transition services as well as every other aspect of public education. What we knew in our hearts all along to be true was proven; “virtual learning” for most students with disabilities was the working definition of the term oxymoron. Preparation for adulthood came to all halt in every way except for the passing of time. Countless students “aged out” of public education and many now sit at home unemployed, isolated, and unable to move forward. I have read accounts of parents who have had to leave or change jobs to provide care for their now adult child because he/she does not qualify for adult services; others report that the adult day program that they were counting on to provide support no longer exists.

As with most situations in life, the lesson learned has come at a price. The take-away from the pandemic pandemonium (for me anyway) is that preparation for adulthood is an educational outcome that is essential for every student. It’s not the “3Rs” that matter anymore, it’s 4 “reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and reality.” We need to begin the process of preparation for adulthood earlier and approach it with the same level of intensity and commitment that we do when advocating for all other aspects of a student’s education. It’s just that important.

It’s good to be back.