From National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities

The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities creted this group of items to help students with significant congnitive disabilities find and keep a job.

There is a "A Student's Guide Jobs" package which is made up of several parts:

• The Student Guide itself is a short booklet that descibes the jobs that different students with cognitive disabilities have.
• The Transcript of the Audio Tape that accompanies the Student Guide. The tape has interviews with students, their employers, parents and others who discuss various perspectives on the employment of persons with cognitive disabilities.
• The Technical Assistance Guide that helps those invloved with helping students with cognitive disabilities find and keep a job.

From National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHY)
By Kyrie Dragoo

NICHCY is pleased to connect you with resources on transition services for youth with disabilities.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), transition planning from school to adult life begins, at the latest, during high school. In fact, transition planning is required, by law, to start once a student reaches 16 years of age, or younger, if appropriate. This transition planning becomes formalized as part of the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP). The IEP is a written document listing, among other things, the special educational services that the child will receive. The IEP is developed by a team that includes the child's parents and school staff.

From National Longitudinal Transition Study-2
By Renée Cameto

The transition from school to young adulthood can present challenges for youth served by special education, but the transition period also entails opportunities for educators and practitioners to provide young people with experiences that lead to success. In the two decades since transition planning entered the special education lexicon, changes in service delivery have helped shape the implementation of the transition planning process in schools for students with disabilities (National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, 2004). One outcome of the transition requirements included in IDEA ’97 has been to focus attention on how students’ educational programs can be planned to help them achieve their goals for life after secondary school and how postschool services can be identified that will promote students’ successful movement from school to young adulthood. This NLTS2 Data Brief provides a national view of the transition planning process undertaken during high school with and for youth with disabilities as they prepare for life after school. Information reported here comes from a mail survey of school personnel who knew the 2001-02 school programs of study members well. Findings from NLTS2 (see footnote 1) generalize to youth with disabilities nationally who were 13 to 16 years old in December 2000, to each of 12 federal disability categories, and to each age group within the age range.

From www.schwablearning.org
by Candace Cortiella

When Congress recently updated the nation’s special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004), it sought to improve postsecondary results for students with disabilities by requiring public high schools to provide better transition planning.

From Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database

Students with learning disabilities (LD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) approach the transition from high school to college with an array of learning strengths and needs. They need to understand their own abilities and guide their own transition planning by looking at various postsecondary options. If college is the path chosen, investigating postsecondary programs to find the right match is a crucial step. In general, postsecondary support services are less intensive than secondary special education services. Students need to become experts on how to engineer their academic success, a process that requires experiences that build self-insight, self-advocacy, and resourcefulness.

The June 2005 Effects of Cognitive-Behavior Interventions on Dropout for Youth with Disabilities is a 49 page paper from the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities.

The report itself is very short on details and stratagies that parents or teachers can actually use. Really all it does is identify key studies that provide useful, scientifically valid results. Still, this is being posted as a starting point for anyone who wants to follow up more.

The National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) was funded by the US Department of Education documented "the experiences of a national sample of students [with disabilities] who were 13 to 16 years of age in 2000 as they move from secondary school into adult roles."

12,000 disabled students, aged 13-16 when the study began in the 2000/2001 school year will be followed for 9 years by interviewing the students, their parents and schools to create a national picture of the young people as they transition from high school into further education, college or both. This is a follow up study to the original National Longitudinal Transition Study from 1985 to 1993.

The Person-Centered Planning Tool for Transition helps parents by providing a process for transition that involves the student. This is one of the Parent Briefs found on the National Secondary Education and Transition.

Career Planning Begins with Assessement is a "guide for professionals serving youth with educational and career development challenges. This doc was commissioned by the Dept of Labor to help professionals understand how assessment tools can assist students with disabilities in the career planning process.

From US Dept of Education

Students with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education: Know Your Rights and Responsibilities

More and more high school students with disabilities are planning to continue their education in postsecondary schools, including vocational and career schools, two- and four- year colleges, and universities. As a student with a disability, you need to be well informed about your rights and responsibilities as well as the responsibilities that postsecondary schools have toward you. Being well informed will help ensure that you have a full opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the postsecondary education experience without confusion or delay.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education is providing the information in this pamphlet to explain the rights and responsibilities of students with disabilities who are preparing to attend postsecondary schools. This pamphlet also explains the obligations of a postsecondary school to provide academic adjustments, including auxiliary aids and services, to ensure that the school does not discriminate on the basis of disability.