The reality is that we’re planning for our children’s adulthood from the time they’re born — as Lisa says, “We're not raising kids. We're raising adults, right? Because they're going to be an adult when we get to the end of this, and so we want to make sure that we're scaffolding and planning.”
However, when it comes to the specifics of planning with the school, Lisa says, “I recommend that parents request a transition assessment in around January of the child's eighth grade year, so that in the spring of that year, you're going to have a transition to high school meeting with the IEP team, and that's a good time to start developing their Individualized Transition Plan (ITP).”
The school is not legally required to develop the ITP until your child turns 16, but there are a few reasons you should start earlier. Lisa explains, “Now, I know that very few of us know what we want to do when we're 16 for the rest of our life, or even eighth or ninth grade. But you want to have lots of time to let the child explore different possibilities and different ideas so that you can get closer to having a plan. Kids may be wanting to go straight to a university from high school without going to community college, and those kids need to take the right classes to do that, starting in ninth grade. So that's another reason that you should be talking about that transition planning, if that's something your child's planning on.”
The transition assessment should take place before you start working with the school on an ITP. If you want to do this assessment before your child is 16, you’ll need to initiate requesting it from the school like you would request any other assessment. In addition, like any other assessment, the school has 60 days to complete it. Lisa says that the school will often have a special education teacher or the school psychologist do the assessment, but ideally a vocational counselor will be involved.
Lisa says, “A transition assessment is going to look at a student's preferences, needs, likes, dislikes, and how that might interact with their future plans. It should include background information, educational history, document review, interviews, career and assessment planning, and even potentially looking at functional skills. And like any assessment, it should have findings and recommendations.”
An ITP boils down to three areas: future education, independent living skills, and employment. To make sure your child’s ITP reflects each of these areas, you want to make sure the assessment covers these key points.
The Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) provides a variety of services for individuals with disabilities to help them find employment. For now, Lisa says, focus on connecting your child with student services. “What they'll typically do is talk to your student, find out what your student might be interested in, and place them in employment in that area. For example, they might work at a shoe store in the mall, and the DOR will set limits, like a maximum of 300 hours, 20 hours a week. And when your student hits that 300 hours, they're done with that job, and they can go back to the DOR and be placed in another type of experience, if they wish.”
Because California requires minors to be 16 years old before they can obtain employment, your child needs to be 16 before getting services from the DOR. The process starts with you reaching out to the DOR. Lisa says, “if you're looking for that student work experience right at 16, then I would contact them around 16 or shortly before. If you're only interested in adult services, then you can also contact them and have them come to your IEP meetings, if you’d like. It's going to depend on what programs you're looking at, and they have a lot of programs.”
For more information about the DOR’s programs and what to expect, check out our article How the Department of Rehab Can Help with the Transition to Adulthood.
As we discuss in our article High School Graduation Options, there are multiple potential routes for your child to obtain a high school diploma that sets them up for future education and career opportunities. A to G refers to the classes that most universities in California will want to see on your child’s transcript if your child plans to attend a four-year college straight from high school. If not, your child can work toward a standard diploma that meets the requirements for high school graduation.
Another possibility is the new alternate pathway to a diploma, which is intended for students with cognitive disabilities but is still equivalent to a standard diploma. You can see our article all about this new pathway to a diploma to learn whether your child is eligible to receive it and how.
No matter what your child is working toward, make sure that you and your IEP team communicate about it, potentially as early as that eighth grade transition meeting. Lisa says, “You want to make sure that you ask in your IEP meeting to confirm what course of study your child is on. Are they doing the A through G requirements, or are they doing the standard diploma, or are they doing an alternative pathway to diploma? Or are they in a certificate track? It should be documented clearly in your IEP.”
Where is your child’s path to a diploma written in their IEP? It depends on the district. “There's going to be a page in your IEP that talks about promotion criteria, promotion standards. Some will have check boxes that say something like ‘district goals.’ That's one place to look to get a clue. Another place to look is the page where your child’s accommodations are listed. They're going to have a curriculum, and it's going to say general, general education, or alternative, or modified, or something like that. So that's kind of a starting point to look. Sometimes it’s buried in the IEP document.”
Lisa also notes that your child’s placement does not determine what diploma they can receive — it’s the curriculum. “So you need to make sure that you understand what curriculum your child is receiving and what path that they're on.”
School districts are required to provide special education services for students with IEPs until they graduate from high school or until they turn 22, whichever comes first. However, there are some key exceptions to note. Lisa explains, “If your child earns a diploma through the alternative pathway, they are eligible to stay with the school district until age 22. That does not exit them. Students who get the certificate of completion are also eligible until age 22 to go to the adult transition program.”
Our team is working on an article all about 18–22 transition programs, but in the meantime, here are Lisa’s insights: “Most adult transition programs are very focused on life skills. The important piece to know is that in the adult transition program, all of the IEP rules that you have learned all of these years still apply. There is still a continuum of placements. LRE still applies. It is still individualized. So if your school district's answer is ‘We have a single program, and that program is in this building over here, and this is what they do,’ and that doesn't fit your child's needs, you do still have rights to look at alternatives.” Stay tuned for more information on this topic in our upcoming article.
Thank you to Lisa for sharing her wisdom about helping prepare our kids for this huge milestone in their lives!
You can watch the full replay of our event here, where we go into more detail and also answer some questions that parents asked in the chat during our livestream.
Ready to work with your own IEP team to prepare your child for life after high school? The Undivided platform has goals with step-by-step walkthroughs to help you request an assessment, prepare for your child’s ITP, apply for DOR services, and more! Explore your Undivided account today if you already have one, or join Undivided to get started.
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