Transition Services Brief # 2

Jonathan Clark

RC 560 - Supported Emp, Ind Living, & Transition
Summer II, 2014









Overview:
The lifestyle changes that occur when moving from high-school on to post-
secondary employment or education can be taxing emotionally and financially on all
students. Particularly for students with disabilities the task of negotiating this change
can seem overwhelming. Students with disabilities have been shown to have lower
post-secondary education enrollment, lower rates of employment, and higher rates of
high-school dropout (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996). Thus, the transition from school to
work has been identified as a priority in the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (IDEA). This act formally defined transition services as coordinated
activities utilizing services that provide instruction and the development of employment
and post-secondary objectives in order to facilitate the students movement from high
school to post-secondary life. These transition services are developed according to
each individual students own strengths, weaknesses, interests, and needs. IDEA
required schools to provide transition services in the student's Individualized Education
Plan (IEP) no later than age 16 and as early as 14 in some states.
To meet the IDEA requirement, school systems often utilize collaborations with
outside agencies such as the Office Vocational Rehabilitation, mental health agencies,
and employment placement agencies. Collaboration among the school system, parents,
student, and outside agencies helps to provide a shared set of goals and shared
responsibility for the ultimate outcome and successful job placement of the student.
Meetings between these collaborating meeting help to share resources and decide
mutual goals that will most effectively benefit the student (Kohler 1998). These
collaborations among multiple entities provide their own challenges and barriers. For
example, while parental involvement can be beneficial to provide personal insight on the
student and is a predictor of post-secondary success, most parents are not actively
involved in the transition services meetings (Wehmeyer, Morningstar, & Husted, 1999).
Professionals may discount the parents views in favor of their own expert opinion. This
can result in disinterest in the transition services meetings by family members. While
parental involvement is required by law for the development of the students IEP (EHA,
1975) it is only encouraged in the case of transition planning. The requirements, ideas,
and ultimate goals between the parent, school, and OVR on what successful transition
means can often be mismatched. Parental and even the goals and expectations of
teachers for a student may be viewed as unrealistic in the eyes of other collaborative
team members.
In addition to the challenges involved with gaining parental participation in
transition services there are a variety of additional barriers. In rural locations for
example there are limited access to transportation and resources needed in order to
provide the student with the ability to remain employed or to attend meeting and
interviews for a job or educational opportunity. There are also significant fears in the
minds of the student and family members concerning the loss of specific services. For
example, the fear of losing checks from government assistance for the child can create
be a deterrent to the consideration of employment following high school. Concerns of
uncertainty of the amount of support and types of support received following those
received by the school after graduation can also be limiting to the confidence levels of
the student (Johnson & Rusch, 1993). One way to address these barriers may be to
allow for more flexibility in the ways that transition supports are provided to the student.
As no two IEPs or transition plans are the same, creating a more versatile system that
provides funding for alternative local resources according to the needs of the student
and family may allow for plans that are tailored more toward the students needs. There
also seems to be a gap in the way that individuals with disabilities move from childrens
services to adult services. Transitional services and Supported Employment services
can work together to provide a longitudinal support network and ease the stress and
fear of being left without the higher levels of support experienced during junior and
senior years. By placing the funding where it is needed for individual access and
creating the networks that will provide services across the continuum of an individuals
life, we can empower the student to have greater self-determination and confidence that
they will be able to accomplish the goals set forth for them.


Interview:

Interviewee
Leslie Hudson, MRC, CRC
Kentucky Career Center
Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
955 Fairview Avenue, Suite 100
Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 746-7489 ext. 38690
Email: [email protected]

Interview Setting: The interview was conducted via phone call on Thursday, July 17 at
3:30 pm. The following is a transcript of that interview.
Jonathan: Hello Leslie. I would like to start our interview by asking you about your
background, education, and experience that led you to become involved in transition
services.
Leslie: Well, I have a Bachelors degree with a major in psychology from Western
Kentucky University and when I graduated I was friends with the current director of
OVR. She suggested that I try this job. I worked on my Masters through UK and
received my CRC in 2002. So, I have been doing this for a while. This is my 16
th
year
with the agency and I have been working with transition case loads the entire time. Up
until 5 years ago I was actually housed in one of the local high schools. We had a
cooperative agreement where the schools had set up funding to use in-house services
through our department. Now, there are around 5 strictly transition counselors left in the
state. In our office we have 9 counselors in our district serving a 10 county area. I only
serve Warren County and Bowling Green high schools and I have 7 schools that I deal
with. The other counselors have the traditional adult caseload servicing outlying
counties plus the high schools in those rural counties.
Jonathan: Can you talk me through the process and basic plan from year to year that
you may develop from the time OVR is first contacted to provide services? Also, when
do you typically first make contact with the client and when would you stop services?
Leslie: It really depends on the student and the program that they will participate in. If
the student is a potential candidate for the Community based work transition program,
then typically the school will make a referral to me in the spring of their sophomore year.
I will meet with the student and family. The job coach will come in and usually we will do
this at an ARC meeting or someplace like that where we can all sit at the table and talk
about what the program looks like and if it is something they want their student to
participate in or not. We then determine eligibility. One thing I have to stress to each
family is that OVR is an eligibility program and not an entitlement program like the public
school system that must provide services. After I have done the intake, received
signatures, and completed eligibility, then starting the beginning of their junior year they
will meet with a job coach or employment specialist and go out into the community and
complete an evaluation during that junior year. We would meet again that following
spring and go over the evaluation report that identifies the strengths and weaknesses
and any potential employment opportunities for the student and then develop a plan.
Then we will move them into a training phase their senior year so that student can
receive the training necessary to become employed in that specific vocational choice so
that when they graduate that will have a job lined up to go straight into the workforce.
Jonathan: After they have graduated, what sort of follow-up does the transition services
provide?
Leslie: If it is a community based work transition student and that is a small percentage
of my case load. Let me back up to your previous question to address my other
students as well. For the rest of the students not recommended for the work transition
program I will usually get referrals the end of their junior year or beginning of the senior
year. My teachers will contact me to let me know which ones they think will benefit from
our services. If they are 18 I can meet with the student on their own. If not I must obtain
parental consent. This usually takes place in the fall of their senior year so that we have
that year to develop a plan for transition to determine if they are a candidate for post-
secondary education or work force. If the student is community based the school
system is required to provide 60 days of follow-up after the student graduates through
our program. If they have a job, their job coach will follow them for 60 days to make sure
they maintain that employment and then they are finished. I will monitor the student for
an additional 30 days and at that point we close their case. If they do not have a job
upon graduation and they are in the community based program the school is no longer
responsible and then it falls upon OVR to place that student in contact with supported
employment programs.
Jonathan: What are other transitions that you consider successful for your clients? For
example, what percentages of the students you work with go on to post-secondary
education?
Leslie: Through OVR, our mission is focused on employment, so if they do not find
employment then they are not considered successful from the OVR standpoint.
However, I do have some students who will go on to post-secondary education utilizing
tuition assistance through our agency. In our district we also have a higher percentage
of students who go on to the Carl Perkins training centers.
Jonathan: What type of assessment tests do you conduct at OVR?
Leslie: We will use the ONET interest profiler. I administer the CareerScope. It is really
individualized according to the goals for the student. We also utilize highly the teacher
and parent input when developing transition plans.
Jonathan: What are some of the differences and challenges for transition services in
your rural outlying counties versus services provided there in Bowling Green?
Leslie: Our biggest challenge is transportation. We have transit bus services, but it only
operates in city limits from 6am until 5pm. If they find a job operating outside of those
hours they will not be able to utilize that form of transportation.
Jonathan: What are some of the top reasons why your students are not successful in
finding employment?
Leslie: One barrier may sometimes be the parents that do not want the child to go to
work because they fear losing the check they receive for the child. Sometimes there are
very unrealistic expectations. I am all about wanting someone to succeed, but I am not
going to set someone up for failure. Often when we are in an ARC meeting I get to be
the bad guy because the teachers have told the students that they can go to college all
of their life, but when the rubber meets the road I have to set with a senior and tell them
that they will not get accepted into college with an 11 on the ACT. That is a challenge
because I am viewed as the bad guy in the room. I will often ask about what
accommodations the student is using currently in order to give the student some
perspective about whether those accommodations are realistic in the college setting.
Jonathan: What do you feel is the most difficult aspect of your job?
Leslie: Probably it is how time consuming all of the paperwork is. I often feel that my
time could be better used interacting with the client, but I have to set at the computer
filing forms. That is a challenge for time management.
Jonathan: Leslie, I wanted to thank you for speaking with me today. This interview has
helped me to consider transition services from a different perspective. Thanks you for
your time.

Conclusion:
Transition services involve a complex network weaving together the school
system, parents, medical providers, vocational rehabilitators, employers, and the
student in an attempt to provide successful moves from secondary education into either
the workforce or post-secondary education. Within this network team members involved
in the planning of the students transition must work together in order to develop a
course of action that they believe would be most beneficial toward the student.
Throughout the research and interview I found wide variety of focuses and goals of
each individual team member. While the parent may focus on lifelong dreams and long
term desires for their child, an OVR transition specialist may focus on the timelines and
needs involved with providing the student employment in the short term at graduation.
Alternatively, members of the school administration may focus on the overwhelming
tasks of meeting all state and federal guidelines. With differences in opinions among
various team members it is important to focus on goals that have yielded the most
positive results in the past and are driven by data showing the greatest success rates.
There is a need for greater flexibility allowing for the student to become involved with
determinations concerning their own future and have the needed support for lifelong
success. In order to do this, we must support programs that place funding closer to the
individuals local community placing it in alternative resources as needed and we must
support the need for greater communication across the continuum of childhood to adult
services for individuals with disabilities.









Works Cited

Blackorby, J., & Wagner. R. (1996). Longitudinal postschool outcomes of youth with
disabilities: Findings from the national longitudinal transition study. Exceptional
Children, 62, 399414.
Individuals with Disability Education Act Amendments of 1997 [IDEA]. (1997).
Johnson, J. & Rusch, F. (1993). Secondary special education and transition services:
Identification and recommendations for future research and demonstration.
Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 16(1), 1-18.
Kohler, P. (1998). Implementing a transition perspective of education: A comprehensive
approach to planning and delivering secondary education and transition services.
In F. R. Rusch & J. Chadsey (Eds.), Beyond high school: Transition from school
to work. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Wehmeyer, M.,Morningstar,M., Husted,D. (1999). Family involvement in transition
planning and implementation. Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed International Publisher.