Description:

Regardless of their disabilities, all children eventually become adults – physically and legally. Transition planning is about looking ahead at your child’s future life, setting goals, and determining what supports and services will help them succeed in adulthood.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), students with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) designed to meet the child’s unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. In fact, the main purpose of IDEA is to ensure that all children with disabilities are “prepared to lead productive and independent adult lives, to the maximum extent possible.” However, children with disabilities are often described as “falling off a cliff” once they leave high school due to the failure of planning and implementing effective transition plans.

Transition planning should help your child exit high school ready to start the rest of their life with a vision for their future and a plan in place. They may require support in adulthood – the transition IEP can help you spell out what supports your child will need and who will provide them.

Join us for this Power Hour “Transition and the IEP” with our Director of Patient and Family Advocacy, Audrey Vernick, to learn more about this process and how to prepare your child – and yourself – for what happens after high school.

Please note this is a two-part series.