“Who, What, Here, Now!” was written and designed to engage and empower students with varying abilities with the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully navigate the process of transitioning out of the Massachusetts public school system. Far too often, students with disabilities are left out of some of the most critical conversations concerning their futures. This guide was developed to not only encourage its readers to expand their understanding of their rights as a student with an Individualized Education Plan, but to also become strong self-advocates in the collective decision making process for their future. It is structured to break down the key components of the transition process into easily accessible modules that can be understood by a multitude of different learning styles and varied levels of intellectual disability.

 

RATIONALE:

 

Self-Empowerment Tool: Who, What, Where, NOW! Is designed as a tool to help empower students with the knowledge to have an active voice and understanding of the opportunities available and entitled to them. By creating this book, I intend to encourage students to play an active, informed and confident role in the transition planning process. Too often, I’ve witnessed students take a back seat during the transition planning process, primarily due to ableism on behalf of those on their planning team. Additionally, students are often unaware of the many tools and resources available to them or have no idea how to access them. Designed as a guide to the transition process, this book is structured to provide students with insight in to the ways they can empower themselves with knowledge about their rights as a student with an Individualized Education Plan and guidance on navigating the process of transition planning. 

 

CONTENT CHOICE:

 

As an overtly critical period in the developmental process, Who, What, Where, Now! seeks to enhance the overall knowledge, vocabulary, self-efficacy and advocacy of students navigating the intricate process of transition into adulthood. While the process of transition planning is a daunting one, laden with a wide array of facets to consider and address, this tool provides a broad overview of the central concepts of transition. That said, this guide is intended to serve as a primer, and/or supplementary tool to familiarize students with commonly used terms, stages and processes in transition planning and encourage critical discourse between students and their parents, teachers or other members of their transition planning team. Rather than inundate students with complex text and an in-depth explanation of the vast amount of information, this guide seeks to increase their self-advocacy/efficacy skills through knowledge acquirement and increased perceived benefits of being a proactive part of their planning for the transition to adulthood.  

 

 

ACCESSIBILITY:

The text and diction employed throughout are written at a fourth grade reading level to allow for a wide array of literacy levels to decode. Additionally, the text is available in audio format for visually-impaired, English Language learners, students with intellectual delay and/or students with difficulty among others.

 

 

SPECIFIC AIMS:

  1. Inform and assess students understanding of the purpose, process and implications of the transition process in a universally designed learning platform
  2. Encourage students to be proactive and instrumental in their goals and future plans
  3. Enhance the overall awareness of supports, resources and opportunities they are entitled to and increase overall likelihood that this knowledge will encourage them to seek out the best quality of life as they enter young adulthood.
  4. Encourage students and families to collaborate more effectively in the planning and preparation process.

 

SUPPORTS:

  1. Coaches: There are a total of three Coaches incorporated within the framework of “Who, What, Here, Now!”. They each provide their own specific area of support and serve as guides and information resources to aid in accessibility and comprehension. Two of the coaches, AJ& Lex, are “Transition-Ambition” Ambassadors (Former students who have already navigated the AJ, provides a summary of the information introduced on the page, while Lex highlights new vocabulary and provides additional clarifying information for newly introduced topics.  Rover, is designed to monitor and assess comprehension while reinforcing new topics introduced, through the use of ‘higher-order-thinking” questions. He encourages student engagement and interaction within the Power Pod. Their overarching goal is to empower students with independence and confidence, through a greater understanding of the material.
  2. Engagement/Interaction: The “Power Pod”, is a text input area at the bottom of each page that is designed to allow students to engage with their Coaches, respond to question prompts, pose questions, keep notes, etc. In conjunction with the prompts and topics introduced by the coaches, the Power Pod supports the transferring learning (Fuchs, 2003) that is often difficult for children with significant learning difficulties.

Glossary – An extensive library was designed for this text to help empower students with a wide-array of terminology that they will often encounter throughout the ITP process. Rather than oversimplify them, the intent is to help students to play an active role in their plan development. Further, the glossary serves as yet another form of support to enhance the overall comprehension and transition-related knowledge.


 

Who, What, Where, NOW!

Private Scholars© Transition Planning Power Guide

 


 

Empowering Your Inner Scholar 


  • Introduction:

    Welcome to Your Future!  

     

    4
  • Who?

    Who Am I?

    5
  • Who? 

    Who Am I? Finding Your Power

     

    6
  • What....?

    What is a Transition Plan?

     

    7
  • Where....?

    Where do I go for more information?

    8
  • Now!

    Putting my Plan into Action

     

     

    10


Congratulations! You are on your way to becoming an adult! Making your Transition from high school to adulthood is one of the most important stages in your life so far. Up until now, most of the big decisions in your life have been made for you, by people like your parents or teachers. All of that is about to change, so it’s extra important that you know as much about yourself, your goals and your future before you begin!

There’s a lot of extra planning and thinking you will need to do, to make sure that you are ready for your transition. An Individualized Transition Plan  (or "ITP") is a plan that you make with a team of helpers. This book was made to help you understand the many different parts of your ITP and give you the power to make your own choices about your future.

Have you started thinking about these things?

  • What do I want my life to be like after high school?
  • Do I want to get a job? What do I want to do for work? 
  • Do I want to go to college? 
  • Do I want to have my own home or still live with my family?
  • What makes me happy? 

This "Power Planning Guide"  and your "Transition-Ambition" Coaches  will help make sure that you can answer these questions and take power over your future!

 

Let's Meet Your Coaches and Get This Party Started!  


As you get ready for your transition planning, one of the most important things you need to do is ask yourself a very important question....

Who Am I?

You are the most important part of your transition plan! Understanding who you are will help you make the right choices to reach your goals before and after high school.

Your transition plan is going to be the map you use to become the adult you want to be. Understanding who you are includes knowing your: 

  • Strengths
  • Needs/Challenges
  • Goals
  • Vision

You should also be asking yourself about what you want life to look like after high school.

  • What kind of job do I want?
  • Do I want to get my Diploma or Certificate of Completion? 
  • Do I want to live on my own? 

The earlier you start to think about these questions, the more prepared you will be to make your tranition successful!


Who is on My Team?

Making your transition plan is a team project. It is important to know who is on your team and what role they will have in your ITP process. There are many important people on your team. They include:

  1. You! 
  2. Parents
  3. Teachers
  4. Therapists
  5. Service Agency Provider
  6. Advocate(s)

Your team will help you to set AND acheive your goals. They will help you understand what your options  are and help you connect with the services that you will need to get to your goals. 

 




What....

What is a Transition Plan?

A transition plan is the last part of your Individualized Education Plan , or IEP. Up until now, your teachers, parents and others have been developing your IEP and working to make sure that you had the support and services that you needed to succeed in school. You may have been a part of your IEP planning but if you haven’t, now is the time to be an active part of the process

Your transition plan is your plan for your future. It has many different parts that help you to outline your postsecondary goals and understand what support and services you will need to succeed in adulthood. Postsecondary, is a word you will hear often, it means “after graduation”.  

One of the most important parts of your transition plan is your Vision Statement. Your vision statement is a description of what you want your life to be like when you graduate. So far, your team has decided what your Vision statement is but now it’s time to use your voice and your power to create your future. 



It may seem as if this process is pretty stressful. There are a lot of places you can go to learn more about your transition. 

Here are some people and places you can start with: 

Teachers:

  • Your teachers are one of your greatest sources of information about making your transition
  • If they do not have the answers, they should be able to help you find out who does

Career Center:Your school should have a career center that can help you find out more about:

  • The types of jobs you might be interested in
  • What kind of training or education you will need to be qualified for jobs you may be interested in
  • Internships and job-training programs to help prepare you

Parents and Family: 

  • Your family is a very important part of any transition plan. Your parents can be important resources to help you learn more about what your skills are, what jobs you may be good at and what types of support you may need to be successful. They can alslo give you information about the jobs they do. 

Your Guidance Counselor or Career center can also give you access to: 

  • Volunteer  opportunities
  • Entry-level jobs in the areas you're interested in
  • Observing and interviewing adults who do the type of work that interests you
  • College admission  requirements and information

Interest/Work Assessments:

  • Interest and Work assessments are types of tests that you should take as you prepare for transition. These  tests are actually fun! They are designed to help you discover your interests, abilities and skills that you already have and what activities and services willl be most helpful to you.  The results of this information is extremely valuable in setting goals for your student’s life after high school.

Internships  & Training Programs: 

  • As you start to think about the types of jobs you'd like to do, it helps to learn about the different roles and careers that you might be interested in.There are job training and readiness programs and centers that can provide you with opportunities to learn what the job is like, and give you a chance to see if you might want to pursue it as a career.

 



Now!

 

Now is your time.....

  • Decide who you are and what you want your 
  • Ask for your IEP and review it with someone you trust
  • Build a strong transition planning team!
  • You have the power to take control of your future

Click here to learn more about your rights so you can use your power!