The paper describes the Iowa Plan, a network approach to providing home care services for children with handicaps and chronic diseases who require medical technology services. The Iowa Regional Child Health Center Network is reviewed. The centers are based on shared responsibility between major state agencies and the community and serve as focal…

The paper describes a Laramie County, Wyoming, program to deliver transition information and skills to handicapped students in sparsely populated rural communities. A brief historical review of education in Wyoming precedes a discussion of transition concerns in Wyoming which include lack of coordination between educational and community agencies…

A study investigated the outcomes of the Acute Children's Extended Services (ACES) program, a Salt Lake City, Utah, program designed to help children with emotional and behavioral disabilities reintegrate into the community from inpatient or residential care. The study examined outcomes of the ACES program within four domains: access, clinical…

The Alaska Consortium for Transition Services (ACTS) is a federally funded project to develop and implement secondary transition planning for rural Alaska students with severe disabilities. Secondary transition is the process of change occurring as students prepare to move from high school to adult life. As rural Alaska's severely disabled…

Four related research studies examined the transition of Maine special education students from high school to community and work. (1) A statewide survey of Maine special education teachers and administrators and vocational counselors found that significant gaps existed in transitional services provided to handicapped secondary school students, in…

The South Dakota Alliance for Transition establishes a formal partnership among state agencies, local service providers, and community stakeholders to address the transition needs of youth with disabilities. The 5-year federally funded project aims to enhance transition services through systems change: developing responsive case management and…

This paper describes Project TransND, a transition services project implemented jointly through the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, Office of Special Education, and the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. This program helps prepare special education students to transition from high school to the work world. Project goals include…

This paper discusses the issues surrounding the transition from home or preschool to elementary school for children from low-income families, and examines the future direction of transition programs to help alleviate many of the difficulties that these families face. Noting that there are two venues for reform action, the curriculum and the family…

Work Inc., a community rehabilitation center south of Boston, provides moderately to severely disabled (primarily mentally retarded) students with paid work opportunities while they are still in school. In the Work Inc. program, the Greater Boston business community becomes part of the daily curriculum of 500 students in 35 different communities…

Transition projects have emerged to address Head Start fade-out effects, that is, the disappearance of gains made by Head Start program children by the third grade. The Nebraska Transition Project is one of 31 across the United States providing Head Start-like services to families with children in public elementary school, kindergarten through…

Rural communities have strengths and weaknesses that affect the development of transitional programs for students with disabilities. These community characteristics were factored into a federally funded, graduate-level training program called Project CREST (Collaboration in Rural Education for Special Teachers), which provided training stipends…

This paper provides an overview of the transition process for students with severe handicaps. For secondary age youths with severe handicaps, explicit and intensive transition planning is necessary to bridge the gap between school experiences and adult life. The transition planning process is designed to build the skills necessary for an…

The 11 articles in this monograph, selected from more than 100 presentations made at the National Conference on Transitional Services for Troubled Youth, examine the history, current status, best practices, and future needs of troubled youth who are returning from residential to community settings. The papers are the following: "Transitional…

This paper describes a three-phase program which places students with disabilities into job sites in strip malls, enclosed malls, industrial parks, and individual businesses to prepare them for their transition to independent living. The paper explains that in phase 1 of the program students train at a different site each day; in phase 2, students…

This paper describes the Community Transition Center (CTC) model, being tested in six districts in rural Wisconsin. The model is a way of conceptualizing and organizing the employment-related needs of mainstreamed mildly handicapped youths who are exiting secondary schools. The model emphasizes the role of secondary school transition programming,…