The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates transition services to prepare students with disabilities to live and work in the community as adults; the School-to-Work (STW) Opportunities Act requires that all students, including those with disabilities, have access to all STW activities. This paper overviews collaborative…

ASPIRE--"Assisting Special Populations in Readiness for Employment"--is a secondary special education transition program featuring coordinated services between the public and private sectors to integrate secondary level disabled students into subsidized private sector employment. ASPIRE was introduced into the Lake Tahoe Unified School…

Describes an attempt to evaluate the Transition Systems Change Initiative despite geographically dispersed program sites and different program goals, activities, and impacts. The design focused on common impacts and unique accomplishments of the projects by making maximum use of existing data. Project directors were involved in planning,…

These materials present information on implementing a collaborative team model in the delivery of transition services to students with disabilities. The materials provide charts and forms outlining strategies to be used by a local interagency transition team to assess its existing level of collaboration, to conceptualize its jointly endorsed…

A survey of 29 federally funded agencies engaged in transition education Inter-Agency Agreements (IAAs) found that planning activities are important in forging IAAs, implementation of IAAs depends upon local initiatives, and collection of information about service overlap and service gaps was considered to be an important activity. (JDD)

The monograph describes 11 exemplary programs selected in 1987 by the J. M. (Jeremiah Milbank) Foundation from 154 programs providing vocational services to persons with disabilities. Programs were selected in four categories: community-based work adjustment, consortium-based transition, supported work in small communities, and work services for…

This paper is a guide to mapping community resources as a way of identifying assets and resources that can be used to aid students with disabilities as they transition from school to adulthood. Discussion of the principles of community resource mapping (relationship-driven and across programmatic and geographic boundaries) is followed by a…

A cooperative project of the University of Oregon and Springfield, Oregon, School District provided adolescents with emotional disturbances with a transition specialist to develop a service delivery plan and access services. Self-determination, competitive vocational placements, and educational support were emphasized. Project impact on…

This theme issue on transitions for individuals with disabilities contains nine papers discussing transition programs and issues. "Transition Issues for the 1990s," by Michael J. Ward and William D. Halloran, discusses self-determination, school responsibility for transition, continued educational engagement of at-risk students, and service…

The concept of transition of an individual with a disability from school to adult environments is presented from the perspective of the educator's role. The educator's role is perceived as: (1) an "expert" on the needs of individuals with mental disabilities and the barriers they face when they move from the educational environment to…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 3-year federally supported project in New York to replicate effective partnerships between community rehabilitation programs and school districts working to improve the transition of youth with disabilities to post-school employment. Through use of a direct mentoring process, the…

This collection of materials describes a collaborative program between the West Hartford (Connecticut) Public Schools and St. Joseph College (Connecticut) to prepare special needs students who have completed high school for transition to employment and community living. The program is intended to provide meaningful integration of special needs…

During the 1980s, school-community partnerships increased nationwide, prompted by diminishing federal and state financial support for education, increasing numbers of at-risk students, and initiatives promoting local decision-making. Numerous examples in the literature portray partnerships involving "adoption" of schools by businesses, school use…

A school/community-based program was developed by Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools to prepare students, aged 5-21, with moderate/profound retardation for transition into adult life. Program goals included providing more community and job training and increasing opportunities for frequently occurring, quality interactions with…

This report presents ideas on the campus to workplace transition gathered from five regional workshops conducted in 1998-99. It notes that although business and higher education agree on the importance of changes in this transition, major differences exist between how these two sectors propose to accomplish such improvements. The workshops suggest…