This paper describes a rural school program that assists high school special education students in achieving a successful transition from the school to the community. Plans for transition are first introduced at the special education staffing in 10th grade and are viewed as an integral part of the individual education plan. The transition…

Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between social skills instruction and the maintenance and generalization of skills to post-school environments. Three adult women with severe disabilities in their last year of school participated in the studies. The first study addressed the effectiveness of an instructional package to…

This paper examines the many external expectations confronting persons with disabilities and the skills required to survive and prosper in school, at home, on the job, and in the community. Data were obtained from 155 regular teachers, 110 special educators, 150 parents, and 55 employers through the use of the School Survival Skills Questionnaire.…

The Job Designs Project, a 3-year federally funded project, provides students (ages 16-22) at an Oregon residential treatment center for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders with supported paid employment in the community. The project has provided job supported employment services to 36 students working in such positions as restaurant bus…

This study explored the effect of experiential and experience-based approaches to learning and instruction on transitional first grade students' (a) acquisition and use of economic concepts and (b) economic reasoning ability as indicated by the presence or absence of misconceptions about economic concepts. A pretest-posttest control group design…

This document defines a framework for strengthening linkages between early childhood and elementary school programs at the local, state, and regional levels. The concept of a continuum of services is central within the framework, in the belief that when service providers link together to provide continuity, the connections they establish provide…

This final report describes major activities of a Maine project to develop a follow-up and follow-along survey instrument and data management system to allow local school districts to determine outcomes for graduates with disabilities and use this information in program review and modifications. The report explains the process used in the 1-year…

Approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population is in rural areas and about 10 million students are enrolled in rural schools, comprising 12,000 of the 15,000 schools in the country. Although rural communities and their schools are quite diverse, certain characteristic economic, cultural, and social factors create large numbers of "at-risk"…

Four articles comprise this monograph on interventions which lead to employment of youths with disabilities. Articles are based on investigations and demonstrations sponsored by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS). In "Promoting Employment for Youths in Transition: Outcomes, Activities, and Indicators,"…

Many children, and their families, experience stress when they leave preschool and enter kindergarten. This paper describes a transition plan for children entering kindergarten that addresses the needs of developmentally delayed children as well as typically developing children. By coordinating all the involved parties--parents, teachers,…

This monograph contains papers which suggest means of implementing residential programs, services, and facilities that will help to meet the needs of first-year college students. Fourteen papers are presented and are as follows: "Reflections on the First Year Residential Experience" (John N. Gardner); "The Role of Residential Programs in the…

This paper describes Riverside Medical Center's Minnesota Chemical Dependency Program for Hearing Impaired Youth, which began in Minneapolis in 1989 to serve chemically dependent hearing-impaired adolescents and young adults, primarily aged 16 to 25 but sometimes serving clients as young as 12. The paper offers a rationale for development of a…

Two studies were conducted to examine the problems experienced by special needs students in the process of making the transition to postsecondary vocational education programs, to develop a model of the transitional process, and to empirically examine that process via instruments related to the concept of educational adjustment. The first study…

This monograph, written for vocational counselors and teachers, addresses employability for youth from both career counseling and guidance and transitional education perspectives. The section on employability counseling focuses on the ingredients of employability, youth employment conditions, classes of employment and unemployment, and…

When children start school it is not just a transition to a new physical context, but also an entry point to a new "culture" where aspects of teaching, learning and assessment are different, and hence what it means to be a learner is constructed differently. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in making links between…