As part of their efforts to help the child welfare system develop integrated strategies, approaches, and policies that assist agencies as they recruit and prepare foster families, adoptive families, and staff to meet the needs of adolescents in foster care, the National Resource Center for Youth Development engaged in a year-long study of child…

This article summarizes 43 empirical studies of school-to-community transition of hearing-impaired persons with developmental disabilities; discusses data collection and interpretation issues; and recommends future research, development, and evaluation. The studies deal with such areas as career/vocational preparation, independent living skills,…

Analysis of data gathered on 11 young people with disabilities concerning the transition from school to adult life revealed eight main themes, such as lack of inclusive educational practices, hastily and poorly coordinated transition planning, restrictive views on employment and community living opportunities, low levels of family participation,…

Eleven elementary schools were selected randomly from a typical medium sized city of Japan. Parents of pupils who were attending the schools were surveyed. A small proportion of agreement with, "The reality of lives of persons with intellectual disability (ID) should be told more widely to the public" was interpreted as a typical…

A follow-up study was undertaken of 284 adults who were diagnosed as learning disabled during second grade in 1968. At the time of follow up, the sample was 26 to 27 years old; 91 of these individuals were located by telephone and 4 were contacted by mail. The follow-up study used a questionnaire to determine participants' current status in five…

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 issue of "Transition Summary" was developed to assist Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams in planning for successful transitions from high school into independent adulthood by students with disabilities. Definitions of transition services within federal law are first explored and legal implications for the IEP team are…

Twenty-three transition programs for high school students with disabilities in Minnesota are profiled. These programs were selected because they applied a set of 10 quality standards developed to improve the transition process and adult outcomes for students, as well as to increase the cost effectiveness and efficiency of transition services and…

This report documents activities and accomplishments of the Rehabilitation Services Administration and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research during fiscal year 1995 as mandated under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. An executive summary briefly describes the programs authorized under the Act and highlights major…

This packet of materials was originally intended for participants in a 1991 conference on assistive technology for the disabled. After a detailed listing of the conference schedule, individual sections provide abstracts, biographical sketches, and summaries concerning the following conference topics: blending, computer labs, family, grants and…

This study analyzes the components of a proposed definition of independent living, in order to derive scales to be used to differentiate between groups with specific disabilities and between those with and without disabilities. The study was designed to facilitate identification of those areas of special needs that can be best addressed within the…

This report summarizes findings of the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students (NLTS) in four areas: (1) the multiple dimensions of diversity and the characteristics of young people with disabilities; (2) secondary school programs, performance, and completion; (3) postschool outcomes; and (4) life profiles which…

This report uses data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students (NLTS) to look at the adult service experiences of young people with disabilities in their first 5 years after leaving secondary school. It focuses on five broad categories of service: (1) vocational assistance; (2) life skills training or…

This case study represents an attempt to develop knowledge and understanding of "community supports," those formal and informal supports necessary to enable people with disabilities to live in the community and participate fully in community life. The individual in the case study is a white man with severe cerebral palsy born in 1912. The study…

Statistics on the current status and the changing patterns of services for persons with developmental disabilities are presented in graphic, tabular, and narrative form. The volume summarizes national statistics gathered through the Ongoing Data Collection System of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities and other sources of national…