Transition planning and evidence-based research

Abstract

While high school special education teachers have always helped prepare their students for life after school, it was not until the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 (PL 101–476) that student individualized education programs (IEPs) were mandated to include transition services. Transition services were to be designed to help facilitate a student’s movement from “school to postschool activities including post-secondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation” (20 U.S.C. §[602][34]). Although the 1997 and 2004 IDEA amendments include various transition-related revisions, the two most important changes might have been the required starting age and Indicator 13 for accountability. First, while IDEA 1990 mandated IEP transition planning beginning at 16, IDEA 1997 changed the age to 14 since it was important to start transition planning before, or as, students entered high school. While IDEA