Yes:

47

No:

3

Don't Know:

9

Comments:

I think transition to adulthood should begin as soon as a child enters school as a kindergartener. That being said, certainly as a freshman and throughout high school the student's plans should be identified and pursued by the IEP team.

16 is too late for some students who can quit school at 16.

My daughter had a great transition plan in place when she left the sixth grade and then they changed it out of the blue and her first two months of school were awful. She became a behavior problem when she never had problems before. A transition plan should be in place from sixth grade to the Junior High as needed, from the Junior High to the High School as needed, and from the High School to adulthood. These are crucial years for our kids and determine how successful they will be in our community. Transition plans need to be enforced as a critical area on a students I.E.P. In the Northeast Kingdom it is not happening!!!!

14 may be too young or too early for some families. I'm in favor of planning, but too many meetings, too much planning is not good either. I believe there should be choice and suspect that for many families, age 16 might be an appropriate time to plan for transition.

Transition to adulthood should be an ongoing process. Will the student be living independently upon graduation or 21 years? Transition planning/preparing needs to happen every day. Autonomy and independence are the goals of many families.

I'm not sure how this has worked for others, but it hasn't been overly successful for us. I think it depends on the disability.

Yes, because the school year goes by so quickly. It is helpful to the parent to be aware of their child's school participation and by starting at age 16 opportunities for introduction to Vocab. Rehab and other services may not happen.

I have found that special educators and/or school counselors are too busy to adequately assist the special needs student as their time is filled by a full load of non-disabled students.

Additionally, due to time restraints, educators/counselors are not familiar with transition opportunities for the special needs student. By keeping the age at 14, maybe we can maintain at least a monitored program of assistance from the schools.

The idea of schools is that it prepares young people to be productive citizens. The school is set up to do this for 'regular education students'. Special Education students need no less than that.

Many students require a long and careful transition process, at 16, many students have lost the interest in school, and the focus should be on life after school

Yes. I need to read my son's IEP again. I'm not sure where we are with that. Thank you.

Yes, my son is almost 14 currently. I would desperately like to start talking about transition and planning. To date, this has not been offered.

Transition is hard period, say nothing about children w/ special needs.

This ties into defining the term functional. Many children need this up to 7 years to complete the transition plan. It is better to start early than too late.

Depending on the actual disability this could be a really good regulation or a bad one. For example, someone who has ADD or ADHD may not be anywhere near knowing what their goal or interest may be post graduation. For others with more severe global disabilities, this could e a good thing. I am not really sure how I feel about this one.

Starting the transition at 16 for children is way too late. The age of 14 gives the parents and schools the time it takes to have a thoughtful and meaningful transition take place. It can take years to do transition well and the law should reflect that. For many students transition to adulthood is a complex process that requires input from many "systems" and should not be rushed.

With the pace that school districts tends to move, the earlier the better.

I do not know of any parent in my district that has a viable transition plan for their child. It needs more guidance and direction so schools don’t just put a check mark in the box that it is complete.