Independent Living WHAT?!!?

SO, as your email proclaimed earlier in September, the ISBE has decided now that EVERY student will now have an Employment, Education/Training goal AND an INDEPENDENT LIVING GOAL. I know that this has been a shift in our thinking. WHY has the state decided to do this? Well, the idea is to spur conversation among the IEP team about what skills the student will need to be independent in their adult life. What skills does the student still need to know?

Independent Living Skills can address the following skills:

Financial/Income

Health/Safety
Transportation/Mobility
Social Relationships
Recreation/Leisure
Self Advocacy
Future Planning

Right now, the best I can tell, we are required to write a goal in step one of our transition plans. HOWEVER, we are not required to add goals to the IEP in the annual goal section. While we can only choose one drop down goal to pull through onto step three of transition, you can CHECK MULTIPLE boxes on the annual goals and then make a note in the note section of the IEP which goal fits with their independent living goal.

I will be adding additional surveys to the side bar to help aid in the narrowing in of independent living goals that will beneficial to the student. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I would be more than happy to help in any way! :-)

Shameless Plug

This year, our BRIDGES, INSPIRE, PRIDE, CHOICES, REACH, and TRANSITION programs have been chosen as beneficiaries of the September 14, 2013 cruise night! Our students are currently selling 50/50 tickets for the event. Last year the winner took home over $4,000! If you are interested in supporting this AMAZING program, here is where you can purchase tickets:

 1. We will be selling them at the first HOME football game at 

MINOOKA COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL

this FRIDAY (September 6th) at 5pm!

2. They are for sale at the cooperative office

3. Find a teacher of one of these amazing programs! They have (or know where to get) tickets!

4. They will be available for sale at the Three French Hen market on September 14th, as well as during cruise night!

OF COURSE, if you are available, come to down town Morris on September 14th and say hello! We would love to say THANK YOU for your support in person! :-)

Take Care!!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's back to school we go!

Welcome back everyone! I hope the summer has brought you back to school refreshed and ready for fun! While you were away, transition has mainly stayed the same! The look of EASY IEP may be different, but the data that you enter is not. I do have a FEW reminders as you begin thinking about Senior Annual Reviews... ( I mean they are good reminders in general!) :-)

1.  MAKE SURE you have an agency invite signed by parents BEFORE you send out an IEP invite. If  a transition agency does not show, you do NOT have to excuse them. They are a mandated invitation, but not a mandated attendee.

2. Have the student complete, at LEAST the student survey.. (which is conveniently located right over here) ---------->

3. Before you begin your transition plan, it will be very helpful to complete your goals FIRST. As you are working on goals, think about why you are working on those skills for the the student. What FUNCTION will these skills have in the students life after high school.

4. If you are getting an error on page three of the transition plan, (Where goals are pulled through) make sure that you have either training or education checked on your goal pages and not both. 9 times out of 10 this is why you are getting the error.

5. If your goals aren't pulling through to page three of the transition plan, it's because you haven't chosen a transition area in the drop down box of the goal section.

6. Even though you are doing senior annual reviews now, do NOT forget that you will still be responsible for a SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE on every senior. This will include seniors that graduate early, graduate from Premier, graduate from Rivers Edge, or age out of programming. It does not include seniors that drop out, or do not finish for other reasons.

I do have a bit of bad news. Because every high school has gone to doing senior annual reviews in September, it will be impossible for me to 1. attend every senior annual review and 2. create a senior annual review folder specific to every senior. HOWEvER, I will provide the standard information for you and will be more than happy to come to any meetings that you think will need additional guidance.

As always, if you need anything, please do not hesitate to call me at the office, on my cell, or email me!!

Have a great year! :-)

Lions....and Tigers...and COMMON CORE... OH MY!

Hello everyone! With the new push toward common core, many teachers are left wondering about how we are to link them to transition! Well, do I have a resource for you! The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center has come out guidelines to support transition statements and the link to common core standards. The links can be found on the right hand side of my blog under "helpful transition links"

In addition, there has been some confusion about what transition goals are. Transition goals are what you write on the first page of your transition plan under Education or Training, Employment and, in some cases, daily living skills sections. (Upon graduation from high school, Kate will be employed full time as a transition coordinator.) Transition goals are NOT arbitrary annual goals made up to sound "transitionie."(ie. Career Cruising Goals) The only time a student should have a Career Cruising goal or a goal in which they are researching a certain job is because they really don't know what they are going to do for the rest of their lives. Don't create more work for you!!! 

In addition, when you are linking annual goals back to your transition plan, it might be helpful to write an objective to your goal that deals directly to what you are working on in your transition plan. For example, if your goal is in regards to writing, one of your objectives could be about writing an coherent answer on a job application. This helps the student, parent, yourself, and the state see why that goal is an important skill to have after graduation.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me for help or guidance!

Take Care!

New Year... New Easy IEP fun!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you have been in EASY IEP and have been completing transition plans, you have noticed that the assessment screen now looks like this:

What this is asking you now is, what areas of transition does your assessment cover? If you are using the student survey and or the parent survey that is provided to you by me, each assessment covers ALL four areas listed. 

If you are using results from an interest inventory,which is part of the ACT, more than likely, you have assessed their education, employment, and training needs. 

If you have an assessment that you are using and you are unsure what should be checked, please call or email me and I will take a look and let you know.

As always, if you need help, or want me to take a look at your plans, please get a hold of me, and I would be happy to take a peek!

I hope you are all having a great start to the 2013 year!

Take Care!!