Agencies

Hey Everyone! 

 I hope that the school year is treating you well and that you and your students are hitting that October groove. As I am out in the different buildings, I find that I am getting a lot of questions about the agency piece of the transition plan. This part of the transition plan exists to give families direction and a life line after they leave the security of the school setting. In order to maintain compliance, we 

MUST INVITE AN AGENCY TO EVERY IEP MEETING AFTER A STUDENT TURNS 14 1/2 AND have proof that we had PERMISSION to invite that agency. However, if the agency does not attend the meeting, they do not need to be excused from the meeting. We only nee to prove that we invited them. So, now the question is, who do we invite!?!? Depending on what they need, here are some common agencies that can be invited.

If a student is going to need help gaining or maintaining employment:

Cornerstone Career Solutions 

800 Black Road

Joliet, IL 60435

815-727-6694

or

JJC Grundy Workforce

1715 N. Division St

Morris, IL 60450

815-942-0566

If a student needs help identifying themselves as a person with disability at Joliet Junior College:

Jacque Klicka

Star Program

1214 Houbolt Road

Joliet, IL 60431

815-280-2230

If a student needs help living independently: 

Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living

2415-A Jefferson Street

Joliet, IL 60435

815-729-0162

In addition, always mention the Will-Grundy transition conference that is held at JJC in March. It usually runs from 9-12 and there is no cost to attend. It's a great one stop shop for the families, as many different agencies are all represented at the same place.

Of course, if you have questions or need other suggestions, feel free to contact me at any time. 

Take Care!

Welcome back!

Hi Everyone! 

Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year! For many of you, this might be your first trip to the transition blog....You can come here for your one stop shop of transition fun and goodness. On the right you will find documents that will help you with filling out your transition paper work. The newest addition is the  TRANSITION MANUAL (insert sunshine and sparkles here). The transition manual is full of information about the different agencies in Grundy and Will Counties that are available to help out our kiddos. There is a brief description of what they do, how to contact them, and, in some cases, who to contact. If you find that there is something in the manual that you find is inaccurate OR something that you would like to have added, just give me a call and I will get it added or deleted. 
In the next few weeks, I will be heading out to all high schools to give the overview of how to create a transition plan. I will also go through a transition check list and the indicator 13 form. If you at any time have questions, feel free to contact me. I hope you all have a great start to the year, and I look forward to seeing you all soon!!

Take Care!

TPI Results

Hi Everyone!
 I have been working on getting your TPI results to you as quickly as possible. We had a slight glitch in the system... (the reports were stuck in the program and wouldn't come out!) But, it seems as that is all fixed now! :-)
 The TPI is designed to show us the areas of concern in the areas of employment. further education, daily living skills, leisure activities, community participation, health, self-determination, communication, and interpersonal relationships. When you look at the students TPI report, areas that have an average score of less then 3 are considered "deficit areas." After identifying these areas, you can look in your teacher guide for suggested goals to address these areas. To save yourself some time in writing goals, it might be helpful to identify goals that can address multiple deficit areas, as you may find that many areas overlap.
 As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at any time! :-D


Happy Annual Review time! :-)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

No no no... not the holiday season.... ANNUAL REVIEW TIME! Just so everyone knows, I will be at all inservices where transition information is going to be discussed. If you are unable to make the inservice, all transition handouts will be available both on this website AND in the annual review cheat sheet folder.  

The most commonly asked transition question I seem to get about transition is How do I write a transition plan when the student genuinely has NO idea what they want to do post college. The answer is a fairly simple one. First,  you probably need to prod just a  little bit... find out what they DO want to do. Do they know if  they would like to be employed full time? Do they know if they plan on attending a junior college or a four year college? In most instances if students don't know exactly what they want to do, they have an idea of what they want to do. We want to be as specific as possible, so any information is better than no information.

An example of a post-secondary goal for a student who knows they want to go to school, but doesn't know what they want to study would be:

Upon graduation, John will go to a four-year university full time to pursue a four year degree.

 If the student indicates that they don't know what they would like to do when they exit high school, we should definitely write a career cruising or interest inventory goal to help them determine what they want to do. The whole purpose of a transition plan is to support the student in their post secondary goal, and that if they don't have a goal, that we are doing everything in 

our power to help them discover what their goal should be.

As we go through annual reviews, I will be posting commonly asked questions on here with answers; so check back often and see what is new in transition!

Save the Date!

The date for the Will-Grundy Transition Conference has been set!!

March 24th, 2012

9am-Noon

at Joliet Junior College.

Many post-secondary agencies and facilities in one location for your convenience....

Gather information, ask questions, and network with others who are looking for the same kind of services. 

If you have any questions, or know some one who needs mor information, please do not hesitate to contact me at 815-942-5780. 


Download a copy of the Save the Date Flyer HERE

Just a note...

Here is a great website that talks about the different types of transition assessments and how they can be used to create a well documented transition plan.

Age Appropriate Transition Assessments

Transition Planning

     With the majority of senior annual reviews behind us, it is now time to breathe a quick sigh of relief and focus in on annual reviews.  Coming out of senior annual reviews, the most common question that I have come across, as far as transition is concerned, comes when a student is reluctant to give us any guidance as to what their plans are for post high school.  To remedy this, my first suggestion would be to assure the student that they can change their minds in the future. Usually just knowing that they can change their mind is enough to illicit some sort of response. If they are still reluctant to pinpoint anything specific, it important to sit down with the student and have a discussion about what their strengths and weaknesses are. This should help steer us in a certain occupational direction. It also might mean that we have a few students deciding they would like to play professional baseball, and that is ok.  A transition plan is an evolving document that can and should change with time. If we have tried everything and STILL can't get them to be specific, try to get the student to narrow down their occupation to one field in which the student feels comfortable, (working with people, working with animals, working in an office.. ext). Our main goal is to make our post secondary outcomes as specific and as measurable as possible. 


All of this and other topics can be found in the second edition of Transition Talk, found in an email or over on the side bar! Until the next time....