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!!

Summary of Performance

Just a reminder that if you have a student graduating in December, they will need to walk out of high school with a Summary of Performance in their hand. The idea behind a Summary of Performance (SOP) is that the student and their family have a reference of where to go for help after they leave high school. In addition,  if a student chooses to identify themselves as a person with a disability, the college will most often ask for a SOP first... so encourage the students to put this particular form in a safe file... and not the circular one... :-) 

If you have questions about how to complete a Summary of Performance, check out the how to on the right hand side of the blog. If you still aren't sure, please feel free to contact me, I would be happy to help you in any way! I hope you are having a great start to the holiday season! Take care!

A few helpful hints

Hi Everyone!

 I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break and that the black Friday sales treated you well! :-) 

Over the past few weeks, I have been going through transition plans at various high schools and found that there are a few common mistakes that are easily avoidable, so I thought I would put together a little post to address the most common ones. In addition, on the right hand side I posted a Transition Checklist, that will help you double check that your plan is legally compliant. So with out further ado, here is a list of the common mistakes:

1. On the first page of the transition plan, make sure your transition goals are MEASURABLE. In the area of instruction, they should read:

Upon High School graduation the student WILL ATTEND ____________ full time/part time.

The language "plans on", "might" and "thinks: is NOT measurable and is not legally compliant.

2. If you list an assessment in the Assessment section, make sure you address the results in the summary section. These results should be data driven and should not include opinions and or speculation.

3. In the student strengths preferences area, please list what you know about the student that will make them successful in their chosen career or instructional goals. This is where observations and opinions can be listed. Make sure you write relevant and specific data to that student.

4. On page two of the transition plan, make sure you restate the students instructional and employment goal in the student needs section. Basically, you are just stating WHY you are working on the linked goal in relation to their transition goal. (FOR EXAMPLE:  The student will need to improve their reading comprehension skills to be successful at Joliet Junior College)

5. Make sure you LINK YOUR GOALS!!!

6. The course of study now only has to include the REMAINING years of school, but it has to be SPECIFIC to the student and can not be a general course of study. 

7. Make sure you attach your your permission form to invite an agency and most importantly, make sure YOU INVITE AN AGENCY! :-)

As always, if you have any other questions, please contact me!!

I hope you all have an excellent start to your holiday season!

Take Care! 

Career Solutions

Spotlight on:

CORNERSTONE

Career Solutions

What do they do?!

Cornerstone career solutions is an agency that will help develop jobs for students once they graduate from our programs. They will help with resumes. finding jobs, filling out job applications, and ,when deemed appropriate, supply a job coach.

How do I qualify?

Most students with an IEP will qualify for some or all of their services. DHS decides whom and what to fund.

How do I get started?

To get started, you will need to speak with an intake coordinator at the Employment Service Center. Call 815-727-6667, and tell them that you would like to set up an intake meeting. They will then set up a date for you to go to the Cornerstone office in Joliet OR they can come meet with you in your home town if you arrange it. 

What happens then?

When you have your meeting with Cornerstone, you will need to have an IEP, your most recent eligibility testing, a school or state ID and your Social Security CARD (not just the number). They will ask you some questions about what you like and what you see yourself doing. Once you have your meeting with Cornerstone, they determine what services you may or may not be eligible for.

If you have any questions about Cornerstone and what they do, or if you need help contacting them, please do not hesitate to contact your friendly Transition Coordinator

815-942-5780.

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!