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Secondary Transition

What is transition?

According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Ed., transition is “the passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another.” Therefore, when we consider the word by itself, it represents change.

Transition was defined by the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Career Development and Transition in 1994 as:

"Transition refers to a change in status from behaving primarily as a student to assuming emergent adult roles in the community. These roles include employment, participating in post secondary education, maintaining a home, becoming appropriately involved in the community, and experiencing satisfactory personal and social relationships. The process of enhancing transition involves the participation and coordination of school programs, adult agency services and natural supports within the community.

The foundation for transition should be laid during the elementary and middle school years, guided by the broad concept of career development. Transition planning should begin no later than age 14, and students should be encouraged, to the full extent of their capabilities, to assume a maximum amount of responsibility for such planning.” (Halpern, 1994, p.116)

Transition services are defined as a "coordinated set of activities for a child with a disability...within a results-oriented process that is focused on improving the academic and functional achievement of the child with a disability to facilitate the child's movement from school to post-school activities." (§300.43 Transition Services) 
All students, as they go through all of their school years, should be gaining skills and knowledge to help them assume desired adult roles in the community.
 Kenda Matson, M.Ed
Education Specialist

Last Modified on October 19, 2015
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