School Aims to Improve Special-Needs Students’ Transition (MA)

December 9, 2010

The school district asks parents of special-education students ages 14 to 21 to help it improve postgraduation planning.

Informal meetings with parents of special-education students will be 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Center School Conference Room. Parents are invited to offer suggestions about how the district could help students transition from school to post-graduation, said Special Education Coordinator Jan Fuller.

Topics include preparing graduates for employment, postsecondary education and housing, and, ensuring their guardianship after high school.

"We are charged with helping children look (into) what they want to do with their adult life — and we work, to the greatest extent as possible, to get them ready for that," Fuller said.

"We’ll be asking the question of parents: ‘When you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, what are you worrying most about when it comes to your child turning 22 (the age most special-education students leave school)? And how can we help with that?’ "

By state and federal law, school departments are required to plan for each special-needs child’s transition from public school into public life as part of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act passed in 2004, commonly referred to as IDEA, said Kathy Kelly, transition coordinator for Northeast Arc in Danvers, a nonprofit that assists people with disabilities. IDEA also is part of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Once a special-needs child turns 14, his or her Individualized Education Plan, better known as IEP, must address how he or she will be educated in high school — and prepared for life beyond, Fuller said.

The Tewksbury school system is still grappling with how to serve special-needs students more effectively.

In Tewksbury, "it’s never been really clear how that process is supposed to work," said Lisa Puccia, co-chair of the Tewksbury Special Education Parent Advisory Council. Talking to parents with children who are 14 or older, the transition-planning system in Tewksbury isn’t adequate — and those students are struggling, she said.

"But that’s not just a Tewksbury issue," Puccia said, emphasizing that the problem is statewide.

By law, special-education students’ ability to attend public school is considered an enti tlement up to age 22, but beyond that point, they must find other state, local and community resources to help them in the real world after graduation, Kelly said.

On average, about 30 percent of those with developmental disabilities attempt to go on to to college — and about 40 percent find some type of employment, she said.

But the shift from school to the real world can often lead to a rude awakening for some parents and special-needs children, who often only realize a couple months before their 22nd birthday that their lives will change drastically, Kelly added.

"I might get a call for a student that is 21 — and they have to leave school on their birth date," she said.

And after that date, "no bus is going to pick them up anymore, and often, they have made no plans, while their parents work full time."

For that reason, such students need a lot of support — and parents and educators need to be aware of how crucial it is to develop plans early on — for the future welfare of these students, Kelly said.