Background
In 1990, when Congress reauthorized and re-wrote P.L. 94-142 and renamed the new law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), they made it mandatory that students with disabilities and their families be at the center of transition planning for the student’s future. Starting at age 14, students and their families were to be the people to decide what that young man or woman would do, where he would live and what kind of community activities and recreation he would enjoy. All of those transition plans must be the basis of the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). When a student wants to go to college, that goal must be reflected in the IEP. Transition activities must reflect not only the courses the student takes, but also development of such life skills as money management, transportation and mobility skills, and everyday living skills such as eating, dressing and doing laundry. The Person Centered Assessment which is included in the text has a list of the competencies of an independent college student. It will help in identifying the skills a student has and those that still need to be mastered.
One way in which IDEIA differs from the old IDEA is the development of a summary of performance for each graduating high student in special education. In New York State, the summary of performance is called the Student Exit Summary (SES). This document gives the secondary education professionals an opportunity to review the student’s overall performance and give clear indication of current status of skills, deficit areas and what kinds of strategies or accommodations were successful when used with the student, and which were not. The purpose of the document is to aid the student and family in making informed decisions about the future. While the final federal regulations had not yet been issued, NYS developed and implemented draft regulations which were implemented for the graduating class of 2006.
There has been ongoing debate among postsecondary professionals about the SES and its value in the transition to college process. What seems to be clear is that the SES will most likely not fulfill a college’s requirement for documentation of disability. In NYS, the State University of New York (SUNY) Disability Services Council is working to develop a template for what good basic documentation of disability should include. Colleges that have a particular need for more in depth information would still have the right to require that information before determining whether or not requested accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.