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Coordinated Transition Services in SOS

There is no moment in a young person’s life when the need for seamless coordination among educational, social, and career services is more critical than when that person is approaching the end of high school and contemplating what the future might hold. For young people with disabilities, this need for coordination and focus is even more acute.

Seamless collaboration between the schools and other relevant agencies is a hallmark of SOS. Effective integration of services and education can make the difference, for each student, between moving on to a successful career and languishing on waiting lists or navigating a maze of segmented eligibility requirements and enrollment procedures.

The SOS structure calls for close working partnerships with various public agencies throughout the course of the students’ transition process. Fostering these partnerships leads, first of all, to better services for transitioning students. But it also does something more: it provides a foundation for fundraising for SOS and other special projects.

These are the steps that make for the most effective collaboration and coordination with other services in the community:

Stage 1

Get to know the community and its resources.

Begin to learn about local workforce development and disability-related organizations, and introduce the project to their leaders.

Introduce students to these organizations’ services.

Begin to strategize on a continuum of services that will meet students’ needs.

Stage 1, Step-by-Step:

Step 1: At the beginning of the school year, start contacting outside agencies to announce the new project and give them a sense of its goals

Think broadly: consider Vocational Rehabilitation, WIA Youth, Developmental Disability, and other programs besides those focused on physical disabilities and employment.

Step 2: Become familiar with summer projects in the community, and support students in becoming involved with them

Step 3: For graduating or exiting students, work with these agencies to ensure an easy handoff from the school to the agency

Step 4: Consider conducting tours of the local One-Stop Career Center and registering all the students for available services

Step 5: Take note of eligibility requirements, spending practices, performance measures, waiting lists, and other policies of outside organizations that will affect how students can access their services

Step 6: Send periodic reports with particular highlights on student stories and promising practices to public and community agencies to demonstrate the project’s achievements

Stage 2

Expand the network and line up funding.

Build working partnerships with community workforce and economic development agencies.

Secure sustainable funding from state and local agencies.

Stage 2, Step-by-Step:

Step 1: Develop a funding plan with public agencies to cover internship opportunities

Having surveyed the relevant public and private agencies in Stage 1, it’s now time to compile a complete list of these resources, updated regularly. It should include a description of the agencies’ services and performance measures, and how they may overlap with and complement the SOS project. All project staff members should now be thoroughly familiar with this list.

Building on the financial practices that you’ve used to support paying students, begin to explore ways of attracting additional resources from other sources, to help support more students, build partnerships, and expand programming. Find out the eligibility requirements, potential uses, expected outcomes, and procedure for application, and determine how these would fit the needs of the project.

Step 2: Develop a formal hand-off process for graduating students who are moving from the school to public employment and life-needs support agencies

Ensure that students begin meeting with these agencies at the beginning of their last year of school at the latest.

Step 3: Take part in strategic planning efforts of local workforce and economic development organizations, including Workforce Investment Boards and cross-agency collaboratives

Step 4: As part of regular meetings on Individual Education Plans, brainstorm with colleagues about additional community resources that might benefit particular students

Step 5: Stage regular field trips for students with and without disabilities to visit outside agencies

Stage 3

Formalize a strong, ongoing network of shared service delivery.

Maintain a robust community-services map representing a wide array of services, including those offered by the school system.

Establish a strong and formal partnership with the full range of workforce and economic development organizations serving the likely needs of all the project’s students.

Stage 3, Step-by-Step:

Step 1: Plan and map local resources to clarify the workforce development system capacity and the role of the school within it

Step 2: Identify a clear process to expose students to the widest possible range of options for summer and post-graduation career development and postsecondary education

Step 3: Build ongoing partnerships between the school system and key staff with outside employment and service entities

Step 4: Ensure that Individual Education Plans identify a continuum of necessary services for each student, along with a clear delineation of responsibility between the school and its partner agencies

Step 5: Make certain that school-system resources are fully combined with funding and resources from outside organizations to accomplish collaborative goals. Learn more about multiple-agency funding of Individual Employment Plans.

The school system should be using its resources flexibly enough to meet the needs of all students particularly those with the most individual or complex needs.