Basic Considerations to Successful Transition to College for Students with Special Needs

 

Basic Considerations to Successful Transition to College for Students with Special Needs

Dr. Kamal SeSalem

Dept. of Education Professions

McNeese State University

Lake Charles, Louisiana

Feb. 2016

 

 

Introduction

research and experience point to the importance of high quality transition services in preparing students with special needs for college, careers, and other positive post-school outcomes, and this webinar will highlight research, policies, and programs that have helped students with special needs transition successfully.

Transitioning can be defined in a number of ways, depending on the circumstances. Transition services include a multitude of people with the goal of easing a student or individual into the next phase of his or her life. According to Cohen and Spenciner (2015), "it is a coordinated set of activities that promotes movement from school to post school activities, including postsecondary education.  While post-secondary educational opportunities for individuals with special needs have increased in recent years, there are still many barriers to their success in post-secondary education (Nevill & White 2011). Individuals with special needs experience far less career success than their non-disabled peers, however differences in achievement diminish significantly for those who participate in postsecondary education (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996). A bachelor's degree or higher is a prerequisite for many challenging careers, including high-tech fields in science, engineering, business, and technology. Few students with special needs, however, pursue postsecondary academic studies in these areas, and the attrition rate of those who do is high (National Science Foundation, 2000; Stodden & Dowrick, 2000). Lack of job skills and related experiences also limit career options for people with special needs (Unger, Wehman, Yasuda, Campbell, & Green, 2001).

More and more high school students with special needs are planning to continue their education in postsecondary schools, including vocational and career schools, two- and four- year colleges, and universities. Students with special needs should be well informed about their rights and responsibilities as well as the responsibilities postsecondary schools have toward them. Being well informed will help ensure they have a full opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the postsecondary education experience without confusion or delay.

When a student with special needs plans to transition from high school to the college setting, transitional goals should be in place during high school and afterwards.

This paper will focus on how to increase literacy as the student moves from high school to college successfully outline how to involve students with no active participation, how to develop effective transition plans for students with special needs.

Preview

For most students with special needs, transition planning begins around age 14 (Shogren & Plotner 2011). Using data from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Transition Study – 2 (NLTS2), Shogren and Plotner (2011) found that the transition process is different for students with different types of disabilities. Federal legislation requires that students with disabilities receive services to assist them in the transition from high school to postsecondary life. Transition services must address students' understanding of their disability, learning strengths and weaknesses, career decision—making skills, and preparation for the increased demands of postsecondary education.

The following considerations are necessary to successful college programs for students with special needs

1-      Understand their disabilities.

Students with disabilities need to know the functional limitations that result from their disabilities and understand their strengths and weaknesses. They should be able to explain their disabilities to an institution's disability coordinators or other appropriate staff. As part of this process, students should be able to explain where they have had difficulty in the past, as well as what has helped them overcome such problems and what specific adjustments might work in specific situations. To assist students in this area, high school educators can encourage high school students to be active participants in their IEP or Section 504 meetings. High school personnel also can suggest that students practice explaining their disabilities, as well as why they need certain services, to appropriate secondary staff or through role-playing exercises to prepare them to engage in such conversations with confidence in a postsecondarysetting.

2-      Accommodations & Modification

for these students necessarily differ from those traditionally provided by college disability services offices. The accommodation process is different for college versus high school (Hewitt 2011). Academic adjustments are defined in the Section 504 regulations at 34 C.F.R. § 104.44(a) as: such modifications to [the] academic requirements as are necessary to ensure that such requirements do not discriminate or have the effect of discriminating, on the basis of disability against a qualified ... applicant or student [with a disability]. Academic requirements that the recipient can demonstrate are essential to the instruction being pursued by such student or to any directly related licensing requirement will not be regarded as discriminatory within the meaning of this section. Modifications may include changes in the length of time permitted for the completion of degree requirements, substitution of specific courses required for the completion of degree requirements, and adaptation of the manner in which specific courses are conducted.11

Academic adjustments also may include a reduced course load, extended time on tests and the provision of auxiliary aids and services. Auxiliary aids and services are defined in the Section 504 regulations at 34 C.F.R. § 104.44(d), and in the Title II regulations at 28 C.F.R. § 35.104. They include note-takers, readers, recording devices, sign language interpreters, screen-readers, voice recognition and other adaptive software or hardware for computers, and other devices designed to ensure the participation of students with impaired sensory, manual or speaking skills in an institution's programs and activities. Institutions are not required to provide personal devices and services such as attendants, individually prescribed devices, such as eyeglasses, readers for personal use or study, or other services of a personal nature, such as tutoring. If institutions offer tutoring to the general student population, however, they must ensure that tutoring services also are available to students with disabilities. In some instances, a state VR agency may provide auxiliary aids and services to support an individual's postsecondary education and training once that individual has been determined eligible to receive services under the VR program.

3-      Postsecondary Education Preparatory Programs:

Students with special needs should be well prepared by their public high schools to transition to college. If college is a goal, student supports during high school should include long-term learning that will allow for independent problem-solving and self-advocacy when these changes take place. When students with special needs plan to attend college, it is best if preparation begins while the student is still in high school (Hewitt 2011).  Unlike laws for K-12 education, laws surrounding higher education do not ensure individual success. Instead they remove barriers preventing an individual from accessing an education; education, itself, is not changed in any way. In addition to changes in available educational supports, students may have fewer available external services as well. There should be a plan in place for how the student can grow out of the systems of services with as little disruption as possible (Hewitt 2011). During high school, students should also become familiar with the college they plan to attend (Hewitt 2011). Students should visit campus as much as possible and meet with disability services personnel to discuss individual strengths, needs, and plans. Doing these activities will make the transition easier.

College programs to support students should be available to students. Strengthen transition planning for such students, including training to provide these services. Internship placement is a crucial part of the college transition experience. Students who can apply their academic and social knowledge directly in real-life workplace experiences will be successful. Teachers can help students by assessing their interests and abilities to find appropriate internships. Group meetings wherein students can openly discuss personal experiences, performance, advocacy, challenges, and what they have learned about themselves during the

Community service can be a less stressful opportunity for students to learn more internship process are very beneficial for all who attend. About themselves and what they like. Through community service, students gain a sense of accomplishment and achieve personal growth by contributing their time to help others.

4-      Appropriate Preparatory Curriculum:

 Because all students will be expected to meet an institution's essential standards, students with disabilities need to take a high school curriculum that will prepare them to meet those standards. If students with disabilities plan to attend a rigorous postsecondary institution, they, like their peers without disabilities, need to make high school curriculum choices that support that goal. High school guidance counselors and state vocational rehabilitation agency counselors, in particular, can play an important role in students' curriculum planning.

For all students, good study skills and the ability to write well are critical factors of success in postsecondary education. High school educators can help students in these areas by offering or identifying opportunities, such as workshops, courses or tutoring programs, that emphasize the importance of reading, writing and good study skills. In addition, staff should encourage students to enroll in classes that will focus on writing and study skills in their freshman year of postsecondary education.

5-      Funding:

Funding of pilot programs at colleges and universities to provide the supports already established as best practice. Once the needed auxiliary aids and services have been identified, institutions may not require students with special needs to pay part or all of the costs of such aids and services, nor may institutions charge students with disabilities more for participating in programs or activities than they charge students who do not have disabilities. Institutions generally may not condition their provision of academic adjustments on the availability of funds, refuse to spend more than a certain amount to provide academic adjustments, or refuse to provide academic adjustments because they believe other providers of such services exist. In many cases, institutions may meet their obligation to provide auxiliary aids and services by assisting students in either obtaining them or obtaining reimbursement for their cost from an outside agency or organization, such as a state vocational rehabilitation agency. Such assistance notwithstanding, institutions retain ultimate responsibility for providing necessary auxiliary aids and services and for any costs associated with providing such aids and services or utilizing outside sources. However, as noted above, if the institution can demonstrate that providing a specific auxiliary aid or service would result in undue financial or administrative burdens, considering the institution's resources as a whole, it can opt to provide another effective one.

6-      A Healthy Life Style:

 A healthy lifestyle can help a person both reduce stress and elevate their level of healthy functioning. Exercise and a good diet increases energy, promotes positive social behaviors, and strengthens the immune system. It can also improve self esteem as well as perceptions of others. Starting with individual assessments, students can then focus on the areas of nutrition, hygiene, sensory diets, weight control, and physical fitness.

7-      Parents' Involvement:

The families and committee members must take into account the child's "strengths, needs, and preferences about postsecondary education, career development, vocational training, community living and personal and social goals" (Cohen & Spenciner, 2015). in order for parents to be given access to educational records, the student must sign a waiver. However, this does not guarantee that parents will be able to play a role in addressing classroom or course challenges.

For all three groups, school personnel and parents were listed most often as active participants in the planning process. Students with special Needs were more often absent from or participating little in the creation of the transition plan. (Shogren & Plotner 2011)

8-      Self-Advocate

Transition procedures may place the student in an unfamiliar role of self-advocate. Thus, it is good for students to increase their self-advocacy while receiving the more universal supports during high school. A student with special needs may be highly skilled academically but lacks the social skills, self-regulation, and independent skills necessary for a college career. The instruction and academic training it takes to ready a student for postsecondary life is challenging and does not fit well into a high school schedule. Szidon, Rupper and Smith (2015), mandate that social, emotional and communication skills be of the upmost importance when effectively transitioning a student with special needs to college. The core challenge is a communication barrier that makes transitioning to an unfamiliar environment more difficult, which means it is even more of a hurtle to engage a student in expressing his or her interests, needs and goals for the future. The five-step process, as outlined by Szidon et al (2015), begins with identifying the transition goals. Where would the student like to study in postsecondary education? What career options does the student have? Where will the student live? These are all questions the team has to answer before step two can be addressed. If possible the IEP goals could be linked to the postsecondary goals-step two. "The school should be instrumental in getting the student to research the skills needed for the desired career and postschool aspirations" (Szidon et al., 2015). Step three involves trouble -shooting and adjusting transition and IEP goals if necessary. The team should develop a self-monitoring checklist that includes the strategies the student will need to transition to postsecondary education. The fourth step is to provide opportunities to teach the necessary skills. If the student is able to identify areas on the self-monitoring checklist that require more extensive study in critical skills such as "homework planning, organization of work and school schedules, meal preparation, personal finance management, and career readiness" (Szidon et al., 2015). The final step in ensuring a transition plan is effective is to evaluate student progress towards realizing the postsecondary goals often. Students are actively involved Students need to explore attitudes and values regarding healthy relationship development with special consideration given to issues related to learning differences. Present topics such as friendship building, communication skills, relationship dynamics, and sexuality education. Don't assume that your student on the spectrum does not need basic instruction in common strategies such as initiating friendships and conversations, to learning how and when to be intimate.

9-      Accepting Responsibility for their own Success: 

All students, including those with disabilities must take primary responsibility for their success or failure in postsecondary education. Students with special needs, in particular, are moving from a system where parents and school staff usually advocated on their behalf to a system where they will be expected to advocate for themselves. An institution's staff will likely communicate directly with students when issues arise and are generally not required to interact with students' parents. In general, students with special needs should expect to complete all course requirements, such as assignments and examinations. Students with disabilities need to identify the essential academic and technical standards that they will be required to meet for admission and continued participation in an institution's program. Students also need to identify any academic adjustments they may need as a result of their disabilities to meet those standards and how to request those adjustments. Students with disabilities need to understand that, while federal disability laws guarantee them an equal opportunity to participate these laws do not guarantee that students will achieve a particular outcome.

10-  Social Skills:

Social skills and supports are provided regularly for students with special needs, social situations may be particularly difficult. Many students with special needs request a single dorm room as a form of accommodation. This gives the student a private space (Hewitt 2011). Peer acceptance can play an important role in the social success of students with special needs  (Nevill & White 2011). In a study of 652 undergraduate students, Nevill and White (2011) found that students with a close relative with special needs reported higher levels of acceptance and openness regarding students with special needs. Students with special needs and their families may need to develop sophisticated social communication interventions, beginning in high school (Hewitt 2011). Social practices are not the same in every situation, and students with special needs may do better when they have been involved in learning how to get information from social situations in order to problem-solve. Transportation access should also be included in any transition plan. For some students this includes driver's education. For others, it means learning to handle complex public transportation systems. Students need to learn whole body listening, social inference, and use memory to facilitate friendships. Students need to learn to interpret facial expressions and take perspective on what others are feeling.

They can participate in small group sessions to discuss perspectives and practice real-life social situations. They need to work on essential skills including reciprocal conversation, body language, eye contact, and spatial awareness.

11-  Individualized Educational Plan (IEP):

The IEP should be an integral part in writing his or her own transition plan; however, the task of involving the student, attendance or participation, in his or her own transition plan is least likely to occur with students with special needs It can be a daunting task for the IEP team to consider the student's interests and preferences for life after high school without the student's voice. Griffin, Taylor, Urbano and Hodapp (2014), maintain that the process must "have recognized participation as an authentic way for students to learn and practice self-determination. Student attendance in IEP meetings has steadily increased over the years as the desire for post-secondary education after high school has increased.  Although the numbers of students attending are on the rise, the number of students actively participating in the meeting is not high.  Multiple studies conducted at several high schools, across the nation, all report a high number of student participation but the researchers wonder if there is a discrepancy between attendance and active participation in the meetings. The prevalent though from Griffin et al (2014), came to the conclusion that "teachers are equating student attendance with participation." The problem deepens if a student with special needs is expected to attend. Students with special needs face unique challenges especially if compared to students without special needs. "Because impairment in communication and social skills is a hallmark characteristic of special needs", reported Griffen et al. (2014). The IEP team must come up with a plethora of methods to involve the student outside of a structured meeting if the student is expected to have an active voice in his or her transition plan. The study conducted by Griffen et al. (2014) suggested the team use parent interviews, school characteristic survey- to determine if a similar college setting may be obtained-, student program survey- what programs the student has taken and currently is taking, vocational and special, student skills and behaviors-, teacher survey and transcript data.  By taking a comprehensive approach, the IEP team and the parents better support the student as he or she transitions out of high school. Although an IEP or Section 504 plan may help identify services that have been used by the student in the past, they generally are not sufficient documentation to support the existence of a current disability and need for an academic adjustment from an institution of postsecondary education. Assessment information and other material used to develop an IEP or Section 504 plan may be helpful to document a current disability or the need for an academic adjustment or auxiliary aids and services. In addition, a student receiving services under Part B of the IDEA must be provided with a summary of his or her academic achievements and functional performance that includes recommendations on how to assist in meeting the student's postsecondary goals. This information may provide helpful information about disability and the need for an academic adjustment.

12-  Counseling: 

Most high schools have a limited number of counseling resources that address the needs of students with special needs. Most counselors have top-notch skills in advising and career planning, the postsecondary options for a student with special needs are left to the IEP team to decide. The main persons on a campus trained to aid in postsecondary education often times do not feel comfortable giving advice to a student that is unable to communicate is a clear manner. Dipeolu, Storlie and Johnson (2014) report that, "students with special needs present unique challenges to school counselors, high intensity, comprehensive and long term transition planning is a difficult challenge since school counselors already struggle with high volumes of students." Counselors continue to express some discomfort at being asked to work with students that have a mental health diagnosis but there are evidence-based interventions geared to aid all stakeholders. Social stories reinforce positive social skills, SCORE program helps students with special needs to "share ideas, compliment others, offer help and encouragement, give appropriate feedback and learn self-control" (Dipeolu et al., 2014). These strategic interventions, if used correctly by counselors, provide an important guideline in aiding students in postsecondary education or career options. What can high school personnel, such as school psychologists and counselors, transition specialists, special education staff and others, do to assist students with disabilities with documentation requirements.

13-  Learning Time Management Skills:

Although a primary role of high school educators is to provide monitoring, direction and guidance to students as they approach the end of their high school career, staff also need to prepare students to act independently and to manage their own time with little to no supervision. High school educators can assist students by identifying resources that will help them learn time management and scheduling skills.

14-  Acquire Assistive Technology Skills:

Because postsecondary students use computers to complete a multitude of tasks, from registering for classes to accessing course material and obtaining grades, it is essential that students learn to use computers if they are to be prepared for postsecondary education. Ideally, students with disabilities need to start using computers as early as possible in school to increase their familiarity with, and their comfort level in using, computers. Students with visual impairments, hearing impairments, learning disabilities or mobility impairments may have problems with inputting data or reading a computer monitor. Assistive technology (AT) can help certain students with disabilities use computers and access information. Assistive technology includes speech output systems for people who are blind or have disabilities that affect their reading ability, and speech input and alternative keyboards for people who do not have full use of their hands. Scholars rank computer and Internet skills as the most valuable skills gained from AT training for supporting their academic and career goals. State-run organizations are eligible to receive grant funding for assistive technology programs in a number of environments, including college campuses. These grants help fund the purchase of AT, such as voice amplifiers, special software, computing hardware, and wheelchairs.

15-  Social Mentoring and Peer Support

Social Mentors are individuals who are a few years older than students and act as role models for social and problem-solving skills. Research shows that role modeling by positive social mentors in real-life situations carries the highest degree of learning success. For example, practicing reciprocal conversation skills in a grocery store is much more powerful with a Social Mentor than in a classroom with a teacher.

Mentors can meet regularly with students and work to improve social understanding while participating with the students in their special interests. Mentors spend time helping students work on their social challenges while encouraging participation in real-world activities. Experienced scholars mentor younger participants, through mentors, students learn about career options and how to be more independent, to advocate for themselves, and to persevere. Mentors can be a successful procedure in student's chosen field despite his/her disability. The leadership skills they develop extend beyond the scholar. Mentors pose discussion questions to the group via electronic mail and share information about school, internships, and resources. Mentoring demonstrates that peer and mentor support, traditionally provided in person, can be delivered within a supported electronic community (Burgstahler & Cronheim, 2001).

Student with special needs learn how to maneuver around a large campus, request disability-related accommodations, get along with roommates, and succeed in college courses. Mentoring showed students that they really can succeed in a college setting. developing social and self-determination skills that lead to success in academics, employment, and adult life. They also become more aware of the challenges other students face as they work with peers who have a wide variety of disabilities, including sensory impairments, mobility impairments, learning disabilities, chronic health conditions, and psychiatric disorders.

 

            Conclusion:

Successful transition into postsecondary education or career readiness is an essential part of everyday job. To educate students and then have them decide to go no further is difficult for educators. A student with special needs is no exception to the rule. The same opportunities that are provided to general education students must be provided to special education students according to IDEA. The challenging part is getting the student with special needs to communicate his or her desires for life after high school, writing a transition plan that incorporates the student and family's ideals and amending the transition plan. There is no one specific approach, but a myriad of methods and interventions the IEP team may use to glean the information from a student. The more support a student receives from parents and family members, IEP team, and other school personnel the more successful the student will be in the transition process from high school to postsecondary education.

 

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