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Wall Street's excesses blew up the economy. Now the question is who pays to clean up the mess. Across the country, our children are already paying part of the bill -- as their schools are hit with deep budget cuts. A new report -- Starving America's Public Schools: How Budget Cuts and Policy Mandates are Hurting our Nation's Students -- released today by the Campaign for America's Future and the National Education Association, looks at five states to detail what this means to kids in our public elementary and secondary schools. (Full disclosure: I co-direct the Campaign.) The findings are sobering.

This website provides information about transitioning out of school. It talks about who can provide helpful services, where to find a job, and how to live independently. The home page of the website is divided into three sections; students, families, and transition professionals. Each of these three sections is then divided again on their own. The student section provides information on living within communities, managing health, and managing money. This information is given in a very friendly manner that is simple to understand. It is provided in both written form and verbal form with pictorials included. The family section is divided into 9 categories. These categories range from self-determination to employment to organizations that can help with the transition process. Each of these nine categories provides a brief description and alternate resources for further information. The section for transition professionals provides online courses and links to informational websites. As a special education teacher working on transition and career development, I would share this website with both students and families because the information is presented in a very clear way. I would work with students to help them read about and learn the information being provided and then create an activity as a follow up. For example, I would help the student navigate their way through the managing money portion of the website and then have the student complete a series of activities having to do with money and budgeting.

"Please be aware when you adapt these materials (i.e., expand, reorder, translate into a different language, rephrase individual items, apply to different populations, or implement different data collection methods), you will need to conduct a pilot test of your adaptations and re-evaluate the reliability and validity of the new versions of the materials."