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This article describes the need for parents to be equal partners in the transition programming of their disabled child. Even after a student has transitioned from high school, their parents often remain a very strong and important part of their life. The article explores reasons that some parents may be less inclined to participate in the transition planning for their child. The authors then go on to suggest ways include parents more in the process. Professional Practice: It is very easy for us educators to get frustrated when parents aren't as involved in important processes for their children such as IEP planning and Transition planning. This article does a good job a explaining the different reasons that parents might not be as involved. This article will remind me of the unique perspective that parents have, and will help me in my effort to get parents more involved.

Excellent choice on this article Krystin! I find that the role of parents in the transition processes is very important and I think that it would be beneficial for parents to read.

Nice article. I like that there is a resource that discusses advocacy for the students. I feel that much of the time we talk about self-advocacy, which is extremely important, but I feel that it is equally important to have family support and involvement.

This online resource begins by explaining Indicator 13 and 14 which is important because many parents and students are unfamiliar with the term. The opening page also gives families an overview of agencies that specialize in special education transition services. There are several links that provide important information that can be very useful to families in this situation. In my opinion, this website is full of wonderful information and at times seems a bit overwhelming. Some of these important areas are; occupational therapy, early childhood, funding, physical therapy and parent partnerships. I would use this resource as a guide to parents and teachers who are in the process of transitioning a student/child to middle or high school. I would have a meeting with the student and parents to discuss the transition process and ask the parents to view the website to that they have an understanding about the different agencies involved to help.

The Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR) serves as a central resource of information and products to the community of Parent Training Information (PTI) Centers and the Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs), so that they can focus their efforts on serving families of children with disabilities.

Parents can provide a foundation for the IEP team, keeping them grounded and focused on their child's individual strengths, needs, and preferences. Parents know their child's postsecondary and career ambitions and possible support needs, and can identify particular friends, family members, or community members who can provide additional support. It is recommended that educators create a reliable alliance with parents empowering them to emerge as partners and work together to promote successful student outcomes."

"Whether your child is having a positive or negative experience in school, it's important to make the most of your parent-teacher conference. Here are tips to help you and the teacher work together toward success for your child at parent-teacher conferences."

This website resource provides transition resources for parents, teachers and professionals. Throughout the website, there are headings for specific disabilities such as ADHD, autism and visual impairment. Each of these disabilities is provided with a brief summary and link which discusses success stories, suggestions and tips about transitions with those particular disabilities. The website is broken down into grade level options which make the search more specific. At the top of the page, there are headings related to worksheets, videos and colleges. This website will be useful to any student at any age that is transitioning either into a higher grade or new school. It will be important for parents of children who are going through the transition process to check out this website and read about what parents can do to help. I would highly recommend this to families who I speak to about this process.

I like how this article discusses success stories instead of negative views. The suggestions and tips for each disability is helpful to. What i really like is how it is broken up into grade levels so that it is easy to find what you need.

This is a great article, full of many resources, and is very easy to follow. I liked how for the student section it broke it down and from why students should be involved their IEP meetings and transition services, to providing students with resources to see about what to do after high school. Very user friendly and I would direct my students to this site.

"With each Check & Connect training we conduct, we feel (and often hear) the same frustration when it comes to parental involvement in school. What is interesting, is that after we discuss Check & Connect's belief in family engagement versus parental involvement, I hear new and creative ways that school staff are reaching out and engaging families, often without even realizing it."

So here are eight things all parents can do (or stop doing) to help their kids manage their time better, get organized and live without mom and dad doing everything.

This link offers a list of organizations that parents can contact in search of grant  money or other funding to help get the assistive technology that their child needs. It can be a place to start in to order to "improve a child's mobility and educational opportunities." As a special educator I want to be able to offer whatever support I can to the families I work with. If a family is struggling to help their child once they leave school, I hope to be able to point them in the right direction in improving their child's way of life.

Closing the Gap was started by a family who raised a child who was deaf. Because of their experience of being parents of a child with learning disabilities, they wanted to share their knowledge and insight with others. "Closing The Gap, Inc. provides assistive technology resources and training opportunities through its bimonthly (print and online) magazine, Webinars and annual international conference." As I was researching assitive technology, Closing the Gap came up a few times. They hold international conference and provide information to educators, parents and professionals from around the world. I would like to subscribe to their magazine to read about the latest developments in assistive technology.

FCTD is a national center that offers free information resources on the subject of assistive technology to support organizations and programs that work with families of children with disabilities. Summary: These family guides provide a very detailed explaination for technology and transition planning that is jargon free and easily accessible for parents. The guide features descriptions of transitions as well as the ways assistive technology can be used throughout this process. The guide is also offered in spanish. Professional Practice: This guide can be printed out and given to parents to help them understand the transition process. If the guide does not meet the needs of the particular school it can be used a model for creating a guide to keep parents informed. The more educated the parents are on assistive technology and transition, the more we can all work together to create the most beneficial plan for the student.

The laws affecting college students with disabilities and the process of obtaining assistive technology in college are completely different from the K-12 world. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is not in effect in higher education. Summary: This article is located on the webiste for the University of New Jersey. The article describes how IEPs are not in effect in college and that it is the student's repsonsibility to request the assistance that they need. The article also describes that although college's are required to provide assistive technology for students, they are not required to provide the most sophisticated technology available. Professional Practice: In order to prepare our students for college, we need to understand what services college provides. This article helps us to see how asstitive technology is addressed at the college level. We can use this knowledge to teach students how to ask for the assitance that they need. We can also work with the students to identify what services their particular college may provide and help them to get in contact with the neccessary people.

This article was written by Amy G. Dell from The College of New Jersey. It discusses the difference between IEP's and assistive technology in the K-12 world versus the college world, and the laws that surround them. Dell states that "Colleges have no legal responsibility to identify students with disabilities or involve parents in decision making. Parents are often surprised to learn that there are no IEP's in college." Instead of an IEP, the law that protects students with disabilities is a civil rights law. The article continues by discussing reasonable accommodations that students with disabilities can receive in college and how to obtain them. If I were a special educator working on transition and career development, I would use this information to educate my students about the difference between K-12 school and college. I would teach them the difference between having an IEP and using the civil rights law in college. The student needs to learn that they must advocate for themselves in college to receive the academic assistance to help them succeed.

This article focuses on children with autism. Children with autism typically have communication and social needs. Technology can assist in the communication needs but the author warns against using technology to teach social skills. This is due to the fact that a computer is not a real person. To teach social skills children need to be interacting with other people. It is all about creating a balance. This reitterates the fact that no child autism or not is the same. Not one thing is going to work for all. Through having this resource and using co-workers, parents, etc... as resources we can better meet the needs of all students. Not one particular learning experience will meet the needs of all students. We as teachers need to vary the methods we use to teach depending on our individual students.

"For families of youth with disabilities, the transition from high school to employment, postsecondary education, and life in the community presents a variety of significant challenges. PACER's National Parent Center on Transition and Employment website offers innovative tools, reliable research, and interactive training to help address the needs of families across the country."

"Welcome to the Hub page that focuses on the priority topic of "best practices in self-advocacy skills building."  Here, you'll find quick connections to materials and resources you can use with youth with disabilities and their families to build their abilities to advocate for themselves. Items marked with ** are designed to be parent-friendly."

An Open Letter to Parents of Students With Disabilities About to Enter College

"While being a teacher is never easy, working with students in special education comes with some unique challenges. From writing lengthy IEPs to working closely with parents and other teachers, it takes a calm, collected, organized, confident, and very special person to work with students who often need a great deal more support and assistance than their peers to succeed. Yet even the best special education teachers can use a little guidance, inspiration, and information to help them to be even better at what they do. That's just what the 50 blogs we've collected here can do."

"Welcome to the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials. We provide resources and technical assistance for educators, parents, students, publishers, conversion houses, accessible media producers, and others interested in learning more about AEM and implementing AEM and the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)."

This resource provides assistive technology training and help using a computer. Each topic has a link connected which gives a few paragraphs describing the area of interest. There are more links provided after you click on "assistive technology training" or "help using a computer". Some of these links are occupational therapy, youth services, scholarship& award programs and social services. Since there are so many topics covered on this website, it can assist many different families and individuals in need of a variety of support services. This resource could be useful in my life as a special educator by allowing secondary students to explore it and learn step by step how to use a computer if they don't know how to already. It can also be useful to parent who are in need of special services for their families. Many students are not aware of the services that are available to assist them, therefore, by reviewing this website, they can become more aware.