glossary of Transition terms
[A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z]
Access
Refers to the ability to find, manipulate, and use information, an object, a place, a service or a program in an efficient and comprehensive manner.
Activities of Daily Living
Things you do every day such as dressing, grooming, bathing, eating, positioning, transferring, toileting, and maintaining continence.
Adult Services
Services needed for people when they reach adulthood; these services often include (but are not limited to), assistance in finding a job, assistance in the home, assistance at work, and the provision of various community supports.
Assessment
The process of collecting data for the purpose of making decisions.
Assistive Technology (AT)
Under several different laws, assistive technology (or adaptive technology) is defined as including both the assistive technology devices and the services (e.g., repair and maintenance) needed to make meaningful use of such devices. The Assistive Technology Act defines an assistive technology device as: any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. An assistive technology service is defined as: any service that directly assists an individual with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.
Autonomy
The ability and opportunity to operate independently.
Benchmarking
The process of identifying, sharing, and using knowledge and best practices. It focuses on how to improve any given business process by exploiting top-notch approaches rather than merely measuring the best performance. Finding, studying, and implementing best practices provide the greatest opportunity for gaining a strategic, operational, and financial advantage.
Benefits Planner
A person who interprets complex policy, rules, procedures, administrative code, and legislative language into practical and understandable information. Under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act, Congress created a formal program, known as the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program, as a core employment support for people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). All 50 states participate in the WIPA program.
Benefits Planning
The person-centered analysis of the effect that work and other life situation changes have on public and private programs, including income support programs. Benefits planning helps people with disabilities steer through the maze of public and private benefits programs while minimizing disincentives and barriers that exist for them to prepare for, obtain, advance in, retain, leave, and regain employment.
Career Development
The discovery of specific vocational pathways that meet the person's interests, aptitudes, and opportunities.
Case Management
The main purpose of case management is to coordinate the provision of services for individual children and their families who require services from multiple service providers. Case managers take on roles ranging from brokering services to linking with and advocating for services that families need. There is a considerable amount of variation in case management models. In the wraparound model, case managers involve families in a participatory process of developing an individualized plan focusing on individual and family strengths in multiple life domains.
Center for Independent Living (CIL)
Community-based, not-for-profit, non-residential organizations that provide advocacy, peer counseling, independent living skills training, and information and referral to persons of any age with any disability.
Collaboration
A mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals. The relationship includes a commitment to: a definition of mutual relationships and goals; a jointly developed structure and shared responsibility; mutual authority and accountability; and sharing of resources and rewards (Mattesich & Monsey, 1992). Collaboration involves formal, sustained commitment among partners to accomplish a shared, clearly defined mission (Kerka, 1997). Collaborative efforts can overcome service fragmentation and interrelated problems resulting in improved services to individuals with disabilities (Melaville & Blank, 1993).
Communication
Refers to the accurate and efficient transmission and/or reception of information, either verbally (spoken or written) or non-verbally.
Compensatory Strategies
Strategies that build skills in individuals by focusing on processes, techniques, and practices that lessen the effects of a disability.
Competitive Employment
Competitive employment is a job where an individual is working for pay in an individual, community-based job where the individual is paid directly by the employer.
Customized Employment
A process for individualizing the employment relationship between a job seeker or an employee and an employer in ways that meet the needs of both. It is based on a match between the unique strengths, needs, and interests of the job candidate with a disability, and the identified business needs of the employer or the self-employment business chosen by the candidate.
Developmental Disability (DD)
A term used to describe life-long disabilities resulting from a mental and/or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments, with an onset prior to the age of 22. Such disabilities affect daily functioning in three or more functional areas, including capacity for independent living, expressive language, self-care, and self-direction.
Direct Care Worker/Caregiver
An individual, such as a physician, nurse, parent, foster parent, head of a household, or social worker, who assists in the identification, prevention, treatment of an illness or disability.
Disclosure
The act of opening up, revealing, or telling. With regard to individuals with disabilities, it refers to the act of informing someone that an individual has a disability, including self-disclosure. It is often associated with a person's need to request accommodations.
Education and Training
Education and Training is formal instruction and supervised practice in an academic subjects, skills, trade, or profession leading to a generally recognized credential or certificate.
Eligibility
Criteria or requirements which determine a right to participate in a particular activity, service, or program.
Employment
Regular engagement in skilled or unskilled labor or service activities for payment.
Employment Network
Any agency or instrumentality of a private or public entity that enters into a contract with the Social Security Administration to assume responsibility for the coordination and delivery of appropriate employment, employment activities, and other support services under the Ticket to Work Program.
Employment Outcome
As defined in Title I of the Rehabilitation Act and its governing regulations, an employment outcome means entering or retaining full-time or, if appropriate, part-time competitive employment in the integrated labor market; satisfying the vocational outcome of supported employment; or satisfying any other approved appropriate vocational outcome such as self employment, telecommuting, or business ownership.
Employment Services Offices
Employment Service Offices has listings of available jobs and provides assistance to job seekers.
Entitlement
A right to benefits specified especially by law or contract; a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; funds supporting or distributed by such a program.
Essential Functions of the Job
These are tasks that are fundamental and necessary to perform a given position. They do not include marginal duties.
Family Supports & Services
Refers to access to: information through neutral intermediary organizations to assist in understanding causes and implications for daily living of the disability of the child; information and training about effective practices and options for their child's education and transition into post-school life such as individualized education transition plans, and navigating the adult service delivery system(s); information and training about the implications of disability-centered legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, medical services and insurance, income support, education and training; and support networks that promote asset-based strategies for both youth and family members.
Family involvement
The support for the social, emotional, physical, academic, and occupational growth of youth that is provided by parents and/or other family, either independently or in collaboration with professionals.
Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
The services to which every person age 3 to 22 who is receiving special education services is entitled during their years in school.
Functional Job Analysis
Trained analysts investigate the interactions among work, workers, and work organization through a multi-dimensional information collection process. FJA is used extensively throughout industry in managerial, professional and craft situations to classify jobs, generate work sample tests and to develop performance standards for work.
Functional-Behavioral Assessment
An approach that incorporates a variety of techniques and strategies to determine the causes of problem behaviors and identify interventions needed to address them.
Functional-Life Skills
Basic skills in the context of real world situations; the variety of skills that are frequently demanded in domestic, vocational, and community environments.
Guidance
An umbrella term encompassing many services aimed at student's personal and career development.
Healthcare
Health care or healthcare is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. The organized provision of such services may constitute a healthcare system.
Home and Community Based Services
The major goal of home-based services is to maintain the youth at home and prevent an out-of-home placement (i.e., in foster care or in residential or inpatient treatment). Home-based services are usually provided through the child welfare, juvenile justice, or mental health systems.
Independent Living Program (ILP)
Purpose is to maximize the leadership, empowerment, independence, and productivity of individuals with disabilities and to integrate these individuals into the mainstream of society.
Independent Living Skills Assessments
Assessments that are often conducted by teachers, counselors, or others to determine how well an individual can engage in activities of daily living.
Individual Transition Plan (ITP)
A written plan that outlines what a student will need to live and work as an adult. This plan works as a bridge between the IEP and other transition plans.
Individual Work Plan (IWP)
Under the Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA), an IWP is a formal agreement between a Ticket holder and an Employment Network that describes how services will achieve an employment goal. The detailed IWP includes specific steps may take several years to complete.
Individualized Education Program (IEP)
A written statement for each child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This statement must include: A) the child's academic achievement and functional performance; B) measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals; C) a description of how the child's progress toward the goals will be measured; D) what special education and related services will be provided; E) an explanation of the extent, if any, to which the child will not participate with nondisabled children in regular classes; and F) a description of any appropriate accommodations that are necessary. The first IEP, under the IDEA, must be in effect no later than when the child turns 16. These services may start earlier if determined appropriate by the IEP Team. IEP's must also be updated annually (IDEA 2004).
Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
Guides the early intervention process for children with disabilities and their families. The IFSP is implemented in accordance with Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It contains information about the services necessary to facilitate a child's development and enhance the family's capacity to facilitate the child's development. Family members and service providers work as a team to plan, implement, and evaluate services tailored to the family's needs.
Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE)
Under the Social Security Administrations Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA), an IPE is a plan developed by a State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agency and the client for the services that the client needs to assist them in reaching their work goal.
Individualized Planning
Is the process of assessing a person's strengths, skills, resources, interests and limitations as they apply to the achievement of a specific goal, and then using that information to develop a plan that lays out the steps that need to be taken for that person to accomplish that goal.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), special education students are required to have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that includes information on the student's present level of functioning in each identified needs area, a statement of annual goals for the student, a statement of appropriate short-term objectives with the evaluation approach and criteria for determining progress toward achievement of annual goals, a statement of any required related services and who will provide them, a statement of transition service needs (beginning at least by age 16), and a statement that relates to the amount of time the student will spend in the least restrictive environment (i.e., general education classes). Under title I of the Rehabilitation Act, individuals determined eligible for services from a State Vocational Rehabilitation agency must have an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) which is developed in partnership with a qualified Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and which outlines the person's vocational goals, the services that the individual will receive, the providers of those services, and the methods that will be used to procure those services. Another example of an individualized plan is the Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) which allows recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to set aside income and resources to achieve a specific work goal. Other examples of individualized plans include individualized services strategies for participation in Title I WIA youth activities/ the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) required under Part C of IDEA the Individual Work Plan (IWP) required under the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program and the Individual Habilitation Plan (IHP) required for individuals receiving services from State Divisions of Developmental Disabilities.
Individualized Service Plan (ISP)
The Developmental Disabilities Assistance Rights Act crated the ISP which is a document which becomes the basis for service coordination for the consumer. It is developed with input and approval of the consumer and focuses on the service areas needed. This plan is also referred to as an Individualized Plan (IP).
Informed Choice
The process by which an individual arrives at a decision. It is a process that is based upon access to, and full understanding of, all necessary information from the individual's perspective. The process should result in a free and informed decision by the individual about what he or she needs.
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living
These activities capture more complex life activities and include personal hygiene, light housework, laundry, meal preparation, transportation, grocery shopping, using the telephone, medication management, and money management.
Insurance
Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a potential loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium and duty of care.
Integrated Setting
Integrated setting refers to a setting in which individuals interact with non-disabled individuals other than those who may be providing services to that person. With respect to an integrated employment setting, it refers to a setting typically found in the community in which individuals interact with non-disabled individuals, other than those who are providing services to that person, to the same extent that non-disabled individuals in comparable positions interact with other persons.
Intermediary Organization
An agent that convenes local leadership and broker relationships with multiple partners across multiple funding streams; brings together workforce development systems, vocational rehabilitation providers, businesses, labor unions, educational institutions, social service organizations, faith based organizations, transportation entities, health providers, and other Federal, State, and community resources which youth with disabilities need to transition to employment successfully. Possible intermediaries include, but are not limited to community- based non-profit organizations, faith-based and community organizations, employer organizations, community colleges, and community rehabilitation programs.
Interpersonal Skills
The ability to communicate with another individual or group on a social or professional basis. Level of aptitude is based on ease and comfort of all parties involved.
Job Accommodations
Modification or adjustments specific to the work environment, or to the manner of circumstances under which the position held or desired is customarily performed, that enable a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of that job.
Job Analysis
Job analysis is the systematic gathering, documenting, and analyzing of information about employees acting to perform the tasks incumbent to their jobs within any kind of a work setting. Analysis deals with job content, job requirements as well as the context of the entire work organization. Among the purposes for which job analysis information is used are job descriptions, job evaluation and classification, performance appraisal, training design, work design and selection/promotion systems.
Job Carving
Creation of a job description based on tasks derived from a single traditional job in an employment setting. The carved job description contains one or more, but not all, of the tasks from the original job description.
Job Coach
A person hired by the placement agency or provided through the employer to furnish specialized on-site training to assist and employee with a disability in learning and performing a job and adjusting to the work environment.
Job Shadowing
Job shadowing is designed to give youth a closer, more in-depth look at the world of work. During a job shadow experience, a young person accompanies an employee as his/her work is performed in order to learn about a specific occupation or industry. Specific days for job shadowing have been created (i.e. Groundhog Job Shadowing Day and Disability Mentoring Month in October).
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
The knowledge, skills, and abilities or competencies required to serve all youth, including youth with disabilities, effectively in the workforce development system. These include competencies from the youth development, workforce development, and disability fields.
Late Adolescence and Young Adulthood
A stage of human development, from approximately age 16 to age 24 when youth emerge from childhood and enter adulthood.
Learning Styles
Different ways of or approaches to learning including: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic/tactile
Least Restrictive Environment
According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature of severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.
Lifelong Learning
The interest and skill to maintain education, formal or informal, beyond the basic requirements for academic achievement or vocational attainment.
Medicaid
The United States health program for individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is an entitlement program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are eligible low-income parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Microenterprise
A microenterprise is a business with five or fewer employees, which requires $35,000 or less in start-up capital, and which does not have access to the traditional commercial banking sector.
Natural Supports
Personal associations and relationships typically developed in the community that enhance the quality and security of life for people, including, but not limited to, family relationships; friendships reflecting the diversity of the neighborhood and the community; association with fellow students or employees in regular classrooms and workplaces; and associations developed through participation in clubs, organizations, and other civic activities.
Nonpublic School
A state-certified nonpublic school may contract with County Offices of Education, Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPA) and/or local school districts to receive reimbursement for special education services. Every child in America is entitled, under PL 94-142, to a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive setting that meets the child’s needs. When a child has exceptional needs that cannot be met in a public school setting, that child may be educated in a nonpublic school at public expense.
Observation
The process of watching or listening to an individual's behavior and performance and recording relevant information.
Opportunities
Chances for young people to learn how to act in the world around them, to explore, express, earn, belong, and influence. Opportunities give young people the chance to test ideas and behaviors and to experiment with different roles. It is important to stress that young people, just like adults, learn best through active participation and that learning occurs in all types of settings and situations (Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, 1996).
Positive Behavioral Interventions
A problem-solving approach to managing problem behaviors in the school setting that changes stimulus and reinforcement in such a way that problem behaviors are prevented or negligible, and teaches students new skills, making problem behaviors unnecessary. Schools are required to conduct functional behavioral assessments and use positive behavior support with students who are identified as having a disability and are at risk for expulsion, alternative school placement, or more than 10 days of suspension. Some prevention strategies are used on a school-wide basis with all students; other strategies are geared to students who do not respond to these initial strategies and are at risk for academic failure or behavior problems; a third set of prevention programs, called intensive or individualized interventions, focus on students who display persistent patterns of disciplinary problems.
Postsecondary
Term used to describe settings that follow high school (such as trade school, college, or employment).
Preparatory Experiences
Refer to educational programs grounded in standards, clear performance expectations and graduation exit options based upon meaningful, accurate, and relevant indicators of student learning and skills. Under NCWD/Youth's Guideposts for Success, preparatory experiences include: career and technical education programs that are based on professional and industry standards; curricular and program options based on universal design of school, work and community-based learning experiences; learning environments that are small and safe; supports from and by highly qualified staff; access to an assessment system that includes multiple measures; and graduation standards that include options.
Quality Services
Services that offer relevant instruction and information.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
A monthly cash benefit that is available from the Social Security Administration to people who have a disability, low income, and few resources. People who receive SSI also automatically become eligible to receive Medicaid medical insurance in most states.
Supported Employment
Supported employment means competitive employment in an integrated setting, or employment in integrated work settings in which individuals with the most significant disabilities are provided ongoing support services through an external source such as a community rehabilitation program or a State Vocational Rehabilitation program or a State Vocational Rehabilitation agency. Supported employment provides assistance such as job coaches, transportation, assistive technology, specialized job training, and individually tailored support.
Supported Living
Often involves partnerships between individuals with disabilities, their families, and professionals in making decisions about where or how the person wishes to live. People in supported living may need little or no services from professionals, or they may need 24-hour personal care. The kind and amount of supports are tailored to the individual's needs.
Self-Advocacy
The act of understanding one's disability, being aware of the strengths and weaknesses resulting from the limitations imposed by the disability, and being able to articulate reasonable need for accommodation (Hartman, 1993). The attitudes and abilities required to act as the primary causal agent in one's life and make choices and decisions regarding one's actions free from undue external influence or interference (Wehmeyer, 1992). The ability of an individual to set goals that are important to him or her and having the skills to achieve these goals (Field & Hoffman, 1996).
Self-Care
Refers to the skills necessary to fulfill basic needs such as those related to health, safety, food preparation and nutrition, hygiene and grooming, and money management.
Self-Determination
The right and ability of all persons to direct their own lives, as well as the responsibility to accept the consequences of their own choices. Some of the skills that make someone self-determined or a successful self-advocate are the following: knowledge of one's strengths and limitations; belief in one's ability to achieve goals; ability to start and complete tasks; ability to assertively assert one's wants, needs, and concerns; and the ability to make decisions and see other options.
Social Networks
Often are informal collections of employees or friends based on either demographic criteria (age, race/ethnicity, gender) or interest (employees who are carrying for aging parents).
Soft Skills
The skills, traits, work habits, and attitudes that all workers across all occupations must have in order to obtain, maintain, and progress in employment. These include being dependable, responsible, punctual, adaptable, hones, honorable, well-mannered, positive toward work, and appropriately dressed/groomed. Soft skills also refer to such attributes as ability to get along with others, work in teams, attend to tasks, work independently, and provide excellent customer service, both within the company and externally.
Summary of Performance (SOP)
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), for each child whose eligibility under the special education terminate due to graduation with a regular diploma, or due to exceeding the age of eligibility, the local education agency, "shall provide the child with a summary of the child's academic achievement and functional performance, which shall include recommendations on how to assist the child in meeting the child's postsecondary goals."
Transition
The period of time when adolescents are moving into adulthood and is often concerned with planning for postsecondary education or careers.
Transition Planning
The term "transition planning" means a coordinated set of activities for a student with a disability that: A) Is designed within an outcome-oriented process, that promotes movement from school-to-post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational training, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation; B) Is based upon the individual student's needs, taking into account the student's preferences and interests; and C) Includes instruction, related services, special education, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives, and when appropriate, the acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation.
Work-Based Learning
A supervised program sponsored by an education or training organization that links knowledge gained at the work site with a planned program of study. Experiences range in intensity, structure, and scope and include activities as diverse as site visits, job shadowing, paid and unpaid internships, structured on-the-job training, and the more formal work status as apprentice or employee.
Work-Readiness Skills
The ability to make the educational and vocational decisions and perform the kinds of educational and vocational tasks that are expected by schools and the workplace. Work-readiness skills include soft skills, computer literacy, and job seeking skills.
