Transition News

Recently, ADE/ESS has received many inquiries regarding special education Early Childhood Transition for children referred from IDEA Part C, Arizona’s Early Intervention Program (AzEIP). The attached Hot Topic is intended to provide guidance to address these responsibilities.

Special Education Stakeholders,Nominations are now being accepted for this year’s Arizona Secondary Transition Services Awards!On behalf of the Arizona Department of Education, Exceptional Student Services, and other partnering agencies, you are invited to submit your nominations for this year's Secondary Transition Services Awards, which will be presented at Arizona's 2023 IDEA Conference.

Special Education Directors,Writing better goals and effectively monitoring student progress towards those goals are foundational skills for Related Service Providers. Positive student outcomes can only be achieved when school-based therapists can do both consistently. Good data on good goals leads to effective interventions and allows therapists to write better progress reports in less time. And we know that “time spent on paperwork” is a leading cause of therapist burnout. For these reasons, we are very excited about the next presentation in our series of Related Service Provider Seminars, Creating Goals that Are Easy to Monitor and a Stress-Free Companion Monitoring Tool, with Carlo Vialu, PT, MBA, and Peggy Morris, OTD, OTR/L, BCP. This workshop is designed for Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, and Speech-Language Pathologists and will convey ASHA, APTA, and AOTA CEUs. Please share with your staff.

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition team would like to thank those who participated in the 2021 PSO data collection season. The PSO Survey helps PEAs collect and report information to meet Indicator 14 requirements. Between June 1 and September 30 of this year, PEAs statewide worked hard to reconnect with former students who had IEPs when they exited high school during the 2019–2020 school year. Through their efforts, 6,245 former students responded to the survey, for a 78.7% participation rate with 71.8% of respondents engaged in postsecondary education/training or employment. A more detailed view of this year's PSO Survey results will be posted on the PSO Website by October 31, 2021.

Special Education Directors,The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Team is excited to announce a virtual professional learning opportunity on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 from 2:30–3:30 p.m. for school administrators, school counselors, Career and Technical Education (CTE) staff, and special education staff. Please share with any other stakeholder who is interested in this topic.CTE Recruitment for Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: Innovative Strategies from a Panel of Your Peers

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition (ST) Team is excited to launch a variety of webinar sessions for the upcoming 2021-22 fall semester.Transition TuesdaysTransition 101 SeriesGetting Centered on Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Person-Centered Planning for Transition-Aged Students

[[{"fid":"46824","view_mode":"full","fields":{"format":"full","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"IDEA Conference Logo small"},"link_text":false,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"full","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"IDEA Conference Logo small"},"2":{"format":"full","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"IDEA Conference Logo small"}},"attributes":{"alt":"IDEA Conference Logo small","class":"media-element file-full media-wysiwyg-align-right","data-delta":"2"}}]]Special Education Directors,The ADE/ESS is pleased to announce the opening of registration for Arizona's 2021 IDEA Virtual Conference, Renewal: Resilience to Results, scheduled for September 13–15, 2021.

Please see the following stakeholder communication opportunity from the Arizona Response to Sexual Violence & Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Collaborative:The Arizona Response to Sexual Violence & Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Collaborative recently released, Preventing Sexual Abuse in Arizona Schools: Suggested Protocols for Students with Intellectual, Developmental and Other Disabilities.

With the start of the 2020–2021 school year, obstacles and unique barriers may be faced by staff working with transition-aged youths. The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Team would like to invite you to tune into the Transition Tuesdays series. These sessions are intended to share information and strategies that will support the transition planning process throughout the pandemic and beyond.

OSERS published updates to "A Transition Guide to Postsecondary Education and Employment for Students and Youth with Disabilities, August 2020" to advance the office's efforts in ensuring that all students and youth with disabilities are equipped with the skills and knowledge to achieve their post-school and career goals.