1. Background/Trend Data
   (for reporting period July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003):

(In addition to the data provided below, see Appendices 22b and 59)

Data Sources

Without a single, annual measure regarding post-school transitions, data about transition performance draws from many sources. This includes annual reporting by school districts regarding the types of school exit and planned post-school activities for students with disabilities (form PD-5, collected by VESID annually); the Post School Indicators (PSI) studies comparing students with and without disabilities (one-year statewide sample of all exiters from the class of 1995, one-year out sample of all exiters from the Big Five Cities from the class of 1996; and the Longitudinal PSI study of randomly stratified samples from the classes of 2000 and 2001 exiting with Regents, Local, High School Equivalency and IEP diplomas. LPSI data is collected at Senior Exit and One-, Three- and Five-years beyond school exit. Data is also from the SED Office for Higher Education (OHE) indicating college participation and completion; the SED data collection reports called BEDS (Basic Educational Data System) and CTEDS (Career and Technical Education Data System) and from VESID’s vocational rehabilitation case management data system regarding youth served. Additional data is provided from the regional Transition Coordination Site technical assistance network quarterly reports and their local self-assessment planning tool, called TRANSQUAL, plus other demonstration project outcome data.

Comparative Rates of Positive Transitions

Comparative post-school transitions one year beyond high school by students with and without disabilities are measured by the New York State Post-School Indicators (PSI) studies. The most recent data collection is from the Longitudinal Post-School Indicators study for the classes of 2000 and 2001 for students who left school with a Regents, Local, High School Equivalency or IEP Diploma. PSI studies are not conducted annually for every class due to volume of students and costs. The next class to be studied for trend analysis will be the class of 2005 at senior exit and one-year out of high school.

The gap is closing in the comparative rates of transition to postsecondary education, employment or day program alternatives at the point one year beyond completion for students receiving diplomas (LPSI Data).
Class Year	Students	Rate of Positive Transitions	Gap
2001	Former Special Education	83%	13%
	Former General Education	96%
1995	Former Special Education	75%	16%
	Former General Education	91%

Post-School Transition Activity and Rate Varies by Disability

Post-School Transitions at One Year Out Vary by Disability Classification (LPSI Data, Class of 2001)
Students	2- or 4-Year College	Other Postsecondary Education	Other Occupational Training	Day Program Alternatives	Paid Competitive Employment	Supported Employment	Other	Total Active in Transition
General Education	80.5%	1.0%	1.5%	0.0%	12.1%	0.0%	0.3%	95.7%
All Special Education	37.8%*	6.3%	1.3%	3.8%	30.4%	0.9%	1.9%	82.6%
Special Education with Learning Disabilities	42.9%	6.1%	1.4%	0.2%	31.8%	0.3%	1.9%	85.1%
Special Education with Mental Retardation	0.8%	5.8%	0.0%	24.8%	30.6%	6.6%	5.0%	73.6%
Special Education with Emotional Disabilities	32.4%	4.9%	2.0%	2.0%	31.4%	0.0%	0.0%	72.5%
Special Education Other Disabilities	34.1%	7.2%	1.2%	8.6%	26.3%	0.0%	1.4%	80.2%

*Note:  This rate of transition to college for former special education students is dramatically higher than six years ago, when it was 17 percent.

Post-School Plans of Seniors

Post-School plans are reported annually by school districts for seniors with disabilities completing school with a Regents, Local, IEP or High School Equivalency Diploma (source = PD-5 data, NYSED VESID).  This data plus data on dropouts is one source used by the Special Education Quality Assurance Team to target districts for monitoring reviews.

Increasingly, schools are able to report post-school plans of students with disabilities. (PD-5 Data)*
Exit Year	Number Completing	Postsecondary Education is Planned	Employment is Planned	Military Service is Planned	Adult Services are Planned	Other Plans	Student Plans Unknown to District
2002-2003	17,596	49%**	22%	2%	11%	4%	13%
2001-2002	15,863	48%	25%	2%	10%	4%	11%
2000-2001	15,515	44%	26%	2%	10%	4%	14%
1999-2000	14,719	41%	26%	2%	10%	4%	17%

**Note:  The increase in planning to attend 2- or 4- year college is not just a shift in the rate of unknown plans.  The following data from the Office of Higher Education confirms the LPSI and Exit Plan indicators that the rate of college participation and completion is increasing.

Postsecondary Plans of Students with Disabilities Who Completed High School

Reports of post-school plans of students with disabilities reflect regional differences. (PD-5 Data, Exit Year 2003)
SEQA Region****	Number Completing	Postsecondary Education is Planned	Employment is Planned	Military Service is Planned	Adult Services are Planned	Other Plans	Student Plans Unknown to District
Total Public***	17,283	49.1%	21.9%	2.3%	10.6%	3.3%	12.9%
Eastern	2,197	47.5%	29.8%	3.2%	5.4%	2.9%	11.3%
Central	2,062	48.9%	32.5%	3.0%	4.2%	2.3%	9.0%
Hudson Valley	2,602	59.3%	20.3%	1.8%	5.9%	1.2%	11.5%
Long Island	3,198	62.1%	16.7%	1.9%	5.6%	2.4%	11.3%
New York City	3,929	33.4%	11.9%	1.3%	28.0%	6.2%	19.3%
Western	3,295	48.1%	28.1%	3.4%	5.8%	3.1%	11.5%

*Represents data from public school districts, state agencies, data for students placed by the courts in State residential schools.

***Represents public schools only.

****These Regions reflect the assignment of school districts to the VESID Office of Quality Assurance regional offices.

College Participation

Matriculation in NYS colleges and universities by students with disabilities is increasing. (OHE Data)
Year	Numbers of Self-Identified Students with Disabilities Enrolled	Percent of Total Enrollment
2001	36,249	3.4%
2000	34,832	3.4%
1999	30,621	3.0%

Comparative College Completion

College students with disabilities are catching up to their general education peers in completing Associates Degrees in three years or less and Bachelors Degrees in six years or less.  (OHE Data)
Degree Type	Class Year	Students	Percent Completing Degree within Timeframe	Gap
AAS	2001	All Students	23.9%	0.7%
		Subset: Students with Disabilities	23.2%
	1997	All Students	25.2%	6.5%
		Subset: Students with Disabilities	18.7%
BA or BS	2001	All Students	58.3%	-2.3%
		Subset: Students with Disabilities	60.6%
	1997	All Students	58.4%	9.7%
		Subset: Students with Disabilities	49.7%

Transitions from High School to Vocational Rehabilitation Services

Youth and school districts increasingly are represented in the Vocational Rehabilitation system.
State Fiscal Year	1998-99	2000-01	2002-03	Results for SFY 02-03 were created by 398 FTE Counselors.  As of 8/03, this FTE is reduced to 342.
Youth in Caseload	23,563	25,176	27,733
Percent of Youth in Total Caseload	22%	24%	26%
Youth Employed	3,175	3,208	3,240
Percent of Youth Among Successfully Employed	19%	20%	22%
# New Youth Cases Opened	not available	9,947	11,432
# School Districts Represented	not available	569	604
# School Buildings Represented	not available	977	1,121

Identification of What Makes a Difference in Achieving Positive Transitions: Using Data for Decision-Making

1996-1997 Baseline

The PSI studies enable VESID to examine what makes a difference in helping students achieve positive post-school transitions. Results guide decision-making about policies and technical assistance needs. The first statewide study in 1996 of the class of 1995 and in 1997 of the Big Five Cities class of 1996 occurred at the conclusion of the five-year Federal transition systems change grant. From 1991 through 1996 the grant enabled New York State to set up and operate regional technical assistance centers, i.e., Transition Coordination Sites (TCSs), to support local schools, families and communities to implement transition practices. TCSs worked in concert with a State team who developed supporting policy and resources. The earlier PSI studies documented the following results from that initial push for transition systems change.

• At one year beyond school, 70 percent of former special education students transitioned to work, postsecondary education or day program alternatives. However, there were gaps in certain school districts geographically distributed statewide, especially among those who had not participated in the voluntary training or demonstration project offerings of the technical assistance process.
• The provision of “helpful” transition planning related to higher frequency of school completion and successful post-school transitions. Students who reported the provision of helpful transition planning had transitioned one year beyond school to positive outcomes at a rate of 78 percent versus 63 percent positive outcomes among those who had not received helpful transition planning.
• Better post-school employment outcomes were related to work experiences and occupational education, including higher wages, more steady employment, more hours of employment and fringe benefits. However, only 44 percent of students with disabilities had received such experiences in high school and the post-school employment of students with disabilities was half that of their general education peers. (In the 1997 study, 38 percent of former students with disabilities versus 70 percent of their former general education peers were working).
• Former students wished they had more core academics, including math and computer classes.

Following a presentation of the information to the New York State Board of Regents, the following decisions were made:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) would set shared responsibility for special education and vocational rehabilitation for students with disabilities. These are the KPIs reported above for this cluster.
• VESID would continue to fund the Transition Coordination Sites beyond the life of the Federal systems change grant, but would redirect their efforts from general training conferences to the provision of individualized technical assistance, based on research-based Transition Quality Indicators (now an on-line self assessment system called “Transqual”) and development of model practices to build capacities. TCS priorities would emphasize development of school-based community employment experiences, improved opportunities for students to learn the necessary skills to transition to and succeed in postsecondary education, connection of transition planning and services to changes in general education emphasizing higher learning standards in academics, as well as career development and occupational studies and creation of models aligned with increased integration of all students with disabilities with their nondisabled peers in least restrictive environments.
• Initiatives would improve special education and vocational rehabilitation linkages, including School - Vocational Rehabilitation Career Link demonstration projects.
• Quality Assurance regarding transition would be enhanced for both special education and vocational rehabilitation.
• Development of additional data to better understand what works in the transition process over a longer transition time frame from senior exit to 5 years beyond school, thus committing VESID to the Longitudinal Post School Indicators Study, collection of school exit plans data from school districts, and continuing annual reviews of vocational rehabilitation case services pertaining to youth and referral relationships to school.

2000-2001 Mid-Course Correction

Additional information from the Longitudinal PSI study gathered from the Senior Exit survey component and the One-Year Out Interviews with the classes of 2000 and 2001 plus ongoing coordination and communication with internal and external stakeholders helped to identify further needs for improvement in the transition system.

Good news included that former students with disabilities who completed high school:

• More often transitioned to positive outcomes (83 percent for the class of 2001 versus the 75 percent of the class of 1996).
• More than twice as often transitioned to 2- and 4-year college programs (38 percent for the class of 2001 versus 17 percent for the class of 1996).
• More often participated in community work experiences in high school (80 percent in 2001 versus 37 percent in 1996).
• Enjoyed a higher rate of paid competitive, post-school employment (62 percent in 2001 versus 38 percent in 1997; this includes those who work as their primary activity, as well as those who work while attending college).

The LPSI study confirms that the following educational program and transition planning and service factors are statistically correlated with positive transition outcomes:

• Transition Planning throughout K-12. 89 percent of graduates from the class of 2000 who reported their schools helped them plan and prepare for post-school life, transitioned to positive outcomes versus 59 percent of graduates who did not receive assistance from their schools. The earlier the conversations were held with students, families and schools about transition, the better the transition outcomes. The earlier the provision of helpful career planning and postsecondary planning information, the better the transition outcomes.
• Career Preparation, especially paid or unpaid work experiences in the community. Former students from the class of 2001 who had paid or unpaid work experiences in high school were employed a year later at a rate of 70 percent, while students without such experiences were employed at a rate of 51 percent.
• Safe, Supportive Educational Environment. This is a composite score defined by a series of questions, including students reporting that their high school learning environment was safe, they were treated with respect and cared about as individuals by fellow students and were challenged by their teachers to perform well in their courses of study.
• Integrated Learning Environments. Students educated with their general education peers were more likely to have positive post-school transitions.
• Attainment of Standards Based Diploma. Students with a Regents diploma were more likely to have positive post-school outcomes, especially successful transitions to 2- and 4-year college programs.

Problem areas identified include that:

• Less than half of the students with disabilities reported having conversations about transition planning prior to eleventh grade or receiving planning information before eleventh grade.
• Seniors with disabilities more often planned to go to work immediately after high school than their general education peers but less often actually had jobs lined up at the point of exiting school.
• In comparison to their general education peers, students with disabilities (even those with Regents diplomas) had lower expectations for the level of postsecondary education they could aspire to and did not make decisions about pursuing such study until late in their high school careers, in eleventh grade.
• While youth referrals to vocational rehabilitation have steadily increased, there still remains a significant gap between the numbers of students with disabilities exiting school annually and the numbers of new youth cases opened annually in the vocational rehabilitation system. From July 2001-June 2002, 24,098 students exited from special education and from April 2002 through March 2003, only 11,432 new youth cases were opened.

Decisions made to address these problems included the following:

• To increase the capacity of the vocational rehabilitation system to work with schools and with youth, 22 Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor positions and 11 Counselor Assistant positions would be created to serve in-school youth.
• To increase the quality of transition planning and services at the school district level, Special Education Quality Assurance would create a Focused Quality Assurance Review on Transition and School Exits.
• To focus transition services and increase the awareness of students, families and schools about the need for development of student transition skills, State requirements would be set for the Present Levels of Performance section of the IEP to contain Transition Needs Assessment information. From this section of the IEP, appropriate transition-related goals and objectives and the necessary services could then be identified more clearly.
• To assure earlier occurrence of transition planning conversations, provision of post-school planning information and inclusion of students and parents, VESID would develop a routine data collection process to assure that IEP meetings for 14-year old students would better address transition planning requirements.
• Guidelines would be developed to enable schools to acknowledge the career learning achievements of students planning to receive Individualized Education Program diplomas and who complete Career and Technical Education courses and programs.

2. Targets
   (for reporting period July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003):

Maintain and enhance transition resources and strategies to continue improving the transition system including:

• Develop and pilot a method to acknowledge the career learning accomplishments of students receiving IEP diplomas who complete Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses and programs, i.e., the Skills Achievement Profile. This will parallel credentials available for students obtaining a Regents or Local Diploma and participating in CTE programs. It will also document student work-related skills to enhance their job seeking.
• Provide technical assistance at the regional and local level through the Transition Coordination Site network. TCSs will continue to use the Transition Work Day strategic planning model, along with the Transition Quality Indicator checklist for program self-assessment. The paper-generated TQI will be converted to an on-line system (called “Transqual”) from a paper and pencil record. An on-line Transqual system will permit schools to revisit their confidential improvement plans over time and allow the aggregation of regional capacity needs data for prioritizing technical assistance interventions.
• Disseminate information to stakeholders through a transition web page http://www.nysed.vesid.gov; brochures directed at students, families and schools; ongoing regional planning and advisory groups of stakeholders and conduct in spring 2003, a public television broadcast on Transition Planning.
• Annual collection and use of Exit Plan and periodic collection and use of LPSI and other transition-related data will continue to support local, regional and statewide planning for improvements.
• The Special Education Quality Assurance process will continue to include transition-related compliance questions as part of the review protocol so that transition can be monitored in addition to other compliance factors. Transition Coordination Sites will serve as content experts in reviews as called upon by the Special Education Quality Assurance Regional Offices.
• The vocational rehabilitation Quality Assurance monitoring protocol will continue to include key questions regarding transition process and youth services, enabling data to be used to guide local efforts.
• Continue funding of initiatives that develop model transition practices, including Career Link projects to facilitate school district/vocational rehabilitation partnerships in developing career skills of youth in school and enhancing school to vocational rehabilitation partnerships; school district/Independent Living collaborative models in six regions; and school to postsecondary education transition models.
• Provide in-service training for all District Offices vocational rehabilitation counselors regarding how to work effectively with in-school youth in transition.

3. Explanation of Progress or Slippage
   (for reporting period July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003):

Progress 2002-03

As the baseline/trend data section in section one indicates, annual and periodic measures confirm that the rate of successful transitions is increasing, as well as transitions to postsecondary education, particularly college study. Connections with vocational rehabilitation are increasing steadily. The reason is the targeted use of capacity building resources. The following examples, while citing specific locations, are typical of regional activities statewide.

Policy Development

• VESID staff worked with the SED Office of Workforce Preparation and Continuing Education to develop and field test a process for acknowledging the accomplishments of students with disabilities receiving IEP diplomas who also complete Career and Technology Education (CTE) courses and programs. Students receiving Regents diplomas can receive a CTE endorsement on their diplomas acknowledging their successful completion of CTE. IEP diploma students requested similar acknowledgement of their accomplishments in CTE. Parent members of the Commissioner’s Advisory Panel (CAP) have previously recommended that some form of exit documentation be made available to students and families so that post-school job seeking would be easier. Twenty-three school districts piloted the profile. Reported benefits included that the Skills Achievement Profile allowed schools to clarify CTE course expectations with students. The CAP Transition Committee agreed that this will provide a tool for students in seeking employment. The model will be rolled out in 2004.
• In follow-up to LPSI findings that transition conversations are not occurring as early as age 14, as would be expected, a data collection instrument was developed to determine how the State could follow up with Committees for Special Education to encourage student and parent participation as well as encourage career and postsecondary information to be provided as early as possible at IEP meetings for 14-year olds. The survey process was piloted with 14 districts, who indicated that the process was manageable and informative. As a result, an ongoing survey process with randomly selected schools will be conducted as part of annual data gathering beginning in 2004.

Postsecondary Capacity Increased

• In the North Country, for the past nine years, the Recipe for College Success conferences have given students with disabilities hoping to transition to college practical information about how to get ready during high school for this next step. During the past two years, the Transition Coordination Site (TCS) in concert with Paul Smith’s College worked with the college consortia to replicate the “Recipe” conferences on college campuses in each of the 5 BOCES regions annually, overcoming geographic barriers to participation. Altogether, over 2,500 students, 70 parents and 100 school staff participated and enhanced their awareness of post-secondary education transition. The University of North Carolina (UNC) Charlotte selected this program as an “exemplary program.”
• In the Rochester area, the TCS continued to work with the Rochester Consortium of Advocates for College Students with Disabilities to provide postsecondary planning workshops for high schools, families and colleges. Planning support was given to Dr. Ellen Arnold to develop a 20-hour course "Can I Make It?" for students with disabilities thinking about college. A self-assessment instrument, "From Here to There," was developed to assist youth and adults with self-assessment of learning skills and post-secondary education and career goals. These courses and related models are included as transition services in the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) of transitioning students in the region.

Post-secondary Summer Orientation Service Capacity:

• The pre-college summer orientation program at SUNY Albany is for students who will be sponsored by the vocational rehabilitation agencies. It provides students the opportunity to learn about the college environment, develop self-advocacy skills and learn about their rights and responsibilities as a college student with a disability.
• Long Island TCS works with Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) and Eastern Suffolk BOCES Tech Prep program to offer a summer orientation program at the end of which college staff administer College Proficiency Tests. The students, who are between their junior and senior year of high school, learn about disabled student services, take college courses and speak with other students with disabilities who are attending SCCC to learn how college life is different than high school. Results of the assessments are provided to the student, family and school so there is an opportunity to remediate gaps in skills.

Adult Education Program Capacity

• Using grant resources from OMRDD, the Rochester Regional TCS and Monroe #1 and #2 BOCES developed Learning Unlimited, a continuing education program for individuals with developmental disabilities. From February through April, weekly sessions are offered in cooking, arts and crafts, and computer literacy. Transportation and free classes are provided for 40 students, aged 18+ who have socially acceptable behavior and are able to communicate and follow class instructions.

Assistive Technology:

• Corcoran High School, Syracuse and Onondaga Community College were awarded a grant, The High School to College Technology Project, to train teachers and students with learning disabilities to use text-to-speech computer software by Kurzweil. The goal is to provide early preparation to enable the students to be better prepared for college and better able to use assistive technology at the college level. The District is purchasing additional equipment for Corcoran and two other high schools in addition to training many more staff and students.

Tech Prep Programs:

• On Long Island, approximately 20 percent of the Suffolk County Tech Prep students have disabilities. Statewide, there are 50,711 students, of which 5,207 or 9.75 percent are students with disabilities, participating in Tech Prep programs. The Tech Prep committee works closely with the Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) in developing strategies to ensure success at the postsecondary level. One method used is for the College to administer College Proficiency Tests to students with disabilities one year prior to high school graduation. If the test is passed, students do not have to retake it. Those that do not pass can have instruction to better prepare for these tests. Seniors can also take up to 1.5 units of credit at SCCC at no cost to the student; and if the student passes, he/she earns college credit.

Employment Programs Capacity

• The Ken’s Kids program was started in 2 TCS regions (Long Island Nassau County and in New York City, Bronx District 75). This program provides free job coach services in conjunction with paid employment at Home Depot to youth and adults with developmental disabilities. TCS staff in each region connected the Ken’s Kids representatives collaboratively with VESID, CBVH, OMRDD, SEPTA and targeted schools. Several students in each region are now participating in this program that originated in PA and has now expanded to NY and NJ.
• As a result of collaboration with the Western Region TCS, various parent groups and People Inc., the Young Adult Life Transitions Day Habilitation Program (YALT) was developed to support individuals with disabilities, between the ages of 18 and 23, who have severe developmental disabilities. The initial program, targeting 12 individuals and housed at Daemen College, was designed to connect individuals with appropriate agencies (e.g., VESID, CBVH, OMRDD) and to develop transition related skills such as self-advocacy, recreation, employment, and community mobility in an age-appropriate location. In addition to the Daemen College location, the program now serves 12 individuals at Erie Community College.
• The North Country TCS assisted in development of community-based work programs in all 5 BOCES included in their region, as well as the following district-sponsored programs: Westport, Schuylerville, Granville, Hartford, Hudson Falls, Glens Falls, Queensbury, Saratoga Springs, Lake George, Warrensburg, Ticonderoga, Moriah, Schroon Lake, Peru, Canton, and Ogdensburg. These programs have been supported through technical assistance and Job Coach Training offered through the TCS for school districts, BOCES, and adult service agencies. Six to eight training programs are offered each year. To obtain a Job Coach Certificate, participants then complete a two-day training workshop and demonstrate their skills in a real setting. There are approximately 200 job coaches trained each year who are employed by districts and BOCES ensuring that those working with youth with disabilities have the skills necessary to support individuals in the work experience programs and to help youth with transitions to employment. Requests for job coach training doubled in the last two years.
• The "You Hold the Keys to the Future" North Country training conference motivates students to take an active role in decisions made about their future. This conference's goal is to give students some of the tools they will need to actively participate in strength based transition planning and goal setting. It increases active participation in transition planning, IEP development and meetings and assists students with disabilities in finding and using their own "voice" to express their own "choice" about their future. This conference has been offered for the past 3 years in 4 BOCES regions, (5th BOCES region to be added 3/31/04) with over 1,100 students, 50 parents, and 70 district personnel attending. Follow-up surveys will be disseminated to be returned in June '04. This past year, the Self-Advocacy Synthesis Project, funded by the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, selected "You Hold the Keys to Your Success" as an exemplar program.
• The Southern Tier Transition Leadership Group is a collaboration between VESID of the Southern Tier and Cornell University’s Program on Employment and Disability. The intended outcome of the group is to increase the number and quality of VESID youth referrals from local education agencies from the six BOCES regions in the Southern Tier region of New York State. The group meets quarterly with representation from school districts, Sr. VESID Counselors, the VESID Director of Counseling, the District Office Manager, CBVH, the VESID QA Regional Associates, and the TCS (Cornell University). Quarterly meetings discuss progress toward data targets, and develop materials and strategies to support improved outcomes. Between meetings, group members engage BOCES and school district partners in locally planned activities, extending the groups efforts through collaboration and individual effort.

Transqual, Tool for Self-Assessment and Strategic Planning

• Shifting to individualized technical assistance to reinforce the quality of transition planning and services within schools required new tools to be developed. Based on Dr. Kohler's Taxonomy of Transition, NYS developed the Transition Quality Indicators self-assessment checklist (TQI). TCSs use the TQI to assess the degree to which a school district's infrastructure delivers 75 types of effective practices distributed across five major categories, including District Structure, Interdisciplinary and Interagency Collaboration, Parent Involvement, Student Involvement and Student Development. School districts use the TQI to identify needs for change, and the TCS assists with development of strategic plans for improvement, including prioritizing which improvement to address first. The TCS then uses mini-grant funds to assist districts to implement changes that have cost implications. TCSs may use the instrument separately with a school or by facilitating group meetings, called "Transition Workdays," at which several school teams, including families, and community agencies work together to assess needs and identify changes. Up until 2002, TQIs were done in paper form in such large numbers that it was difficult to summarize regional results.
• In 2002-03, the TQI on-line system was finalized to allow all schools to access and record their results in the confidential database, called "Transqual." Transqual contains a framework to help districts assess needs, prioritize desirable changes and develop strategic plans to implement them, record their results and work on additional items over time. All TCSs can access aggregated regional results to help identify common themes for which region-wide training or resources may need to be developed. To promote district willingness to trust the computer system, the process assures that individual data is confidential to the schools and TCSs and will not be used in compliance reviews of particular districts. During 2003-04, there are currently 351 registered users of the database, 249 TQIs are completed and 43 strategic plans are in progress. Current priorities at the top of the statewide aggregated list include family and student training, development of district policies and procedures regarding transition and expansion of career development opportunities.
• One example of using the TQI is in the Hudson Valley, with a medium size suburban district. At the beginning, the TCS helped set up community based employment for their "Life Skills" students and over the years, presented to the Special Education PTA and worked with middle school staff on conducting strength based assessment. Many changes occurred in Special Education Directors and the district focus shifted to learning standards implementation, dropping the employment program and all internships provided to students placed in general education. Though the TCS remained in contact with mid-level administrators or enthusiastic teachers, systems change was not happening. Recently, administrators joined their staff in a Transition Workday where they completed the TQI. Besides discovering that they had a lot of quiet strengths, the district recognized transition as a major area of planned growth. A team was pulled together including parents, middle school staff and, using the TQI, developed and began implementation of a systems change plan. They applied for Education Foundation grant funds and through a Co-Ser contract purchased transition technical assistance from the BOCES to facilitate their changes.

Career Link Projects (CLP): School to Vocational Rehabilitation

• Leadership teams comprised of VESID Managers of Quality Assurance and Vocational Rehabilitation and BOCES or New York City Department of Education developed three-year incentive grant projects in 5 upstate locations and 4 in New York City whose goal was to increase special education vocational rehabilitation collaboration. Funding was provided to partnering schools to assist them with in-school career preparation under the transition components of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and connecting appropriate students to vocational rehabilitation services. The goal was to increase vocational rehabilitation employment outcomes for youth with disabilities. Data indicate that referrals from these projects were able to proceed through the eligibility determination process two weeks more quickly and through the plan development process a month faster. CLP referrals were more successful in staying with vocational rehabilitation services to a successful conclusion. The number of students involved in the Utica CLP project increased from 18 in the first year to 92 in the second year of the project. (2002-03) A survey of students engaged in the project indicates several benefits to in-school youth:

• 90 percent of students are active in the development of their IEP and the transition components of the IEP
• 84 percent participated in vocational exploration and community based work experiences
• 58 percent discussed post school options with their guidance counselors
• 40 percent reported VESID involvement in the transition process
• Compared with their peers, CLP students had better school attendance (94 percent vs. 88 percent) and more frequently passed their courses (99 percent vs. 95 percent)
• From year one (2002) to year two (2003), 9 percent more CLP students passed their courses (90 percent vs. 99 percent) with attendance up 6 percent (88 percent vs. 94 percent).

Training and Information Dissemination

In addition to ongoing TCS and SETRC training activities, the following additional training/dissemination activities occurred:

• The April 2002 PBS Broadcast on “Effective Models of Transition Planning” Tools for Schools was followed by a printed guide and video training program disseminated in fall 2002 to 1,500 consumers, including SETRC, TCS and other stakeholder groups. The guide was published on the transition web page http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/transition.
• In October 2002, 7 regional training sessions provided information to 185 vocational rehabilitation counselors and staff regarding how special education works and effective vocational rehabilitation practices in serving youth.

Challenges 2002-03

• The demand for technical assistance and support in all geographic locations remains high due to the aging educational workforce and retirements of school staff with the knowledge and expertise to implement transition. More complex issues in transition such as developing specialized models for students placed out of district or in institutional care are placed on the back burner in favor of maintaining basic awareness.
• New York City’s fiscal crisis is exemplary of the experiences of other school districts statewide. The transition staffing assigned exclusively to transition coordination and linkages in all boroughs and all buildings was changed significantly as the entire city system was restructured, and staff reassigned. While individual City Department of Education and VESID staff attempted to provide support and information, there was a significant breakdown in communication to and from the city regarding transition issues and student referrals and follow-ups.
• Similarly, with New York State’s fiscal crisis and a freeze on hiring with different state agencies at the regional and State level, there is a similar loss of expertise. Resource limitations impede service delivery by the major systems. In vocational rehabilitation, for example, losses of staff have limited the ability to engage the vocational rehabilitation system to an optimal degree in providing consultation to help schools with in-school youth work experience needs.
• Gaps between students with and without disabilities are closing but inequities remain (see Trend data section).

4. Projected Targets
   (for next reporting period July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004):

• Roll out the CTE Skills Achievement Profile statewide via web page and technical assistance and training by the TCSs at the regional and local level.
• Design and apply for Social Security Administration grant funding for demonstration projects geared to assist in-school youth with severe disabilities to more effectively use Social Security incentives and improve their transition outcomes.
• Design and field test a process for collecting, reporting and using data regarding the IEP planning process for students at the beginning of the transition planning process at age 14, to stimulate more effective, earlier transition planning activities.
• Design and develop a method for identifying, collecting and disseminating information regarding effective transition practices, to promote wider sharing of effective practice information.
• Research and develop field guidance to improve school district assessment of student transition needs and relate assessment information to IEP transition planning and services.
• Longitudinal Post-School Indicators Research and other data will continue to provide planning information to federal, state and local groups regarding transition.
• Develop and pilot a Special Education Quality Assurance Focused Review on Transition and School Exits.
• Re-establish a Transition Coordination Site in New York City.

5. Future Activities
6. Projected Timelines and Resources
   (for next reporting period July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004 and on going):

• Provide incentives to Institutions for Higher Education for including transition planning and services in preservice education programs. Model programs will be developed during 2004-05.
• Develop model programs to enhance transition planning with students classified with emotional disabilities, during 2004-05.
• Document and publish web-based tools to assist new school personnel and families with understanding how to implement effective transition practices, during 2004-05.
• Increase the consistency of school district implementation of planning and services by designing and disseminating a rubric to assess student transition needs according to milestones that are skill based and build student capacity for transitions to employment, postsecondary education and community living.

Continuous Improvement Plan Benchmarks for Transition include the following targets.

• 90 percent of SWD will transition to postsecondary education, employment (or day program alternatives) by 2006.
• 100 percent of SWD will rate their transition services as “helped a lot/a little” (as opposed to not receiving transition services or not finding them helpful at all) by 2006.
• Schools will report annually on the post-school plans of all exiting special education students, with annual reductions through 2005, when the number of unknown plans will be less than 5 percent.
• 100 percent of school districts with exiting students will be represented in the VR database by 2006.
• There will be increases in positive outcomes for youth served in vocational rehabilitation, actively engaged in the vocational rehabilitation systems and decreases in unsuccessful closures.

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