6/23 - Intro to Seamless Transition

Intro to Seamless Transition 

June 23, 2022

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

*Registration is Closed* 

Registration Fees:

Member: $75    Non-Member: $125

Location: Zoom Meeting Webinar

There is a job for everyone who wants one, regardless of disability, need for support, or community economic vitality. The culmination of public education for all youth with disabilities should be productive and meaningful careers — not just for some youth, or most youth, but all youth. Fortunately, by combining good transition practice with effective collaboration, the odds of a lifetime of employment and satisfying careers are increased significantly. An effective way to do this is by ensuring students with disabilities experience a seamless transition from school to life after school.
 

What is seamless transition?
Seamless transition occurs when the first day after school exit looks the same for youth with disabilities as their last day of school. That is, they exit school directly to integrated employment and/or post-secondary education, with supports in place. Thus, the movement from school to employment, postsecondary education, and adult life is “seamless” because there is no interruption of service and support after leaving high school.

The “gold standard” of transition to employment becomes youth exiting school already employed in an integrated job with prospects to remain employed in that job until they decide to move to another. For this to happen, there has to be effective, efficient collaboration among all agencies involved. After learning best practices in interagency collaboration, providers will apply these principles to current collaborations that are in process. Other key components covered include:

• Understanding key issues of serving students with significant disabilities, including the restrictions placed on schools when supporting youth in the workplace;
• Relationship between service providers and the discovery process;
• How to get yourself invited to the table;
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities of cross-agency partners;
• Translating the customized employment process for use in the schools;
• Engaging families through the family interview thus creating buy-in and informing the discovery process;
• Engaging employers through the employer informational interview process;

Facilitator: Dr. Ann Deschamps, E.d.D. is Vice President of TCI and Director of the Mid-Atlantic ADA Center. TCI has operated the Mid-Atlantic ADA Center since 1996. The Center is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) of the Administration for Community Living (ACL) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to provide training, technical assistance, and education materials to individuals and entities with rights and responsibilities under the ADA. Dr. Deschamps is responsible for overseeing all activities of the Center including supervising staff, conducting and coordinating research, as well as implementation and coordination of the Center’s ADA Trainer Leadership Network (ADA-TLN). Dr. Deschamps also provides training and technical assistance focusing on meaningful work and community inclusion to school systems, vocational rehabilitation professionals, and service providers, and is involved in other TCI projects focusing on school to work transition, promoting youth leadership, and teaching self-advocacy skills. She has extensive experience in local, state and national transition initiatives including implementation of the Maryland Seamless Transition Collaborative where she worked closely with Maryland counties to apply seamless transition to their existing transition system.