Improving Transition Outcomes Project (ITOP) Multi-Agency Unified State Plan (State Plan)

• Support local and statewide training opportunities on youth transition topics.
• Utilize existing training opportunities through in-services, conferences, and classes.
• Support dissemination of curriculum that includes postsecondary education and training.
• Encourage teacher credentialing systems and University systems to ensure that systemic training is provided.
• Support opportunities and incentives to school personnel to complete training that includes continuing education units.

• Identify and inform school reform agents on the subject matter related to youth with disabilities.
• Encourage equitable access to a full range of academic and non-academic courses and programs of study for youth with disabilities.
• Expand opportunities to engage youth with disabilities in workplace experiences that support academic learning.
• Promote multiple post-secondary experiences.
• Encourage the concept that individual transition plans drive instruction and academic support for each student with a disability

• Encourage the implementation of academic asset-based programs for special education students in the schools.
• Support activities that increase parent, family and advocate participation in the transition process with youth.
• Support the development of adult systems that support youth in the transition process including service organizations, and the community as a whole.
• Support trainings and workshops for youth, parents/families, and community organizations that help youth with disabilities identify and build on the developmental assets to facilitate positive transitions to adult life
• Integrate developmental assets into community mapping endeavors.

• Survey the schools and the community to determine existing education and trainings for youth about their disabilities.
• Develop common understanding of disabilities, the value of self-advocacy and communication skills required to express needs for accommodations among all partners
• Identify and adapt effective sensitivity and self-advocacy curriculum for youth with disabilities for use by schools and community organizations.
• Promote the expansion of sensitivity and self-advocacy training for youth with disabilities in and with schools and service organizations.
• Educate employers on accommodation issues for youth with disabilities and assist youth in defining and identifying their needs to employers.

• Support the provision of a transition curriculum that includes career awareness, work readiness and post-secondary career and educational planning.
• Expand the array of work-based learning experiences available for youth with disabilities including supported employment, internships, workplace mentors and private sector opportunities, with an emphasis on linking work experiences to career goals.
• Support opportunities for youth with disabilities to learn about specific careers and occupations

• Review existing skill certification programs (i.e. SCANS and Work Skills Competencies) and identify best practices for implementation by schools and community organizations.
• Promote expansion of vocational and work skills certification programs in school and community organizations that are recognized by employers.
• Develop alternative means of verifying workplace competencies for youth with disabilities that are unable to meet high school graduation requirements.

• Support ongoing activities that increase awareness for youth and parents/advocates of academic and career requirements, including disability information, academic conference and transition planning.
• Encourage documentation in the Individual Education/Transition plans of academic support needed to complete high school and postsecondary options.
• Support education and training for youth on their disabilities, the transition process and self-advocacy to achieve post-secondary goals

• Support academic programs to supplement school curriculum and support youth with a disability in meeting high school graduation/completion requirements.
• Support connections and activities with post secondary education and career-technical programs that increase post high school options for youth with a disability.

• Review existing life skills curriculum that prepare youth with disabilities for independent living and identify best practice models.
• Promote and expand life skills curriculum being provided to youth with disabilities in the schools and through community organizations.

• Convene a meeting of the schools and community organizations to develop resource mapping in local areas.
• Support the development of maps for existing community resources that can be effectively utilized by youth, parents/advocates and community providers.
• Provide training for all partners in assessing transition options and how to use technology for web-based access to resources.

• Identify and include agencies and institutions with IEPs to facilitate the transition from school to adult life for youth with disabilities.
• Support agreements between schools, agencies and institutions to ensure effective linkage with post-school services.
• Encourage protocols for coordination between the school s and agencies providing post school services

The three domains:

1. Personal Social Development
2. Educational Achievement and Lifelong Learning and
3. Career Management

Content is further described by eleven goals. The goals define broad areas of career development competency.

• Use the 'Guideposts for Success" and the following assessment activities:
• Interests and abilities
• Preferences of environment, hours, location, activity, etc.
• Accommodations and supports
• Career opportunities
• Potential social relationships
• Earnings and benefits
• Transportation
• Long range plans
• Provide career awareness, exploration and preparatory activities in school and community-based settings

• Support collaborative efforts between the schools, community organizations and employers to provide youth with disabilities access to work based learning experiences.
• Encourage training for intermediary organizations on inclusion of special needs youth, person centered planning, and integrating work skills with work based learning experiences.
• Support youth with a wide range of work experience opportunities including employer site visits, job shadows, community service, work skills training, paid internships and competitive employment.
• Promote school policies and guidelines that connect work experiences to vocational studies and that support youth with disabilities in receiving school credit.
• Support youth with opportunities to gain work experience in areas that match their career and occupational interests.

• Support the engagement of employers in intermediary efforts to develop recognized work skills standards (i.e. SCANS, Work Keys) that support youth in transitioning from work based learning to competitive employment in their communities.
• Encourage employers to provide work based learning components as part of work experiences including career exposure, work skills training, internships, employment and career development
• Inform employers on incentives, accommodation needs, and customized employment strategies, related to special needs youth.
• Support training and support for employers to serve as workplace and industry mentors for youth.
• Educate employers to develop customized employment strategies such as job coaching, personal agents job carving, supported work, micro-enterprise.

Connect youth with disabilities with career development and comprehensive services prior to exiting school; service will follow them in achieving post school goals and independent living.

• Identify and include community organizations and resources in the Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings that address secondary transition and plans with youth and families prior to exiting high school.
• Promote programs that provide youth with needed services after exiting high school including career development, post secondary education, employment and case management support.
• Develop protocols to coordinate follow up by secondary schools and community organizations to evaluate the progress of youth in achieving post high school goals

• Encourage the development of an intermediary organization to coordinate the provision of career development and comprehensive services for out of school youth.
• Utilize resource map (Objective 1) to identify all existing post-school services available for youth including career development, case management, employment, health services, and benefits planning.
• Support the development of mechanisms for coordination and tracking of services for youth with disabilities including youth involved in multiple systems of care (i.e. mental health, foster care, county probation, and juvenile justice).
• Support community needs assessment and strategic planning to identify and prioritize service gaps and barriers to participation in services by youth.
• Develop an action plan and strategies for addressing service gaps and identifying youth who are not receiving needed help.

Promote access to the services and resources needed to achieve career goals and independent living for all out of school youth.

• Provide training and support for adult service providers on inclusion and customized services to support access for youth with disabilities.
• Develop service systems that support each youth needing career development and case management services having access to them to provide continuity of care from high school.  Engage employers and the business community in providing out-of school youth with access to occupational training and employment.
• Advocate for funding as intermediary organizations and individual service organizations to provide increased career development and comprehensive services for out-of-school youth.

• Support a resource directory of career development and comprehensive services for out of school youth.
• Develop effective outreach strategies to identify out-of-school youth with a disability and engage them in career development and needed services.
• Support training and education for out-of-school youth on existing resources, benefits planning, how to request reasonable accommodations, community orientation and mobility services, personal services and assistive technologies.
• Connect out-of-school youth who are not receiving services with a primary case management resource that can assist them in meeting their needs.

• Identify youth serving agencies and organizations, government organizations, and a base of the community, including businesses, foundations and legislators.
• Hold a summit meeting to begin discussion on the need for blending and sustainability of available resources and include advice expertise on all available funding sources currently in place.
• Highlight agencies that have effectively blended funding sources and have sustainability plans in place.
• Identify need for additional flexibility and/or waivers from funding sources and communicate with them.

• Support training for school personnel, youth, and parents/advocates in person center planning.
• Identify appropriate assessment tools that identify individual skills, interests and abilities through assessment tools.
• Identify appropriate resources using the resource map.
• Consider options/alternatives using a community based adult team, as needed.
• Support the development of a transition plan that addresses career development annually in IEP starting at age 14 or younger.

• Identify agencies and groups serving young children and parent/advocates.
• Identify, train and support at least one parent/advocate per child on youth development and support issues.
• Conduct workshops and trainings on the importance of early identification, recognizable signs for concern, and diagnostic resources.

• Support the inclusion of family members in case conferences and developing plans for transitioning youth with disabilities.
• Support providing family members and primary care adults with the resources needed to support youth in the transition process including housing, survival needs, social, and emotional support.

Youth with disabilities have a personal employment and training transition plan, which guides all other plans.

• For youth with disabilities served by multiple systems, improve coordination of the transition plan with education, career, and personal development plans.
• Youth with disabilities actively participate in the creation of a personal transition
• Train school personnel, agencies serving youth/adults with disabilities, parents/advocates and other service providers who are part of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) team on how to use Person Centered Planning
• Train and support youth with disabilities in understanding their role in the IEP.
• Develop the IEP transition plan at age 14 or younger.

• Encourage the engagement of teachers, social workers, probation officers, employers, service providers and other adults in developing and implementing the IEP transition plans for youth with disabilities and provide ongoing support to youth in transition.
• Support mentoring activities to encourage stable relationships with strong adult role models.

• Encourage programs that provide youth with training that includes communication skills, self-advocacy and conflict resolution.
• Support programs that provide youth training and opportunities that promote positive self-esteem and social skills development.
• Support training and activities for youth and their support networks that promote an asset-based approach to foster a sense of positive personal identity
• Support the provision of community service opportunities for youth with disabilities to promote community responsibility and involvement.

• Support programs that provide youth with disabilities access to life skills training to prepare them for independent living including financial literacy, consumer skills, relationships, health and daily living, and employment.
• Provide youth with disabilities training and access to specialized needs including benefits planning, assistive technologies, accommodations and personal services

• Identify a broad range of agencies and groups serving youth and parent/advocate support groups to include:
• Agencies that serve out of school youth, i.e. childcare, transportation, housing, independent living skills, human/social service, and health, etc
• Convene a meeting to develop a local resource map and input this information into a user-friendly database, tested by those who will utilize it (youth and parents/advocates and professionals).
• Determine how the resource map will be current and kept up to date.
• Identify ways that youth with a disability can be involved, i.e. leadership roles or work experience.
• Identify gaps in services and resources for youth with a disability and develop collaborative solutions.
• Create a variety of other means to provide easily accessible information for youth with disabilities and their parents/advocates and widely disseminate them, i.e. newspaper articles, website, workshops, brochures, etc.

From pre-school throughout post-secondary, educational experiences should provide opportunities to learn and practice leadership skills, including self-advocacy and self-determination.

Review currently used leadership skill, self-advocacy and self-determination curriculum to include:

• Personal, Social, and Educational development.
• Provide access to training on these topics for school personnel, agencies serving youth and adults with disabilities and parents/advocates, to ensure leadership, self determination, and self-advocacy are integrated into the school and to help build a sense of equal opportunity learning communities.
• Inform parents/advocates of training opportunities and enlist their support to serve youth with disabilities.
• Encourage colleges and universities preparing students to work in education (pre-school through high school) to include, specific and  appropriate courses and content
• Identify new/alternative curriculum that includes education techniques for youth with disabilities.

Increased opportunities to participate in variety of equal leadership roles (including those that make decisions, drive policies and shape the system serving them) through coordinated efforts.

• Support opportunities for youth to have leadership opportunities and document leadership, self-advocacy and self-determination activities within the youth’s IEP.
• Request feedback from youth to determine additional training and support needs.
• Eliminate barriers to participation, i.e. transportation, accommodations
• Encourage participating youth with a disability to identify and mentor other youth to learn and participate in leadership activities.

Support community planning meetings that bring community leaders and intermediary partners together to form networks that support youth with disabilities.

• Convene a community meeting with intermediaries to discuss the current status and the potential for future collaboration.
• Develop an initial action plan for implementing an intermediary network.
• Conduct an initial assessment of intermediary efforts, existing services, and systems of care involved in transition for youth with disabilities.
• Identify a list of intermediaries needed for successful collaboration on transition issues for youth with disabilities.

• The Communities of Learning is a best practice model for intermediaries sharing information and working together
• The Intermediary Guidebook is a best practice model for developing intermediary networks that manage community connections with partners of youth with disabilities

• Encourage the convening of core partners to establish an intermediary network or council to support transition services for youth with disabilities
• Encourage representation from all core constituencies.
• Support steps to form the Intermediary that include:
• Identify staff support needed for the intermediary network and define intermediary partner commitments and functions with memorandums of understanding
• Develop a common vision and mission statement for the intermediary network to guide the activities on behalf of youth with disabilities.
• Create an initial action plan with goals and strategies for conducting intermediary network activities.
• Develop a timeline and persons responsible for completing an initial action plan.

Support opportunities for intermediary partners to educate each other and improve transition for youth

• Convene conferences focused on transition issues that bring intermediary partners together to share information and resources, discuss issues and develop recommendations to improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities.
• Conduct workshops to provide education and cross training for intermediaries on specific topics related to transition for youth with disabilities.
• Provide periodic community forums to update intermediaries and partners on progress in improving transition services and outcomes for youth.

Support Intermediary networks and community organizations that implement community needs assessment inclusive of all partners to determine existing best practices and service needs.

• Develop format and content of needs assessment with intermediary partners.
• Conduct youth focus groups and needs assessment surveys.
• Conduct parent focus groups and needs assessment surveys.
• Conduct youth service provider focus groups and needs assessment surveys

• Develop the format and content of agency surveys to identify information needed for resource map.
• Distribute surveys to all agencies working with transition age youth with disabilities.
• Compile agency survey information to include program information, special needs youth populations served, and services provided.
• Develop a resource map that includes programs and services available, location of services, and populations served.

• Community needs assessment results are summarized with best practices identified and service needs prioritized.
• Community resource mapping results are summarized with complete existing program information and service gaps identified.
• Review service needs and gaps and prioritize goals and outcomes for strategic plan.
• Develop a strategic plan that includes intermediary network goals, strategies and timelines for achieving outcomes.

• Support the coordination of services between systems working with youth a disability to include the:
  • Juvenile justice system
  • Foster care system,
  • Health and Mental health system,
  • Homeless and pregnant/parenting youth
  • Migrant Youth
  • Native American & Indian Youth
• Support inter-agency agreements that support collaboration in providing services to youth involved with multiple service systems and agencies.
• Educate adult service system about youth and coordinate services between the youth and adult service systems to ensure access for transitioning youth with disabilities from school to independent living
• Ensure coordination between public service systems, non-profit service systems and private sector businesses in providing transition services and support for youth with disabilities.
• Maintain communications between intermediary networks and organizations with workforce development and the business community to ensure access to opportunities for youth with disabilities.

• Support access to case management services that can follow them and support their transition goals for youth with disabilities exiting high school.
• Support case conferences and integrated case planning for youth with disabilities that includes service providers, parents and families, social workers, probation officers, employers, and others as needed.
• Support the inclusion of all primary support providers needed for the transition process including housing, survival needs, health care, and others

• Quality of service best practices are to be endorsed and adapted by intermediary networks including client centered and asset based approaches to providing services to youth with disabilities.
• Support quality standards for transition programs and services.
• Conduct quality assurance activities that support agencies and programs in maintaining quality standards for the intermediary networks and support service providers serving youth with disabilities.

Develop methods for identification of youth with disabilities involved in multiple systems of care and the sharing of information across service systems.

• Improve identification of youth involved in juvenile justice, foster care, mental health, homeless services, and pregnant/parenting youth by service systems and organizations serving youth with disabilities.
• Improve information sharing, data collection and tracking of youth with disabilities across service systems involved in probation and juvenile justice, foster care, mental health, homeless services, and pregnant and parenting services to coordinate provision of services and improve the quality of care.

• Review existing performance measures for transition outcomes utilized by funding sources, schools, service organizations and other entities.
• Develop standardized outcomes for measuring program and systems performance in supporting youth with disabilities in attaining successful transition to adulthood.
• Coordinate the reporting, data collection, and compilation of program and systems performance outcomes.
• Evaluate the impact of performance outcomes data on improving transition outcomes for all youth with disabilities.

• Intermediary networks monitor the accountability of systems including councils, task forces and advisory boards in achieving goals and outcomes impacting transition services.
• Conduct periodic evaluations of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, emerging needs and challenges to assess appropriateness of existing strategic plan.
• Conduct ongoing strategic planning activities with updates and revisions to the plan as needed.

• Support community outreach activities through community events and workshops to provide information on transition for youth with disabilities.
• Support youth to participate in community outreach efforts.

Examine existing policies and advocate for policy changes at the state and local level that improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities.

• Intermediary networks members participate on state and local advisory boards to provide input and advocacy on transition issues impacting youth with disabilities.
• State and local intermediary networks and advisory boards coordinate advocacy efforts on behalf of youth with disabilities.
• Intermediary networks and advisory boards develop policy statements and initiatives that support the needs of youth with disabilities.
• Intermediary network members conduct advocacy on policy issues impacting youth with disabilities.

• Review existing funding sources and develop new potential funding resources.
• Develop funding strategies and initiatives to support priorities identified in strategic plans to improve transition services.
• Advocate with community leaders and funding sources to fund initiatives to support transition proposals.

General employability (soft) skills that apply to all occupations and are included in California Career Technical Education Standards.

Individual Education plan as mandated by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for students enrolled in special education.

A process to develop plans for services that focus on the individual their personal vision of their future.

A service delivery approach that is based on the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets

Financial planning that helps individuals consider the impact of work on social security benefits.

Increase independence for individuals through the use of software and hardware and technology advances.

Individualized menu of services available for individuals with disabilities.