University of Connecticut |
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Disability-Related Resources
Transition ResourcesCareerOneStop is a U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website that offers career resources and workforce information to job seekers, students, businesses, and workforce professionals to foster talent development in a global economy. College.gov is being built by the U.S. Department of Education in collaboration with students. This site is intended to be the go-to source for information and resources about planning, preparing and paying for postsecondary education (such as two- or four-year colleges and univesities and vocational or career schools).
COOL is your direct link to nearly 7,000 colleges and universities in the United States. If you are thinking about a large university, a small liberal arts college, a specialized college, a community college, a career or technical college or a trade school, you can find information on all of them here. The Data Tools function also allows you to search for public and private school information, as well as public library information.
The Connecticut Transition Task Force was formed in 1992 in conjunction with a five-year federal transition grant that was awarded to Connecticut. During this time, areas of model program development, interagency planning, training and technical assistance to families and professionals, and expanding opportunities in postsecondary education, generic employment, and training were addressed. Visit SERC's Transition Initiative page for an array of downloadable resources. Disability.gov is an award-winning federal web site that contains disability-related resources on programs, services, laws, and regulations to help people with disabilities lead full, independent lives. With just a few clicks, visitors can find critical information on a variety of topics including benefits, civil rights, community life, education, emergency preparedness, employment, housing, health, technology, and transportation. Visit their site for information on transition services for youth. DisabilityResources.org is a non-profit organization established to promote and improve awareness, availability and accessibility of information that can help people with disabilities live, learn, love, work, and play independently. The above link will take you to their Transition page. Visit their home page at www.disabilityresources.org
The mission of DCDT is to promote national and international efforts to improve the quality of and access to career/vocational and transition services, increase the participation of education in career development and transition goals and to influence policies afecting career development and transition services for persons with disabilities. Visit the section on Transition Resources for additional information.
Early College High Schools are small schools where students earn both a high school diploma and two years of college credit toward a bachelor's degree. They are places for learning, designed to help young people progress toward the education and experience they need to succeed in life and family-supporting careers.
Sponsored by the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Family Village is a web site for children and adults with disabilities, their families, and their friends and allies. Family Village brings together thousands of online resources in an organized, easy-to-use directory. The above link will take you directly to a page on transition. You can learn more about the Family Village by visiting their home page at www.familyvillage.wisc.edu
This site is intended to be a beginning point for research by parents, educators, state, and federal staff members, and other interested parties into a wide range of issues involving disabilities and disability law. There are thousands of resource links available on this site. The above link will take you directly to the section on transition. Hands & Voices is a non-profit, parent-driven national organization dedicated to supporting families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. From American Sign Language to cochlear implants, the organization represents people from all different approaches to, and experiences with, deafness or hearing loss. Visit their website for information on the Transition Process from High School to Postsecondary Education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students.
Visit Heath's website for a Guidance and Career Counselors' Toolkit: Advising High School Students with Disabilities on Postsecondary Options. This 192 page resource contains answers to counselors' most frequently asked questions about postsecondary opportunities for students with disabilities. Students and their families are encouarged to use the Toolkit to help guide their transition planning for college and career. InfiniTec, Inc., is a joint effort of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Chicago and United Cerebral Palsy Association, Inc., Washington, DC. The mission of InfiniTec is to advance independence and promote inclusive opportunities for children and adults with disabilities through technology. The above link will take you to their page on Transition Programs: School-to-School and School-to-Work. Visit their home page at www.infinitec.org for additional postsecondary education information. JustColleges.com is an interactive guide for individuals wishing to pursue their higher studies. They connect people to their ideal opportunities so they can achieve their educational and career goals. JustColleges.com improves the way people explore and apply to school; the way universities recruit and enroll students; and the way guidance counselors help students plan for their education and careers. The website includes a section on The Transition to College.
The NCLD works to ensure that the nation's 15 million children, adolescents, and adults with LD have every opportunity to succeed in school, work, and life. NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals, and individuals with LD, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities. Their website includes a section on transitioning to college and/or work.
The above link will take you to NCSET's page on Transition to Postsecondary Education and Community of Practice. The mission is to create a venue for participants to learn from each other about how to ensure that all youth with disabilities, including you with intellectual disabilities, have the opportunity to prepare for and participate in postsecondary education. You can visit their home page at www.ncset.org
This website was developed as a joint effort by the New England Literacy Resource Center and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to provide an online resource for Adult Basic Education providers who wish to implement an effective college transition program in their community. The project is aimed at GED graduates, adult diploma graduates, and adults who have been out of school for some time. The program of study is free and consists of instruction in pre-college reading, writing, and math skills as well as computer and internet skills. Students also learn study skills, receive educational and career counseling, and enroll in higher education. All programs work directly with colleges in their community to make the transition process as seamless as possible.
NSTTAC is a national technical assistance and dissemination center funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The purpose of NSTTAC is to assist states to build capacity to support and improve transition planning, services, and outcomes for youth with disabilities.
The mission of the Office for Civil rights is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights. Visit their website for a pamphlet titled, Students with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education: Know Your Rights and Responsibilities
On this site you will find articles, fact sheets, on-line training modules, contacts and related websites on serving students with intellectual disabilities in postsecondary settings who still receive special education services in public schools. The above link will take you to their page on Transition/Postsecondary Links. You can visit the OCO home page at www.education.umd.edu/oco/index.html
Founded in 1977, PACER Center was created by parents of children and youth with disabilities to help other parents and families facing similar challenges. PACER is staffed primarily by parents of children with disabilities and works in coalition with 18 disability organizations. PACER's mission is to expand opportunities and enhance the quality of life of children and young adults with disabilities and their families, based on the concept of parents helping parents. Visit their website for Technical Assistance on Transition and the Rehabilitation Act.
PRN was established as a non-profit agency to assist families of children with all types of disabilities. While based in Texas, their website is designed to provide timely information and to link the visitor with other resources in Texas and the nation. Visit their home page where you can choose from a varied list of resources. College Readiness for All: A Practitioner's Toolbox is a Toolbox for increasing postsecondary preparation and acccess for all students. The Toolbox contains sections of Tools, Lessons Learned, and Resources & Links, all designed to support the collaborative efforts of educators, counselors, outreach professionals, and policymakers. Post-ITT is an acronym for Postsecondary Innovative Transition Technology. Post-ITT uses the Internet to provide information and resources to high school students with disabilities considering college and to those who support them. Post-ITT is supported by the Washington Research Institute which is a private, non-profit agency founded in 1987. The Institute's founders and staff are professionals in the fields of education, psychology, social work, vocational erducation, and other related fields engaged in basic and applied research, model program development, evaluation and training.
PEPNet is the national collaboration of the four Regional Postsecondary Education Centers for Individuals who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The Centers are supported by contracts with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The goal of PEPNet is to assist postsecondary institutions across the nation to attract and effectively serve individuals who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Visit their website for transition information including Gates to Adventure!, a series of e-Learning transition modules created by PEPNet to assist high school students and first-year college students with their successful transition from high school to college. They also have a free, online transition curriculum called iTransition that is designed for deaf or hard of hearing students, ages 14 through adult. The Technical Assistance ALLICANCE for Parent Centers (aka, the ALLIANCE) is an innovative partnership of one national and six regional parent technical assistance centers, each funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). These seven projects comprise a unified technical assistance system for the purpose of developing, assisting, and coordinating the over 100 Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resoruce Centers. The national and regional parent technical assistance centers work to strengthen the connections to the larger OSEP Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network and fortify partnerships between Parent Centers and education systems at local, state, and national levels. For a list of Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resource Centers by state, visit their website at www.taalliance.org/ptidirectory/pclist.asp. The ThinkCollege.net site was developed by the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts - Boston, in collaboration with the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii, and the Federation for Children with Special Needs. The site is divided into sections for students, family members, and professionals and features a searchable database, discussion board, listserv, and a resources section. Located at the University of Kansas, Department of Special Education, the Transition Coalition maximizes professional development focusing on secondary school reform and transition at the national, state, and local levels. They provide free online training for professionals and others involved in transition planning. The modules are developed using up-to-date research in transition, effective practices in professional development, and are tested by practitioners across the country.
Virginia College Quest is a new website offering information, resources, and activities to help prepare middle and high school students with disabilities for transition to college. Visit their website for information under categories such as, Charting Your Course ~ What is Transition Planning?
While this is a link to UConn's Center for Students with Disabilities, there is transition information there that could be usefull to all students and their families. Transition Information for Students, Transition Information for Parents and Family Members, and Transition Information for Secondary Personnel.
This site was created to provide a "one-stop shop" for resources related to IDEA and its implementing regulations, released on August 3, 2006. It is a "living" website and will change and grow as resources and information become available. When fully implemented, the site will provide searchable versions of IDEA and the regulations, access to cross-referenced content from other laws (e.g., the No Child Left Behind Act, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, etc.), video clips on selected topics, topic briefs on selected regulations, links to OSEP's Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network and a Q&A Corner where you can submit questions, and a variety of other information sources. Parents, educators, advocates, and attorneys go to Wrightslaw for accurate, reliable information about special education law, education law, and advocacy for children with disabilities. Wrightslaw has thousands of articles, cases, and free resources about dozens of topics. The above link will take you directly to their page on Transition. You can visit their home page at www.wrightslaw.com When you look at the definitions in Section 1401, you'll see that several new definitions were added to IDEA 2004. These new definitions include core academic subjects, highly qualified teacher, homeless children, Limited English roficient, universal design and ward of the state. The above link will take you directly to their page on IDEA 2004: Transition Services for Education, Work, and Independent Living. Youthhood.org is where childhood meets adulthood. The Youthhood Curriculum Guide is a dynamic, curriculum-based tool that can help young adults plan for life after high school. Although the site addresses youth directly, it is intended to be used as a curriculum within a classroom, community program, or in any setting where adults are working with youth to set goals and plan for the future. The Youthhood includes informational content, interactive activities, and a wealth of other opportunities for youth to connect what's important to them to their learning experiences.
www.listen-up.org/rights/tchklst.pdf
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