QUAD CITY/TRI-COUNTY
TRANSITION PLANNING COMMITTEE
- Project Title:
- Quad City/Tri-County Transition Planning Committee
- Contact Person:
- Nancy Dillard, Project Coordinator
- Mailing Address:
- Black Hawk Area Special Education District
4670 11th Street
East Moline, IL 61244
- Telephone #:
- 309-796-2500
- Fax #:
- 309-796-2911
- Project Purpose:
- The purpose of the Transition Planning Committee is to identify current transition services, programs, and funding sources within the local communities for youths with disabilities and their families, and to develop strategies that address unmet student needs.
- General Program Overview:
- The Quad City/Tri-County Transition Planning Committee sponsors and develops transition projects intended to educate and guide youths with disabilities through the transition process. Dissemination of products and active promotion of transition activities within the community helps develop a better understanding of the transition process. The committee ensures that community resources are available to the youth and their families. Community activities are designed to include students with disabilities and their family, the school staff, and various service agencies.
- Unique Program Components:
- The Quad City/Tri-County Transition Planning Committee has sponsored the following products and activities:
- The School to Work Transition Handbook (6th revision), is a resource that provides a concise and informative description of the Quad-City/Tri-County VoTech Region program options, related support services, parent involvement, postsecondary training and education access, and community agencies. This resource is available to high school students with disabilities and their families and to the community at large.
- The Agency Fair, is an event designed to inform and assist students and families with postsecondary and employment planning needs. In addition, participants attending the fair have the opportunity to meet service agency providers. Information booths are set up to address specific issues, such as postsecondary education, financial aid, job training programs, leisure and recreation programs, Social Security, housing, and transportation. Group and individual sessions provide information on various occupations.
- A student workbook has been developed to assist the student in collecting information on various career and postsecondary opportunities and service agency providers. Teachers receive a similar workbook including follow-up postsecondary activities. This workbook is designed to assist the teacher in classroom activities.
- Family Information Workshops provide family members the necessary information to assist and guide their child in making appropriate postsecondary choices and to enable them to access service agencies.
- Taxonomy Practices Identified:
- Student-Focused Planning
- Interagency Collaboration
- Interorganizational framework
- Organization-level planning
- Family Involvement
- Family involvement
- Family training
- Program Structure and Attributes
- Strategic planning
- Resource allocation
- Human resources
- Targeted Outcomes:
- Increased knowledge of career options
- Increased student and family knowledge of agency services
- Increased family involvement
- Established family network
- Increased community awareness of transition planning
- Increased interagency collaboration
- Evaluation Description:
- Summative:
- Agency Fair: student, family, school staff, and service agency personnel complete postquestionnaire.
- Agency Fair attendance: compilation of student, family, school staff, and service agency personnel.
- Family Information Workshops: family members complete a postquestionnaire.
- Data are compiled and used to prepare a report that is disseminated to the media, families, and service agencies.
- Evaluation Findings:
- Family Information Workshops attendance: 85%.
- Family Information Workshops: families determined the usefulness of information disseminated on a 1-to-5 rating scale, where 5 is the most useful. Four regional sites scored a combined family mean of 4.37.
- Agency Fair attendance: 70% attendance rate included student, family, school staff, and service agency providers.
- All students with disabilities and their families and service agencies received a copy of the School-to-Work Transition Handbook.
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