Transition Service Integration Project
San Francisco, California
Contact
Nick Certo
Project Co-Director
San Francisco State University
HHS 328
San Francisco, California 94132-4201
Phone: 415-338-6225
Fax: 415-338-0566
E-mail: ncerto@sfsu.edu
Mission
The mission of the Transition Service Integration Expansion Project is to expand the availability of integrated career, community living, recreation and postsecondary education options for individuals with the most severe disabilities. It is the philosophy of this project to implement a project that creates a fundamental change in the organization, delivery, and integration of transition services for individuals with severe disabilities.
The project focuses on the development of an outreach expansion that partners school districts with new agencies and programs that provide transition and ongoing support to individuals with severe disabilities.
Organization
Organization Type: University, four-year college, university affiliated program (UAP), Education Agency: Local , Rehabilitation Agency: State, Other: Not-for-profit corporation
Geographical Area: Metropolitan area
Primary Setting: Community-based training site, Community college (two-year college), Competitive employment worksite, Supported employment worksite
Funding: External funding source: Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Other: San Francisco Unified School District, California Department of Developmental Services, California Department of Rehabilitation
Consumers
Target Population: Secondary education students with disabilities
Disability Areas: Mental retardation (moderate, severe), Orthopedic impairment, Multi-disabled, Epilepsy
NTA Framework Categories
Description
This project has developed and implemented the Transition Service Integration Model (Pumpian & Certo, 1996) in approximately a dozen communities in California, which has resulted in a seamless transition from school to integrated direct-hire employment, postsecondary education, and inclusive access to a wide range of preferred community activities and settings for students with severe disabilities during their last year in public school (i.e., typically students who are 21 years old). This model utilizes a one-stop workforce investment strategy, that unifies the three primary systems responsible, through enabling legislation, for this transition: the public school system, the rehabilitation system and the developmental disabilities system. It results in students exiting school with a stable job and a scheduled routine for accessing non-work activities in natural community settings when they are not working, and it ensures the continued support needed to maintain these activities after graduation.
This unification is accomplished in two stages. The first stage occurs prior to exit from school; the second stage is implemented after exit. First, during a student's last year in public school, the school system enters into a formal service arrangement with a private non-profit agency that agrees to work with pending graduates before and after graduation. This agency is vendorized as a provider by both the rehabilitation and developmental disability systems, and is prepared to provide the services and supports needed to totally immerse these students in work and non-work activities prior to graduation. Given the fact that these students are too old to attend a public high school, and do not need to be enrolled full-time in community college or other postsecondary classes, this total community immersion approach eliminates the need to assign these students to a fixed classroom. As a result, all of their instruction takes place in natural community settings where the skills being acquired are functional.
The participating school system typically shares the responsibility for developing preferred work and non-work activities for their pending graduates with the non-profit agency. In the majority of demonstration sites, the school district dedicates a teacher to the students, but subcontracts funds to the non-profit agency to provide the equivalent of instructional aides. As a result, instruction and support are provided for a student's entire last year under school responsibility by both the teacher and the non-profit agency staff prior to graduations. This establishes a formal link for students and their family with the non-profit agency, and gives them a full academic year to evaluate the appropriateness of the agency and its services prior to exit. If the pending graduate and his/her family are not satisfied with this approach to adult life, they are free to choose any other provider funded by either the rehabilitation or developmental disability system after they exit public school (or they can request a change of school placement prior to graduation). In addition, entry into the model during a student's last year in school is voluntary at the discretion of the student and his/her family.
In addition, the teacher typically shares office space at the non-profit agency so that all services and scheduling are planned jointly by the teacher, subcontracted agency support staff, and the agency's director. As a result, the non-profit agency becomes intimately familiar with each student's needs and skills and has the opportunity to gain insights from the teacher. This close collaboration for an entire school year enables the non-profit agency to be completely prepared to maintain and expand support for these students after graduation.
During the students' last year in school, representatives from the public school system, rehabilitation system, and developmental disabilities system meet on a regular basis to discuss student progress in both work and non-work areas and to resolve policy or service issues. These meetings include both system representatives with administrative decision-making authority and direct service staff. This meeting process is used as the formal point of entry for requesting authorization for the continuation of services by the same non-profit agency from the rehabilitation and developmental disabilities systems following graduation. As such, the non-profit agency functions as a sole source for referral for these pending graduates, predicated upon the informed choice of the students.
A nuance in the provision of services for adults with severe disabilities that has been developed through this model involves securing authorization from the rehabilitation system and developmental disabilities system to fund support concurrently for the same individual. Prior to the implementation of this model, if the rehabilitation system was providing service for an individual, the developmental disability system would not provide services until support from the rehabilitation system was terminated. Likewise, the opposite prevailed if a graduate first accessed services upon graduation from the developmental disabilities system. As a result, a student was faced with an untenable dilemma at the point of transition from public school: seek a rehabilitation-funded supported employment program and secure employment assistance, but have no support for non-work needs; or, seek a developmental disability-funded provider and have support for non-work needs, yet postpone employment. Such categorical fragmentation of an individual's needs for service is counter-productive, counter-intuitive, and totally unnecessary.
Through our model implementation efforts we have been successful in convincing the rehabilitation system and developmental disability system to pay simultaneously for services for the same individual without falling victim to perceived problems of apparent "double-payment." This has been accomplished by splitting the funding responsibility within the mandated parameters of each system. As such, the rehabilitation system authorizes and provides all support needed for employment, while the developmental disabilities system authorizes and provides support for all non-work activities. This dual-system funding maintains the holistic services that the public school system provided prior to graduation and eliminates the need to access multiple agencies following graduation to continue to meet all of an individual's support needs.
The Transition Service Delivery Model has been piloted successfully by the applicants in metropolitan San Francisco, San Diego, and seven other selected communities in California. The 1999-2000 academic year (AY 99-00) constituted the third year this model was implemented in communities in California.
Evidence of Success
Products
Focusing on the point of transition • Certo, N.J., Pumpian, I., Fisher, D., Storey, K., & Smalley, K. • Education and Treatment of Children, 20 (1), 68-84 • (1997)
References
Blackorby, J., & Wagner, M. (1996). Longitudinal post school outcomes of youth with disabilities: Findings from the national longitudinal transition study. Exceptional Children, 62, 399-413.
Pumpian, I., & Certo, N.J. (1996-99). Focusing on the point of transition: A service integration model. Funded by U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Postsecondary Model Demonstration Program, Washington, DC.
Pumpian, I., Certo, N.J., & Sax, C. (1999). Progress Report, Year 02, AY 97-98: Focusing on the point of transition: A service integration model. Funded by U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Postsecondary Model Demonstration Program, Washington, DC.
Updated 11/3/00