This pilot study suggests that occupational therapists may not be participating in transition services to their fullest potential. While the low response rate in this study precludes generalization, this information is important to guide further study as well as to shape efforts to increase occupational therapy's role in this important service area within school-based practice.
This article presents a model evaluation plan conducted by occupational therapists that may be used to contribute information to the transition planning process in secondary school students with disabilities. Occupational therapists are not fully participating in transition services within secondary schools. One of the major obstacles to full participation identified in a previous research study by the authors of this article was that few occupational therapists were aware of appropriate evaluation options available for secondary transition planning. The authors in this article review the evaluation needs for secondary transition services in general, describe occupational therapy's role in contributing to the Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and describe an evaluation method that gathers key information pertinent to the occupational therapy role. A case study is presented that illustrates how these assessment tools were applied to develop IEP goals in one student's transition plan.
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