Numerous curricula and programs have been developed to foster the self-determination of youth with disabilities. Virtually all are rooted in mainstream U.S. values, leading to questions of their relevance and efficacy for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) youth who hold different values. To help fill a research gap on cultural influences on self-determination, a focus group methodology was used to explore the perceptions of a diverse range of youth with emotional and/or behavioral disorders, parents, and teachers, totaling 122 participants in Hawaii and Washington, DC. Transcript analysis identified a variety of cultural themes. However, individual variability within ethnic groups underlines the need to adhere to the principle of individualization when promoting self-determination.

PARENT TRAINING was developed and implemented to provide culturally diverse parents with basic knowledge about the school-to-community transition. Prior to their attendance at an individualized transition planning conference, parents of high school youth with disabilities were provided with training. In order to determine the effects of the preconference training on conference participation, conference proceedings were audiotaped and analyzed. The participation of parents who received training was compared to the participation of parents who received no preconference training. Parents were interviewed to determine their opinions about and satisfaction with the conference.

We conducted a survey to examine the (a) perceived importance of 30 transition-related teacher competencies as rated by regular educators and (b) nature of their preparation for tranition programming for students with disabilities. A total of 39 ompleted surveys (72%) were returned from regular educators in ennsylvania. We compared these results with similar data collected from another group of special educators to ascertain the degree of correspondence in transition competency ratings and training between regular and special educators. Results indicated that while the majority of educators had received some inservice training on transition, there were a number of competency areas in which the majority of regular educators received no training. Regular and special educators differentially rated the importance of six teacher competency areas. We discuss the meaning of these results for practice and service delivery.For over a decade transition services have provided a focus for federal, state, and local legislative and educational activities. Transition services play a major role in enabling youth with disabilities to move smoothly from secondary education settings into independent, productive, and personally satisfying postschool environments and activities (Rusch, DeStefano, Chadsey-Rusch, Phelps, & Szymanski, 1992;Wehman, 1996). Understandably, the activities surrounding transition include a growing emphasis on the instructional foci and the service delivery mechanisms of programs for students with disabilities. Because a key feature of transition service delivery is interdisciplinary cooperation and collaboration, professional attention must also be directed to the roles and competencies of the various practitioners who do, or should, provide transition-related services.

The major purpose of this article is to present a cooperative interagency approach for assessing the effectiveness of programs and services provided to facilitate the transition of handicapped students from school to adult community living. Section one briefly reviews the concerns that have made transition a priority educational issue, discusses the need to address the issue of transition from a cooperative interagency approach, and outlines the barriers that impede interagency collaboration. Section two describes the experience of an interagency transition planning team and the team decisions that led to the development of a model for cooperative interagency assessment of transition services/programs. In section three the model's conceptual and operational framework, its advantages, and its generalizability are discussed.

In the field of learning disabilities, the delineation of teacher competencies lacks consensus among professionals. The purpose of this review is to identify competency statements specified in the professional literature for teachers of learning disabled students. A thorough literature search of the past 20 years resulted in 16 competency statements in five areas: general and special knowledge, planning and evaluation, curriculum content, clinical teaching strategies, and behavior management. The implications of these competencies are discussed.