Fostering Collaboration as Transition Specialists Through Community Conversations

Abstract

Collaboration is touted as a powerful way to help improve postschool outcomes for students with disabilities. Indeed, collaboration is an evidence-based predictor of improved adult outcomes associated with postsecondary education, employment, and independent living (Test et al., 2009). Interagency collaboration has emerged as a particularly important aspect of collaboration. Morningstar, Kleinhammer-Tramill, and Lattin (1999) reviewed indicators of effective transition programming and highlighted both family networks of support and interagency collaboration as pivotal for transition educational planning, decisionmaking, and resource sharing. Landmark, Ju, and Zhang (2010) also found that interagency collaboration and family involvement were predictive of improved adult outcomes that led to better employment conditions, sustained employment, and independent living opportunities. In addition, they concluded that interagency collaboration during transition planning helped youth with disabilities gain jobs and stay employed with supports. Finally, Noonan, Morningstar, and Gaumer-Erickson (2008) found that inclusion of multiple stakeholders (i.e., practitioners, administrators, and statelevel personnel) during implementation of interagency collaboration, along with sustained interaction between state and local entities, seemed integral to improved collaborative activities. Additional key components in high-performing districts were having a transition coordinator job position and accessing multiple interagency strategies to support collaboration. Passage of two pieces of federal legislation also provides policy levers to facilitate change. To provide key supports and services for employability and employment, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was passed in 2014 with final rules enacted in 2016 (United States Department of Labor, 2016). Through collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, the aim of the WIOA is to improve the public workforce system for all youth including those with significant disabilities through creation of jobs, training, and retention of workers. Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is focused on ensuring in public education high standards and expectations for all students, and 739407D PSXXX10.

Diverse Perspectives on Transition to Adulthood Among Families: A Qualitative Exploration

“…PTIs should be one pillar in the larger scope of family supports, not a replacement for what schools should provide. Promising work by schools to increase employment opportunities for students with disabilities through Community Conversations (Trainor et al, 2012) should be further developed to help meet the needs of historically marginalized communities while building relationships and cultural understandings (Parker-Katz et al, 2018). The findings from this study imply that while PTIs can help to hold schools accountable through advocacy work, and they can also partner with schools on behalf of families to promote higher expectations and greater opportunities for students with disabilities, particularly for students of color who face additional marginalization due to racism.…”

Strengthening Transition Partnerships Through Community Conversation Events

“…Surveys of attendees consistently find that people (a) think the event was a good investment of their time, (b) learned new information about their community, (c) met new people in the community, and (d) identified ideas that could be taken to improve transition outcomes . In addition, special educators and transition personnel across diverse communities have reported positive experiences hosting community conversations (Parker-Katz et al, 2018).…”

Application of the World Café to Disability Issues: A Systematic Review

“…Event locations included a library (Harris, 2009), a community health center (Casey, 2006), a university (Tuffrey-Wijne et al, 2017), a disability provider's office (Butler, 2006), a church , and a mental health treatment facility (Williams, 2014). Four studies (14.3%) described using multiple event settings Carter et al, 2016;Molfenter et al, 2018;Parker-Katz et al, 2018). Eighteen studies (64.3%) did not include setting information.…”

“…In most cases, the researchers identified a local leader who selected committee members. However, two studies (7.1%) included committees self-selected through a mini-grant competition Carter et al, 2016), and one study (3.6%) described events led by graduate students (Parker-Katz et al, 2018). All authors reported providing technical assistance to the committees (i.e., in-person training ranging from 1 to 5 days, phone and email support, supplying sample resources and materials).…”