075. Resource(s): Transition Tools

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Hosts Meghan (Smallwood) and Patrick (Cadigan) share a resource page they put together for their Post Secondary Transition website: Transition Tools. A few of the  page's highlights cover the ABLE account (a tax-advantaged savings account for disability-related expenses), Comprehensive Transition Program (designed for adults with intellectual disabilities), Digital Portfolios (showcasing student achievement) and more. Join the conversation! 

Episode Keywords:
Transition tools, ABLE account, comprehensive transition program, digital portfolios, work programs, supported education model, transition fair, special needs trust, vocational skills, academic learning, practical work experience, collaborative supports, skill building

Links:
Transition Tools (page)
P2Transition Ep. 19 Work Programs (link)
P2Transition Ep. 36 Maria Paiewonsky & ThinkCollege (link)
P2Transition Ep. 38 Amy D'Agati & TerpsEXCEED (link)
P2Transition Ep. 39 Digital Portfolios (link) 

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To download a copy of a transcript for this episode or any of our previous conversations, click here.
Also visit our Podcast webpage to find links to all of our other discussions; go to www.p2transition.com.
Additional information about post-secondary transition can be found at our website.
The Post-Secondary Transition Podcast Facebook page.
Visit our YouTube Channel to find additional video resources.
Intro/Outro music by AudioCoffee from Pixabay.
Transition music by Joseph McDade from Transistor.

Episode Transcript

Meghan Smallwood (00:00):
Welcome. This is the Post Secondary Transition
podcast where we haveconversations around the ins and
outs and everything in betweenof the transition process for
families of students withdisabilities. I'm one of the
hosts. My name is MeghanSmallwood, and I am a public
school transition coordinator.
And as always, I have my co-host

Patrick Cadigan (00:17):
My name is Patrick Cadigan. I am also a
with me.
public school transitioncoordinator. So we're not quite
sure, but for us, this isgraduation week, so it has been
monumentally busy, not only forus, but the teachers and the

(00:37):
families as they are preppingfor all of the stuff that needs
to get done, but we wanted totake some time to share out one
of our own resources and what wehave referred to from our
website as the transition tools.
Now you will find this resourceby going to your web browser of

(01:00):
choice, you'll type inwww.postsecondarytransition.com,
and at the top of the screen,you'll be met with our different
tabs, right? You have homewhat's in an IEP, which is still
an upcoming set of tabs andstuff, but where to start?
Resources, blog, contact, allthat stuff.

(01:21):
Where you will go for thisresource is Where To Start, and
that'll give you another dropdown menu. And at the very
bottom of that drop down menu isTransition Tools, and you'll
click on that link. So theTransition Tools was an idea
that we came up with, and whatwe were trying to do was put in
one space of things that we arecoming across constantly. One of

(01:45):
those tools that families needto have in their toolbox is the
ABLE account. And we have talkedabout this before. These are
taxed advantaged savingsaccounts for individuals with
disabilities and their families,and these accounts are designed
to help save money fordisability related expenses. And

(02:10):
in this explanation, we talkabout some of the key features,
including the tax advantages,the eligibility, contribution
limits things like that. Butwhat's most important about this
part of the page is, is thatthere are links then to even

(02:32):
more information. So at thebottom of this section you'll go
into there's a button that talksabout Learn More. Click on that,
and it'll take you to assumesome additional resources. So it
can be very valuable as itstands, we've also had a quick
discussion about ABLE accountswhen we talked about in episode

(02:52):
70, ABLE accounts versus specialneeds trust. So if you're
looking for some more specificinformation, you can also head
over to that discussion episode70. It will also be linked in
the show notes.
The next part, it talks aboutthe Comprehensive Transition
Program. Now, as a refresher,this essentially goes back, and

(03:15):
this actually covers severaldifferent conversations that we
have had in the past,specifically ThinkCollege. And
then that went on to link again,to our discussion with the
TerpsEXCEED team. All of that ispredicated around this notion of
the comprehensive transitionprogram. It's a specialized

(03:38):
secondary education programdesigned for adults with
intellectual disabilities, andthese programs tend to offer
inclusive and supportiveenvironments where the students
can go to continue theireducation. In some cases, you'll
they have opportunities to gainvocational skills, but one of
the big key points is alsodeveloping independence. So

(04:01):
again, in this, in this Toolssection for us, we talk about
some of the key features and thecritical role that it will play.
So it's really good to go in andgive yourself an overview of
what this what this platform is.
Along those lines, one of theother things that we talked

(04:24):
about, and again, this goes backto a previous conversation that
we've had. We talk about digitalportfolios. Now, digital
portfolios are an onlinecollection of students, work,
achievements, experiences, andit very simply, it is a visual
for who your student is and whatthey are capable of doing, we

(04:45):
highlight three tools that wehave used in the past. These
tools are ones that so manypeople are familiar with,
PowerPoint, Google Slides, oreven Apple Keynote. Again, we
have had this conversationbefore. This takes a. Back to
Episode 39 where we call coverdigital portfolios. This is a

(05:05):
good place to start. Give you anoverview of what they are and
and then will lead you to evenmore information.
Then we also talk about workprograms. This is going to be
very general information, eacharea, each place, is going to
have its own unique school basedprogram, and there's probably a

(05:28):
lot of variety. So ourrecommendation is to always
reach out to your child, specialeducator, school based
administration, and they shouldbe able to ideally, one would
hope that they'll point you inthe direction that you need to
go. But these programs aretypically designed to build in

(05:50):
academic learning and practicalwork experience, both non
diploma and diploma Boundstudents should have these
opportunities available to them,so it's definitely worth
exploring, especially as you'regetting into the later high
school years. We also there is alink to an episode that we did,

(06:14):
Episode 19, where, again, Meghanand I cover the school based
work programs as we understandthem in our area. But again,
preface that by saying that youknow each area is going to be
unique. Each area is going tohave its own focus. But for
these work programs, they cancover internships, job

(06:37):
shadowing, opportunities, careerand technical education
programs, employer partnerships,in some cases, and even
additional academic credit. Sodefinitely worth looking into.
One other thing that we coverquickly is the Supported
Education Model, which this isfocusing primarily towards post

(07:01):
secondary education, cover itreally kind of talks about or
really goes into personalizedsupports, accommodations and
services to address the uniqueneeds of students who are
looking to access thatopportunity. So there's some
general information aboutplanning, collaborative

(07:24):
supports, skill building, andagain, we're working towards as
always. So much of our stuff isongoing, always under
development. And if you canthink of any additional supports
or any resources that you thinkwould be valuable to us, please

(07:44):
throw them our way. We love it.
One other thing that we talkabout is the where we cover is
the Transition Fair. This is aresource that school systems
make available to parents, to somany of the families that we
know get their start withtransition from these fairs they

(08:05):
have, they cover resources,information services. This is
the place to go, and you'regoing to run into so many
things. So we always encourageanyone, as they are prepping for
or thinking about thattransition process to to go to a
transition fair. It isinvaluable. In fact, in our

(08:25):
area, we just found out nowthat, you know, Meghan is
running the whole thing. They'rereally working towards planning
these things out. They'vealready nailed down a date for
our next one, which will be atthe beginning of next school
year, in October. Again,different school systems do

(08:46):
different things. So of course,you know, I'm not sure how far
out these are planned in otherplaces, but it is worth asking
the question and finding out.
Transition fairs are definitely,definitely great places to
start. So again, it's been it'sgoing to be a crazy, crazy week
for us. So we just wanted tohave a really quick

(09:09):
conversation. The Transitiontools page can be a useful
resource to family as they arebeginning this process. So we
just wanted to share it out.

Meghan Smallwood (09:29):
As always, you'll find links to the
information from ourconversations in our show notes.
We would love for theinformation from this and all
our other discussions to reachas many families as possible,
and we need your help to dothat. You can find our
conversations at www, dot P,twotransition.com, like, follow,
share out the podcast. Ourconversations are posted to all

(09:51):
the major platforms, includingApple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube
music, and that's just naming afew. So please share. Share
often. Please also check out ourYouTube channel. Now that we've
done some of the leg work foryou by curating videos of topics
that revolve around transition,we have playlists for
guardianship alternatives toguardianship ABLE accounts, and

(10:13):
there's more to come. So pleasebe sure to subscribe there as
well. And then finally, checkout our website, which is full
of information and links toresources around the transition
process. So open your webbrowser of choice and surf to
www.postsecondarytransition.comand we thank you so much for the
time you spent with us, and lookforward to talking again soon.