BY ERNST VANBERGEIJK, Ph.D., M.S.W Most non-disabled adults take for granted the ability to travel overseas for business or pleasure. However, for many teens and young adults with disabilities, the ability to travel independently without their parents is a dream. At best, they may have gone on a holiday with their families. They have never traveled to a foreign country with their friends. The benefits of traveling internationally for students with disabilities are numerous. Not […]
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BY LAUREN AGORATUS, M.A. Families and individuals need to visualize what they want as goals to see if the program is a good “fit” and if they can picture the person in that environment. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just published “Out of Home Placements for Children and Adolescents with Disabilities.” This document provides compassionate but incomplete guidance on a difficult decision for families, and presents out-of-home placement as a last resort. Some placements […]
BY KIMBERLEE RUTAN MCCAFFERTY To the casual onlooker it was not a remarkable scene. A middle-aged mom trudging through the rain, huge beach bag slung precariously over her shoulder while clutching the hands of a ‘tween and a younger son, heading for the relative paradise of a movie theater overhang. If anyone had cared to look they would have viewed a grim determination in her eyes, a desire to reach her destination etched into the […]
BY VALERIE LEITER In 2004, Congress added new transition requirements to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), striving to improve youth outcomes after high school. These new requirements say that the Individual Education Program (IEP) must include “appropriate measurable postsecondary goals” and the “transition services… needed to assist the child in reaching those goals.” They also give students the right to participate in planning once their IEP meetings focus on transition from school. It […]
