TSBVI Coffee Hour: Partnering with Families in Preparing for Life after School
09/17/2020
Transcript start

>> Kendra: Welcome everyone.
Thank you for coming in and I just put in the chat please make sure to set your chat box, the drop down menu #U to say all attendants so everyone can see your question.
Good morning, G # weÕll start in just a minute. WeÕll give folks a chance to get in.
My, Brenda Lee.
And JA NEL I donÕt know if IÕm saying that right, where in Texas are you? Oh, McAllen. Nice.
El Paso. Laredo. Awesome.
WeÕre having just a little bit of weather, so you may get some thunder background, which will be fun.
East Texas. All right.
We still have some folks coming in, but weÕll go ahead and get started because IÕve got -- if youÕve been with us before, you know IÕve got a lot of announcements before I turn the time over to Eva and David. If you have a question or comment during the time PN that you and David are talking, please post that in the chat box. Make sure your chat box says all panelists and attendees. Check the drop down box.
Your microphones and cameras are automatically muted so you donÕt need to worry about that. The handout has been put in chat and weÕll put it in again so you can access the handout for todayÕs session. After today
YouÕll go somewhere else to find that and IÕll share that link at the end. But if you want the handout for today, please click on that link.
To obtain your CEUs respond to the evaluation that will be e-mailed to you from our website ESC works. If you donÕt get that in the next couple of days check your spam folder. WeÕre finding a lot of filters are putting it in spam.
YouÕll enter the code IÕll give you at the end of the session. There is no opening code, just a closing code. YouÕll enter that in when you get the evaluation and then a certificate will automatically generate. Again, no opening code, just a closing code. WeÕll stop the presentation at 12:55 our time just to give you the code and a few announcements so you can get on to your next meetings.
IÕm really excited to introduce todayÕs presenters. We have Eva Lavigne and David Wiley who both are part of our outreach team here at TSBVI and they both are transition coordinators for us and so weÕre really excited to have them and their examiner cease.
Or consultants I should say. Anyway, weÕre really excited to have them. IÕm going to turn it over. LAEM I guess weÕll start off by telling you welcome everybody to this Coffee Hour discussion on partnering with families and preparing for life after school for their kids.
IÕm Eva Lavigne-Thompson, I work in the outreach department along with David, as Kate mentioned a transition coordinator.
David, you want to say hello and then weÕll get started.


>> David: Hi, everybody. IÕm David. Back to you.


>> Eva: Welcome. As I said, let me advance our slide here. What we would like to start with is getting some of your ideas in the chat about
What do you think are some of the important keys when weÕre partnering with families around this idea of preparing their kids for life after school.
So if youÕll put some of your own thoughts in there and then weÕre going to have a little discussion about that.
WeÕll give you just a minute. IÕm seeing some chats about community resources, helping them to be competent. Being sensitive to culture. Communication. Honesty. Honest about abilities. These are great. Listening about family concerns. Exposure to -- theyÕre going really fast now. YÕall have got a lot of these.
So doing at home lessons when possible. All of these are just great.
So you can continue putting any of your ideas in the chat and weÕre going to kind of move into the next slide and here, some of the things we have learned along the way in listening to families and parents is that one of the most important things for them is for us to understand that at this time when their children are beginning to get in those years leading up to graduation, their emotions may run high. And the reasons for that
Of course, are theyÕre seeing that a change is coming and sometimes theyÕre not quite sure what that change is going to look like, itÕs uncertain. They have been a part of a school system that had a certain structure and theyÕre sometimes not quite clear on what does the adult services and agency structure look like. So it can be a little bit emotional during that time.
And so when weÕre partnering with them, one of the things that we can just do right off the bat is just acknowledge that there may be some grief and anxiety at this time around losing those school supports and services.
So that acknowledgment can go a long way in helping partner with them as they begin to research what those options might be and what adult life might look like.
We can support families by realizing that every family has their own pace, just like we do, everyone has their own pace, and just being aware of that and that we can be aware of that by honoring that and by honoring the variety of parenting styles and the -- also honoring each familyÕs vision for the future.
May not -- oh, excuse me. I donÕt know what happened there. (Laughing) sorry guys. FlungY.
Honoring their vision for the future. So also respecting what you may think is unrealistic dreams. Sometimes we hear dreams that sound to us like, well, that just isnÕt going to happen for this kiddo, but we want to be respectful of that and rather than judge those and say theyÕre unrealistic, think of them as an opening to talk about particular areas of interest or maybe a passion.
So one of the things that you can do here is help them become informed, have no judgment but listen and ask open-ended questions for clarification on what these dreams are all about, trying to help understand what it is that this interest or passion is about, and help them to make those connections with whatever services and adult services and agencies and all of that that they need and resources to become informed.
Now, I wanted to give you a quick example of this. It was one of my favorites. Several years back working with a family, a young man, had some hearing impairment and additional disabilities, and when we were having what we would call a person-centered planning, futures planning with him, talking with him, the school and with the family, and he kept coming back to this what he really wanted to do was play for the -- live in Los Angeles and play for the Lakers.
So we were like, okay, letÕs explore that. What is that all about. Some of us in our mind may be thinking this is unrealistic. So what we did, we continued asking questions and what we found out was this young man, he loves his cousin who lives in Los Angeles and he also loves the LA Lakers and one of his favorite things to do was to go visit his coffin and go to the CLA lakers came. So what we found out was maybe our minds were set on what is his dream for maybe a career path or a job or b
In his mind he wanted to have this connection with his cousin and do things important to him. So we want to always honor that and realize itÕs not always about a job or career, itÕs about a whole life and what is important to that individual.


>> David: Yeah, Eva, I think thatÕs really important to consider that a personÕs goals may just be expressions of their interests. And sometimes the interests -- I think a lot of times we sort of fall into the -- we fall into the trap of assuming that it has to do with specific things, like if the person says they want to be a pilot, then you should think about maybe thereÕs something in -- if that doesnÕt seem like a good plan, maybe we should think about something at the airport, etcetera.
But sometimes I think if you dig deeper like you just described you find out itÕs something different. I remember talking to this student nearing graduation who was expressing that what she wanted to do was be a doctor. I think people thought that was going to be a challenge for her, but when I asked her why she wanted to be a doctor, her answer was because her favorite television show was GrayÕs Anatomy and she watched it with her mom. Then exploring what she thought doctors did. I think b
She felt like what a doctor was someone who delivers news to someone. Her view was a doctor comes into the room and tells somebody something like youÕve got the flu. That was really the role of the doctor.
We realized thatÕs just customer service and what she wanted to do was be able to give people information. ThereÕs lots of different professions, ways, situations where you can give people information, which is really what her main goal was in claiming to be -- in saying that she wanted to be a doctor.
And the other thing I want to say about this unrealistic issue is I think a lot of times we get tied up in transition planning and thinking about one step of it, which is thinking about a personÕs employment potential and their goals for employment.
And leaving it at that. One of the things about transition planning is we should be thinking about a personÕs whole life and the different contexts in which people do something. IÕll speak for myself. When I was a young guy, I had interests in writing poetry and in taking photographs.
And someone might say those were not good employment potential. I could have potentially maybe made some money doing one of those two things, but probably not too much, especially considering that pictures I wanted to take were mainly just for artistic purposes.
So I can remember thinking -- and when I hear somebody say somebodyÕs goals are unrealistic, I always think, like, no one told me that I couldnÕt do those things, that they were unrealistic for me. I just did them in other contexts. That meant I did them for hobbies, I took classes associated with them. I joined a group of poets and we shared our poetry. All of those things were realistic for me to be doing. So it doesnÕt
Necessarily mean we have to think of things in an employment context when we make a judgment whether or not itÕs realistic, but we need to help them understand what are the contexts that would make those things possible. If youÕre interested in basketball, it doesnÕt have to be a job, but there may be a league that you could join.


>> Eva: Okay, David, I think this is yours.


>> David: Yeah. I think one of the things that we need to make sure the parents understand is transition planning is a mandated IDEA service. IDEA says we must start it before a person turns 16. In Texas, we specify age 14 as a time when we start. But all in all, all regulations say you can start it earlier than those dates, as soon as somebody is ready to start talking about it.
And so thatÕs something that we should be talking to parents about and letting them know what the goals of transition is, is to begin this process of thinking about whatÕs going to happen after the students graduate. And what are they going to be doing.
And to help them see and recognize that.
One of the things Eva and I have talked about we both hear sometimes when talking with families about transition planning and talking to them about post school activities and what things they would envision their son or daughter doing after school is they talk about that they never had a conversation about that before. And we know that they have. I mean, we can find it in their paperwork that it was a discussion at their IEP meetings.
But they didnÕt really recognize it and I think we need to highlight the fact that this is an important discussion that weÕre having thatÕs different than classes for next year or IEP goals or what activities a studentsÕ going to be doing. WeÕre going to talk about after they graduate and make sure the families understand the importance of that and can recognize that that conversation is different than the annual meetings theyÕre used to having in the past.
Another thing that the regulations say is that the goals, there should be goals set for after school and they should be based on studentsÕ interests, needs and preferences and strengths. So one of the things that we need to do to make certain that transition planning is meaningful is to focus in on those things. And I think a lot of times we make the -- a lot of times the focus of the transition planning is making sure certain topics are discussed, but really all those topics should be discus
WhatÕs the studentsÕ interests, needs and preferences. ThatÕs the place you have to start because all the other discussions youÕre going to have about community living, employment, recreation, etcetera, all have to be based on interests. And another thing we see that we feel is something that was a stumbling block in transition planning is people have talked about those things, but when you ask can you name 10 things the student is interested in, no one can do it.
That has to be the first step. If you donÕt have a list of the things the student is interested in, that should be the number one transition goal is to say letÕs see if we can start identifying what those things are and helping the student identify what those things are by giving them a chance to explore and discover the things that they want to do in life.
ThereÕs some things that we think based on both the regulations and best practices that we feel like are important to do and in many cases are required to do and one of those things thatÕs required is the student must be invited to attend the IEP meetings when transition planning is discussed.
And one of the things IÕll just say about this is that there is the letter of the regulation and then thereÕs the spirit of the regulation.
And I think itÕs important that we consider the spirit, which is that the students are an active participant in their transition planning and that itÕs not being done around them, but itÕs being done with them. And so oftentimes the meeting itself, I think itÕs important that the students are given the opportunity to attend the meeting. I think that it changes the way that people talk about them. I think it changes the way that people think about these issues.
But itÕs more than just are they there in the room thatÕs important. ItÕs that they are active participants in all of these issues. And so one of the things to keep in mind is can we find ways that their participation -- entire meeting -- a meeting full of adults with folders and lap tops can be intimidating for any student.
And so they may feel like not confident to participate. They may feel like the discussion is something they donÕt understand. They may not have the language to participate in the meeting in a traditional sense. So we have to find ways to do that.
I welcome anybody to put into chat if you worked with a student and you came up with innovative ways that they can participate so that other people can see that.
But then the other thing that is important about that is itÕs not just the meeting. They should be active participants in transition planning every day. And so that means that the planning process is not just at the IEP meeting or the ARD meeting as we say in Texas, it is at -- itÕs something thatÕs going on on a daily basis, which is weÕre helping students S discover new things theyÕre interested in, discussing with them what their interests are and how they may want to participate in the th
They feel are strengths or preferences of theirs in the future. So the meeting is just sort of a recap of what you have been doing, you know, all through the year. And so I think thatÕs the spirit of when we say that the students are invited to attend, thatÕs the spirit of how to make that actually meaningful and to make it work.


>> Kate: Eva, this is Kate. In the chat Liz shared that her students helped write their goals and present levels and they choose if they want to present that information.


>> David: ThatÕs a great way to do it. ThatÕs a way to make sure that itÕs meaningful for the student. And as we were just saying, thatÕs something that youÕre doing with the student not just during meeting time, but youÕre doing in preparation for it so that the meeting is just a chance to reveal your good work.


>> Kate: A couple of other comments. Another teacher said I do a premeet with the student over lunch, talking about what they want to say, like write ideas down, pictures, models. Another teacher said give a little presentation about the goals. Talk about making snacks or send messages to invite team members. Liz said they start in third grade with helping to write their goals and their present levels. And Sally said this is like the beginning and end of discussion and the way the family w


>> Eva: IÕm trying to understand the question.


>> David: Well, one of the things IÕm going to interpret and if I miss interpret this, you can clarify. I think what your question implies is if the goal is for the student to attend college, once you establish that, is that all you need to say about it? And from that point forward itÕs -- transition planning is settled.
And I donÕt think thatÕs the way we have to think about it because thereÕs a lot of different elements involved in someone having a meaningful and satisfying life. And some of that is their schooling. Some of that is their eventual employment. Some of that is the recreational activities they do.
ItÕs understanding how they take part in social situations. ItÕs understanding how to maintain your home and take part in transportation and all the things that youÕre going to need to do.
So all of those things are part of the transition discussion and so just the fact that weÕre saying the studentÕs going to graduate with honors and attend the college of their choice, thatÕs just one element of a big discussion.


>> Eva: Thank you, David.


>> David: Eva, I think youÕre going to take the last two points here.


>> Eva: Right. Thank you, David.
So we want to make sure families know there are district transition services and options available and that there are key transition staff.
So itÕs kind of like who is on our team? And oftentimes we hear parents say theyÕre not quite clear who that is until they show up to the ARD, that this is the group that is there for them, but every district should have someone on staff who is a designated transition person.
So getting that group together and as David kind of highlighted before is who can we be planning with in a meaningful way throughout this school year or this childÕs life as theyÕre getting older to really create a plan, a process for planning.
So weÕve got to know and parents need to know whoÕs on that team, who to go to.
The other word that comes to mind when I look at this bullet is the assumptions. Sometimes I found when I go out to districts to work with transition-aged students and the school district and families that oftentimes the assumption is that the VI teacher or staff are the ones that are kind of in charge of all that and moving that process along.
And so we want to make sure that we get the right players and that the family knows that thereÕs this -- and it varies across the state. So I just want to point that out that some families really need that partnership and knowing who is this team thatÕs going to be working with us.
The last one is just making sure that families know exactly what the graduation plan is. When is their child going to graduate? ThereÕs the credit scenario of getting credits and then is there going to be 18 plus program? You know, what is that -- well ahead of getting to that last credit, the family really needs to understand and be a part of that, a dynamic part of that team that is making those decisions and
Letting the group, the team know this is what my wish is or what I think would be best for my child, along with, of course, the student, the studentÕs voice in all of that.
So itÕs just making sure that the parents are informed, the families are informed about what those options are.
LetÕs go on.


>> David: Yeah, one of the things that we need to do is think about things important that we know that the families are aware of. So here are three things.
There are a few elements to transition planning, basic ones, so weÕve talked some about the fact that it needs to be based on goals for the future and goals for after school. And then one of the things that we talk about with that is what we teach and what the -- whatÕs called in the regulations courses of study are for a person to be able to get the information and knowledge -- to get the knowledge and skills they need to meet those goals.
But one of the other important elements of transition planning is being connected with the community resources a student will need to get the support that will enable them to achieve their goals. So that community support can be from agencies and government-related programs. It can also be from community services that are unrelated to human service systems or disability service systems, such as public transportation or parks and recreation.
Also, other community resources that have nothing to do with support, like public libraries or just clubs you can join, places in the city that you might want to be able to visit. Do you know what the community resources are? And one of the things I think is important for us as professionals on the team in working with families is to not only help them know about those things, but to help them connect with them.
One of the things I think Eva and I both find when we -- and weÕve been doing this for a long time, but itÕs still very confusing to try to get information sometimes. The information thatÕs available on the Internet and however else people are gathering information, IÕm thinking Internet right now because so many of us arenÕt leaving our houses particularly, is that itÕs often confusing, hard to understand, hard to follow, hard to find exactly what you need.
If thatÕs true for those of us who have made a point to try to do it, for someone coming in cold itÕs extremely daunting and intimidating. And so one of the things that I think is important is that what we do with families is not just tell them about services, but we connect them with services.
And IÕm not accusing anyone particularly of doing this, but one of the things that I have heard from time to time is, well, we told the family about this and, therefore, that -- our responsibility is -- stops there.
And I always say, well, did they follow up on it? No, they just decided against it. Well, maybe you should explore that and find out what was standing between them and maybe if you give them decisional support and work together on it youÕll find that they may be more able to -- and also more interested in following through on trying to get connected with the community services that are available -- that may be available for their son or daughter.
So to make a phone call with somebody or to sit down and help somebody take the steps or help somebody feel more confident about it can often make a dig difference.
-- big difference. Another thing that can make a big difference and connecting them with people who are doing the same thing. ThatÕs something we think is a great idea when people get involved with organizations, consumer and family organizations. Family organizations like the DB mat organization, the Texas chargers, organizations where families with similar interests and concerns join together.
Then they share a lot of resources amongst themselves and they give each other a lot of information and they can give each other real-world examples of what things have been helpful, what things havenÕt, how you work through systems and how you make things work for your family.
So we have a resource part # -- part of a handout that Kate talked about earlier and it lists some of the Texas family associations, the family organizations. And so those are good things to tell families about so they can connect with other families. Or to provide other venues to help families connect.
And then a final thing -- and also help the students connect through consumer organizations.
And then the final thing is that one of the things that I think a lot of times creates a barrier to goal setting and thinking and feeling comfortable about the future is the unknown. And one of the things we can do is to help give real-world examples to students and their families of individuals who have taken their goals and moved forward and realized them and had some success.
So if we know former students or individuals in the community who have similar interests and similar needs and preferences to the student, to get the student connected either with those people or with their stories so that people have examples of how -- what the possibilities are in a successful life in the future.


>> Eva: So I think before we go on to the next part, letÕs check in. Is there anything in the chat that you want to let folks know about?


>> Kate: So Sally asks the question about rural students without public transport wanting to stay in the area with family, how can we help support them? And then some more comments that I can get to you after that.


>> Eva: Okay. ThatÕs a great question, Sally. I think it kind of does lead into some things weÕre going to talk about next because this may be a way to start with that family wherever they are, rural or not.
So one of the things that David and I have done in some of our workshops and in talking with families is weÕve come up with these kind of conversation starters, weÕre calling them that, and itÕs kind of to get that conversation started about how confident is the family or, in this case, the family and it could be the student, but how confident are they in these steps?
And so they answer either very confident, somewhat confident or not very confident. So itÕs things like dieding whatÕs most important to your son or daughter.
We get a lot of, well, we kind of know. WeÕve got this idea, this notion that my son is -- I want him to be happy, safe, heÕs going to live with us. We want THIM to have some things -- him to have some things to do and hope that he can have some friends. You know, things like that we get.
And so when we get those kinds of things we sort of have the understanding that those are what the family wants, but theyÕre not very specific, theyÕre still kind of vague. So thatÕs something that we can later on have a real rich conversation about to help them to say, well, what would it be that would make him happy? What would it be that would -- you know, who in his community does he like to hang out with?
What does he like to do in his free time? So weÕre starting to ask those probing questions.
LetÕs see. Also, this helps them to start prioritizing what things to start working on. Also the key word in this sentence is the word "To" deciding whatÕs most important to your son or daughter. And whatÕs clear as you go through this with the family and the young sister is that the word "To" is to that person, not for that person. So thereÕs a "To" and a "For" that you can think of in this. A lot of times I think families are thinking whatÕs important for our son. ItÕs important for our
To be happy and safe, but again that rich conversation is going to come in when you start looking at, well, what is important to your son or daughter? What is their vision? What is important in their lives and what they do they want?
The next one is how comfortable or confident are you in taking control of the vision? And that word "Control" is kind of scary sometimes because maybe the control or the vision, we havenÕt even gotten there yet. We donÕt know a vision. Or itÕs always been something weÕve done within a school setting and now weÕre going to have to start thinking about this vision outside in the community.
How confident are you in teaching relevant skills? So, again, that one is one that we can definitely partner with them in looking at what skills they need in order to reach their goals.
How confident are you finding support and help? And this one a lot of times we get that they really have a real need in this area.
And you talked about, Sally, in the rural area, what kinds of support and help can we find? And so weÕre going to start that conversation with they are, in that community.
And one of the most important things is looking for those opportunities. A lot of us, you know, we got where we got because we had KENGSs and networks -- connections and networks and it was someone just happened to say something and we connected in to something that was there, an opportunity.
So we start with these. These are just conversation starters to get that conversation going and to find out where they are and what the needs are.
Then -- I think -- are you doing this one, David?


>> David: I am. First IÕm just going to follow up on the question from Sally and say that those conversations lead I think families to be able to start being able to -- to weigh things in terms of the things that are most important and the things that the student and the family value the most. And in our life we have a certain amount of tradeoffs that we make and we do this, like if we are looking for a house to buy.
ThereÕs an ideal house in the ideal area with the ideal space, etcetera, but we very seldom find all those ideals all in the same place. So we start making the tradeoffs that we -- okay, whatÕs most important? The area, the space, the price, etcetera? And deciding of those things, which take priority.
And so I would say that one of the things that we look at is if youÕre in an area where thereÕs something thatÕs important to you but itÕs not available where you are, then you start saying, okay, so which is more important, my community connections here or the access to the transportation services that I need?
And then be able to sort of judge those things as to, you know, which way is your life going to take you based on that?
And I think also considering other things, if public transit isnÕt available in your town, how do people get around if theyÕre non-drivers in your town? Sometimes thereÕs private services and then sometimes people rely on networks of co-workers and friends and neighbors. If thatÕs the case, then one of the things you have to do is figure out, like, well, how do you socially figure out how to get that support and how do you compensate people and different elements to -- how do we make it work h
And so I think you just have to step by step look at plans and figure out is it going to work here and if itÕs not, whatÕs more important, trying to find a place where this is going to work or remaining where we have the community connections now?
And I think thatÕs a conversation that everybody has in their life in determining how theyÕre going to move forward when circumstances arenÕt exactly what you want.
So this next one says that -- define what your success is for your child after graduation.
When I think of transition planning and the focus, I know that in terms of the indicators that are given for states to report on their success in their programs, the main one that weÕve all -- involving post school outcomes is how many of the students go to college or get a job within a year after graduation. And so that tends to be the focus around those kinds of issues.
And I understand why, because theyÕre important issues, but one of the things we have to think about transition planning is itÕs a much broader aspect of a personÕs post school life than those issues and we have to think about how do you find happiness, what things do you do that cause you to have a sense of purpose, what are your opportunities for social relationships? And so the words we put there were purpose, satisfaction and joy.
And so one of the things that we say would be good to talk to families about is what would they define as success not just in terms of does the student have a job when they graduate or are they going on to college, but what would you say just in a very broad sense you would say if this happened, the student would be happy with their life? If these things happened, they would find purpose and satisfaction and joy in their lives.
And to create this individual look at what is success for this individual student and how would you describe it?
And then also I think the second thing there is as Eva was just talking about is take in the childÕs or studentÕs perspective, itÕs not what success would be from the parentsÕ or indicatorsÕ point of view, but what would be success for the student based on their point of view. Sometimes they can express that easily but sometimes they know the answers and canÕt express it or sometimes they donÕt have a good sense of that for themselves or they donÕt have the ability to express it. In those cas
Go through the work of helping the student explore new activities, explore new locations, find out the things that they really like and discover together with the student those things that would make their life satisfying for them personally.
And so going through that process of discovery is what makes transition planning work.
ThereÕs more to life than just work. You have to consider all aspects of life.


>> Eva: Thank you, David.
So another thing that David and I have done, weÕve done a lot of this in some workshops, but also when we go out and see families. We want to know what are conditions for success? We donÕt want to set this individual up for failure. So we have the families list, and the student as well, if theyÕre able to list the conditions that are required in order to be successful.
So itÕs kind of flowing from we kind of get an idea of what success is and now we want to make sure that itÕs successful. So we have them come up with a list. And there are some examples there of routine, you may need a schedule, you may need a lot of wait time, frequent breaks, you maybe need to be indoors because you have a medical condition.
But whatever those things are, you begin to explore and find out what are those things that are going to be needed in order to be successful?
So this is a really critical piece of this as youÕre looking at kind of those next steps.
So, for example, we donÕt want to put an individual who has medical conditions and canÕt be -- that needs to be indoors or we donÕt want to place them in something outdoors to, you know, that would just be wrong.
Or we have situations where maybe we have different places that kids are going out to -- you know, for this discovery process and if youÕve got a student who just canÕt be in noisy MROIFS and we put them in someplace like a Walmart to be a greeter and thereÕs all this noise, we know weÕre setting them up for failure.
So this is a really important step as we move into really coming down to those specific steps and things that will help this student.
And so one of the -- of the other things that we do is now weÕve got this list of the conditions that need to be success. WeÕve got kind of an idea of what the definition of success might mean. Again, we come back to this and we work with the family and the young sisters and talk about whatÕs meaningful, purposeful, enjoyable, and how does he or she want to spend their time.
So we have them make a list of the current activities that are of interest to them. These are things that they are already doing and we make a list of those so we know, okay, weÕre going to start with those, and now weÕre going to brainstorm some ideas around these things that theyÕre currently doing that are interest or preference and weÕre just going to explore some ideas around it, brainstorm.
We think about, well, could it possibly be a job? Could it maybe be a business? Could it help in the community as a community service or maybe a volunteer opportunity?
And then it continues here with, well, I wonder how it could bring you together with neighbors or others in the community. Could you possibly do it for fun? Could it help you in your independence, your managing your home or taking care of yourself?
So we start with these kinds of questions and then around those interests that theyÕre currently doing. And so I wanted to give a quick example. I want to be aware of the time, but a quick example of this. IÕm going to call this -- this is a student that David and I know really well and heÕs -- IÕm going to call him Thomas.
So over the course of when he was in school, the staff, the teachers and the family worked on really identifying what these interests were. Thomas is deaf/blind and he needs an intervenor to be with him for purposes of communication. And during this time of discovery, here are some of the things that were said that he liked to do or are his interests.
He has to move. He likes to move. Particularly walking. If heÕs not moving, then there could be potential behaviors that happen. So keep moving, he enjoys that. Lifting, throwing objects. He likes pushing. He likes animals and and mal care. He likes to be social as people get to know him. Those are some interests that we could explore and brainstorm around how could it be a job, a community service, business, all those things.
ThatÕs exactly what they did. So what they ended up doing at school around those interest areas were they started with recycling where he could be pushing a cart full of heavy recycle material. He had destinations in the school to go to and pick up his recycle. He then took the recycle to the bigger bin and he was able to use -- he loved to throw, so he could throw those things in there.
And then have a conversation about what is he going to do with maybe the money heÕs making or those sorts of things. So it started in a school-based model of letÕs try this and see, and now letÕs see if we can take it into the community, and thatÕs exactly what they did.
In his community there was a recycling place that was outside of the town, but there were no collection areas in the town. And so they looked at two places to start with that they knew would be successful with his conditions for success where he had to have routine, he needed support during his job, and for communication purposes, so they developed or looked at two places in the community, a couple favorite places,
His church and his barber. Another thing this young man liked was he loved his haircuts. So they put a collection place there in each of these places for him to go and pick up these recycle items and then take them out to the larger community bin outside of town.
But it wasnÕt just a job. It was a service. It became his business. It did bring them together with his community. And he had these wonderful relationships at church, but also with his barber who became this great friend and such a wonderful social thing for him. It was fun.
So the idea was to go from a school-based model to trying things out and taking that interest into his community.
So thatÕs kind of how the school district had approached that.
Then you can continue on those lines. Can you think of other activities, we asked them, that you could try to enJOIJ your child in meaningful services. I know thatÕs a quick discussion of that, thatÕs one example.
David, IÕm going to turn this slide over to you.


>> Kate: Just a time check. WeÕve got about 4 minutes.


>> Eva: Thank you.


>> David: IÕm going to wrap this up real quick and just say about decision making one of the things thatÕs true about transition planning is we enVIET students into a meeting and ask them what they want to do the rest of their life and thatÕs a pretty heavy question that everybody has a hard time answering, but itÕs significantly harder for students who have never had to make that decision in their life. The most consequential decision than the decision of which one do you want to wear, red o
Those are choices people make that have no consequence other than for the person making the choice. One of the things we want to look at is what are the things the student has had to think of. Think about resources, think about what other peoplesÕ point of view was. Think about how itÕs going to affect people other than themselves. And I think thatÕs really important skill for a person to have to enable them to make decisions
About their future goals. And so things that we can do to help give students opportunities to make real decisions and to take on real responsibilities really prepares them to be able to participate in the transition planning process.
And so when I talk about real responsibilities, IÕm just talking about a chore or something they donÕt really care about, like make sure your bed is made, they donÕt really care if the bed is made but theyÕll do it. But more important is whatÕs important to you, IÕm going to put you in charge of it and itÕs up to you that you want to have happen happens. ThatÕs what teaches a person responsibility and thatÕs an important thing for a person to know about
If theyÕre going to be thinking about what am I going to do in my life and how is it going to affect me and other people.
The one thing -- I know IÕm down to my last minute here, but one of the things we wanted to say is in this time when weÕve been working with -- in remote settings and IÕm not sure whoÕs still in remote and whoÕs not, but one of the sort of bright spots in it is it enabled us to do our transition activities with students in real-world environments.
One thing thatÕs true about school, itÕs a great place to learn, but it is a specialized environment and itÕs not where a student is really going to be doing things after they graduate. And so one of the things thatÕs happened during this time of the remote instruction is we get to give students instruction in their actual home environment doing things with the materials that they would use in their home and with the support that they would get in their home.
And itÕs enabled us to find out a lot about the students that we might not have known otherwise in terms of how they respond to things in real-world environments. And so I think thatÕs one of the things that we can think about the draw backs to whatÕs happened with -- in our response to company individual, but thatÕs one thing -- COVID, but I think thatÕs one of the things we should be taking advantage of. LetÕs use that time more effectively and something to keep in mind. Anyway, I think our


>> Eva: I think we should turn it back to Kate to wrap us. Thank you everyone.


>> Kate: Big, big thanks to Eva and David. YÕall, they know so much about transition and are great examples of how to work with and coach families through this process. Please let us know if you have other questions we can pass on to them and hope to have them back to continuing our discussion on transition.
The closing code for this session and you will pit it in the chat as well is 091720. I will repeat that. Please make sure you write it down. We cannot give it out after the session. Okay? So here it is again. 091720. And I just put that in the chat as well.
So just a couple of closing notes. Remember that our times are different, so Monday we will meet at 3:00 p.m. central time. On Monday weÕll talk about remote orientation mobility strategies with Chris tab and then on Thursday weÕll be talking active learning space resources and learning with Charlotte and Kate.
Please respond to the evaluation that will E made to you from ESC works, our REJ STRIGS -- registration. Enter the code and the certificate will generate upon MREEGS -- completion of the evaluation. The handout as well as the chat transcript will be available on our coffee website which I will put in the chat so you can find previous sessions and information there. On the evaluation we do have just a couple of open-ended questions.
Please give us topics that youÕre wanting to have information for, ideas that you might have, as well as please just let us know how the times are working out for you and for your colleagues. All right. Thank you everyone. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Here in Austin itÕs a little bit dreary, but I love rainY days. Thanks for being here and thanks again, Eva and David.