Establishing Families as Partners in Secondary Transition

In response to the family research in our It Starts With Families guide and a comprehensive policy review of the Employment First Taskforce agencies‘ policy on family engagement, the Establishing Families as Partners in Secondary Transition learning series was developed. The intended short-term outcome of the experience is to increase the capacity of agency personnel to understand, at a minimum, the following critical topics through the lens of secondary transition:

• the value of family partnerships,
• cultural and linguistically diverse families,
• implicit bias and the evolution of disability,
• having authentic and necessary conversations,
• and universal design, which includes creating and redesigning communication and experiences to better represent and serve families.

The professional learning series is targeted to a group of local cross-agency professionals from local schools, career-technical centers and education service centers, county boards of developmental disabilities, mental health providers, counselors and supervisors from Opportunities from Ohioans with Disabilities, and anyone providing service and support to transition-age youth with disabilities. The hope is for a team of multi-agency professionals serving the same or similar transition-age youth and their families in their community can take this together.

We hope the It Starts With Families guide and Hamilton County training video helps you to commit to Ohio‘s mission of developing and implementing universally designed approaches that will ensure all families have the necessary knowledge and skills regarding transition education and services and are involved in all aspects of transition planning.

To learn more about the Establishing Families as Partners in Secondary Transition professional learning opportunity, contact ItStartsWithFamilies@dodd.ohio.gov.