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Transition Toolkit

Transition Team Professionals


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Professionals from many agencies and organizations can participate in transition planning with youth and their families. Explore these agency-neutral resources to help support planning with multiple agency partners, families, and youth.

Learn a little about agencies you and your family may be interacting with during the transition to adulthood years. Includes fill-in space to keep track of information and local contacts.

Download the Agency Navigation Tool

Video: Agency Navigation Tool Video



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Use these tools to begin or continue making plans over time for a youth‘s desired adult outcomes. Planning with the youth is most effective when done with teachers, agency partners and others. To learn more about Backwards Planning Tools and to download templates, visit the Tools for Multi-Agency Team Transition Planning and click on “Multi-Agency Transition Planning, Person Center Thinking, and Backwards Planning” to find the resources and tools to get started.

Effective Practices are instructional methods and strategies proven through research to be effective to teach youth specific transition-related skills. The Practices teach various skills, such as those associated with employment, daily living, communication, academics, job-routines and tasks, independence, and workplace behavior. Families, youth, providers, and others can continue use of the practices in non-instructional settings such as work sites, community environments, social settings, etc.

Download Effective Practices

The Predictors of Post School Success provide research-based strategies useful for educators and adult service professionals to equip youth with the skills and resources needed for adult living and working in the community. Families and youth can gain information to share with Team members about programs and services to build community capacity and investment in serving transition youth. Multi agency Teams can plan for engaging youth in Predictor activities that begin while the youth is still in school and continue into adulthood.

Download Predictors of Post School Success

This tool describes basic approaches for collecting and analyzing youth performance data that can be easily implemented in school, home, community, and work settings.

Download Collecting and Analyzing Youth Performance Data Booklet

Watch an Introductory video about how to collect data by observing how youth are performing any type of activity.

Video: Youth Performance Data



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Kaltura Video Hosting: This website uses Kaltura, a video hosting company, to serve video content. If you are having difficulty viewing videos on this site, it may mean that your location (e.g., school district, organization) is blocking or filtering the Kaltura website. Please contact your IT personnel to resolve this issue.

Accessibility: We strive to make this website accessible for all users, including people with disabilities. We test and modify this website for optimal usability. If you have any accessibility questions or find any pages on our website that pose accessibility barriers, please contact support@ocali.org.

These templates are a companion item to the booklet and include examples. These word tables can be downloaded and modified as needed for a specific youth.

This learning suite allows individuals or teams to engage in professional development to improve knowledge and skill on how to teach and use evidence-based practices.

Visit What Works For Work for a comprehensive guide

Video: Case Studies



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Kaltura Video Hosting: This website uses Kaltura, a video hosting company, to serve video content. If you are having difficulty viewing videos on this site, it may mean that your location (e.g., school district, organization) is blocking or filtering the Kaltura website. Please contact your IT personnel to resolve this issue.

Accessibility: We strive to make this website accessible for all users, including people with disabilities. We test and modify this website for optimal usability. If you have any accessibility questions or find any pages on our website that pose accessibility barriers, please contact support@ocali.org.

While each youth’s path to community employment and community membership is unique, it is often helpful to reflect on the steps, supports, and strategies that lead to their successful outcomes. Learning about others’ journeys can be helpful to multi-agency teams as a way to frame thinking that is Person-Centered, Agency-Neutral, and Outcome-Focused. To assist in learning about these journeys, case study examples of a variety of youth with differing profiles are available.

Each case study includes:

  1. Brief background information about the youth
  2. Summary of transition assessment tools and data leading to adult life goals
  3. A narrative description of the graphic information

These example case studies may be used for personal reflection on how to create a meaningful path from school to adulthood. Or they can be used to create professional development experiences and discussions. In any case, the user should be aware that these case studies are examples and are not intended to be replicated, directive, or used as the standard. Each person’s journey is unique and must be based on their own individual preferences, interests, needs, and skills/strengths. The examples below are offered as a tool for multi-agency teams as they work together to create high expectations for all youth as they become young adults.

Watch this webinar to learn how to approach planning as a multi-agency team for the youth with complex needs.

Video: Navigation Transition Planning for Youth on Place 3 and 4 on the Path to Employment



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When AD is enabled, descriptive language narrates what is on the screen. To learn more, visit our accessibility webpage.


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Kaltura Video Hosting: This website uses Kaltura, a video hosting company, to serve video content. If you are having difficulty viewing videos on this site, it may mean that your location (e.g., school district, organization) is blocking or filtering the Kaltura website. Please contact your IT personnel to resolve this issue.

Accessibility: We strive to make this website accessible for all users, including people with disabilities. We test and modify this website for optimal usability. If you have any accessibility questions or find any pages on our website that pose accessibility barriers, please contact support@ocali.org.

Transition Planning with the youth is most effective when done with families, teachers, agency partners, and anyone who supports the youth. To learn more about Multi-Agency Planning and using Backwards Planning Tools visit the Tools for Multi-Agency Team Transition Planning to find the resources and tools to get started.

Families, youth, agencies, and schools frequently use different terms to talk about the transition process. The Vocabulary Crosswalk is a reference tool that explains similarities and differences in terms used across agencies.

Download the Vocabulary Crosswalk

Coming Soon

The Charting the LifeCourse Framework was created to help individuals and families of all abilities and all ages develop a vision for a good life, think about what they need to know and do, identify how to find or develop supports, and discover what it takes to live the lives they want to live.

Download the Charting the LifeCourse Focus on Transition quick guide

Visit the Charting The LifeCourse Website

Watch Charting the LIfeCourse –The Basics webinar

Ohio’s Postsecondary programs deliver inclusive college experiences for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) that include internships, college classes, housing, and social experiences that result in improved access to competitive employment.

Download Ohio‘s Postsecondary Program Summaries

Visit Think College? Ohio’s Statewide Consortium

This folder is a “conversation starter” with families and youth. It gives a broad overview of the possible steps, questions, services and decisions that need to be considered during the years of transition planning.

Order Pathway from School to Employment folders for free (including shipping). Choose ‘Transition Framework‘ folder from the Request Materials list.

Order Pathway from School to Employment Folder

Download the Pathway from School to Employment Folder (PDF)

Ohio Department of Education is committed to providing up to date information on a variety of topics pertaining to post-secondary transition requirements and resources.

Visit Postsecondary and Workforce Development for Students with Disabilities to learn more