Education Law

Transition Amendment Bill A Step Up for Students

By Charles Fox

Congressman Gregg Harper is the only member of Congress with a child with Fragile X. He is putting his life experience to good use in his proposed amendment to the transition provisions of IDEIA. He has proposed a bill that contains a significant set of amendments to the transition sections of IDEIA, which would greatly bolster the rights of students to have more robust transition planning. (see copy of the bill by clicking on the pdf Download 4926_0001). This bill proposes to reduce the age that transition planning begins to 14 from the federal level of 16 in the current IDEIA (in Illinois it is 14.5 years of age). It calls for the development of objectives as part of the transition plan and that the IEP should contain:

"a strategy to address the needs of the child related to academic and school-based prepatory experiences, work and career readiness, youth development and leadership..."

Sounds very good to me expecially compared to the often non-plans that I see every day in my office that are generic and missing in any real specifics. We need strategies and we need enhanced definitions and delineation of transition needs that this bill provides. I hope Rep. Harper will be able to shepard this bill through as things heat up in the reauthorization processs.

Full post as published by Special Education Law Blog on February 23, 2011 (boomark / email).