Meeting Special Challenges in Transitions

Overview & Synopsis

The transitions from an elementary school to a middle level school and from a middle level school to a high school are major stepping-stones in the lives of young adolescents and their parents. These times are characterized by changes in school expectations and practices--changes that are often amplified when special education issues are thrown into the mix. Even if the school has a well-designed transition program, the school's special education program must take additional steps to ensure that students make a smooth entry into the school. Transition meetings ease anxiety for students with disabilities and their parents by preparing students to move to middle school. Although successful transition programs that encourage partnerships among students, parents, special education teachers, and regular education teachers do a good job of heading off potential problems, they are only a small step in addressing the many special education issues facing today's secondary schools. The newest reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004), coupled with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, has posed additional challenges for schools--challenges made more complex as the regulations that govern the law are not due to be released until this coming summer at the earliest. Therefore schools have been forced to make their "best guess" about how the new parts of the law must be implemented. Two of these challenges that administrators will deal with on a fairly regular basis are discipline and initial identification of students needing special education services. No matter how frustrating the laws that govern special education can be at times, educators must remember that at the center of every special education issue is a student.