Parent Involvement Transition School to Work

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Parent InvolvementTransition School to Work

• Preparing Your Child for Employment

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Why Focus on Employment?

• Work-based learning during the school years leads
  to better post-school employment outcomes
  (Hughes, Moore, Bailey, 1999).
• Volunteer experiences and unpaid internships, in
  addition to paid employment, can be
  steppingstones to future employment.

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Why?

• Recent studies demonstrate the
  effectiveness of using personal networks as a job
  search strategy (Timmons, Hamner, Boes, 2003),
  and highlight the fact that families make key
  contributions to successful employment outcomes
  for individuals with disabilities (26th Institute
  on Rehabilitation Issues, 2000).

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How can Parents Help?

• Combine community relationships, a
• young persons interests, and family or
• personal networks to help a young person
• effectively explore work-based learning
• outside of school settings.

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How?

• Help your sons or daughters explore their
• unique abilities, strengths, and interestsall
• of which may lead to an appropriate career
• path.

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How?

• Use practical strategies to prepare them for
  employment by
• assigning chores at home
• encouraging youth to volunteer in their community
  
• keeping an eye open for employment opportunities
• discussing different careers in the community

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How?

• Teach youth to be self-advocates while searching
  for a good job.
• share your insight and information, with the IEP
  Team, which may serve as a basis to determine
  strategies and services for the transition IEP
  goals.

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What are Self Determination Skills?

• Self-knowledge. Know skills, abilities,
  strengths, and limitations.
• Goal setting. Set appropriate goals and work
  toward them.
• Problem solving/decision making/choice making
  skills.
• Self advocacy. Speak up for oneself, know
  rights, understand health disability.

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Why Teach Self Determination?

• Ultimately, to be successful in the
• workplace, youth must develop skills to
• become as independent as possible.
• Research supports the idea that youth who leave
  high school with self-determination skills have a
  greater chance of achieving positive post-school
  outcomes than those who do not. (Wehmeyer
  Schwartz, 1997).

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How Can Parents Help?

• Parents can help their children develop
  self-determination skills by creating a
  supportive environment, which allows youth to
  take risks, test their abilities and limitations,
  develop their problem solving skills, and
  practice positive work habits and behaviors.

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Whose Future Is It?

• Although parents can do much to launch
• their sons and daughters into the work force,
• their childrens future is their own.

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You can make a difference through positive
transition planning!
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Questions?

• If you would like more information about
  the transition process contact Jane Winstead,
  Director of Transition Services, Tennessee
  Department of Education, Division of Special
  Education at
• Jane.winstead_at_state.tn.us

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References

• Material adapted from a publication of the
  National Center for Secondary Education and
  Transition (NCSET)
• Preparing for Employment On the Home Front
• The entire publication is available on the Web
  at http//www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp
  ?id2844