When Does a Student Graduate?
“If a student has an IEP, the graduation decision is made by the IEP team,”
I thought I was up to date with the legalities of transition planning, so this was a new dimension for me. Johnson, the keynote presenter at the Nebraska Transition Conference last week, provided clear guidelines, backed up by recent case law. I thought I should pass this along to you.
First, some background: When a student with an IEP reaches age 16 (or 14 in many states) the IEP team must add transition planning to the IEP process. Transition planning requirements are:
Transition Assessments - a variety of age-appropriate transition assessments, including cognitive and achievement assessments, career interest and aptitude interviews and assessments that are given to all students, as well as informal assessments individually selected for this student.
The student’s post-secondary goals for employment, further education, and independent living. These post-school goals (where the student would like to be during the first year following high school graduation) are then used as the destination target to determine everything else in the IEP.
Annual goals - what the team wants the student to achieve this year to move him closer to that destination. These goals can include academic goals (reading, math, writing) and social, emotional, behavioral goals (needed to be successful in that future, such as interpersonal skills, employability skills, and executive skills).
Transition activities and services - what the team determines will be needed to support the student each year along the way to achieve that destination. Again, these should go beyond the activities and services for all students, to include those individually designed for this student’s unique circumstances and future goals.
Graduation criteria - individualized criteria for this student to receive a high school diploma or alternative certificate. We usually do this for students who may not earn a regular diploma, but doing this for students headed for a high school diploma was new to me! The IEP team reviews the student’s post-school goals in light of this student’s unique needs and sets this student’s individualized criteria for graduation. Johnson recommended that this discussion begin at the first transition planning IEP meeting and be revisited each year. The criteria will include discussion of high school graduation credits (for all students) as well as additional individualized criteria for this student.
For example:
A student with explosive behavior whose postsecondary goal is to become a cook will need to develop self-regulation skills to be successful. His graduation criteria would include completing all course credits plus demonstrating appropriate self-regulation.
A student with ADHD who wants to become a nurse may struggle with task completion. Her graduation criteria would include demonstrating proficiency with task completion in addition to earning all course credits.
A student with a reading learning disability who wants to attend a 4 year university may need to learn self-advocacy and independent use of assistive technology. Those skills would be added to his graduation criteria.
The IEP team with input from the family and the student (of course) will determine the individual graduation criteria for each student, beginning at the first transition planning meeting. In the final year (which could be grade 12, 13, or more), the team will decide if the student has met all graduation criteria and issue a Prior Written Notice for change of placement, documenting all the factors considered in making that decision and indicating that special education services will be discontinued at graduation.
Note: Johnson reminded us that the final graduation decision is NOT a vote; the decision is made by the district representative on the IEP team, after considering all the data, including input from all team members. Documentation of the discussion and data used for that decision will be especially critical if there are dissenting members of the team, including the family and/or student.
Please comment below.
Is this standard practice in your school?
If not, what do you think will be the biggest issues?
What will be the benefits of instituting new guidelines?
