If you’ve been a follower of mine on Instagram for awhile, you already know I use my Transition Tracking Sheets in my classroom. These sheets have been a great help in developing IEPs and to have at the IEP meeting. They make documenting special education transition services and activities in the classroom easy.
Each year I am able to track students’ transition services/activities they complete. These services/activities are individualized for each student. I keep each student’s transition tracking sheets in a binder for easy organization and quick reference.
First, before I begin, please know that I’m by no means a transition professional. I’m just a high school special education teacher, sharing how I track transition services/activities in my classroom.
Surveys and Assessments
In this part of the blog post, I want to start with surveys and assessments. This is one step in my documenting transition services and activities. Some items I like to keep track of include:
- student input forms/transition surveys
- parents input forms/transition surveys
- student interests inventory assessments
- student interest aptitude assessments
- state testing scores
- curriculum based assessments
- additional testing scores (ex. PSAT)
Tracking Transition Services
Next, I want to start with tracking transition services. These services are skills I track for post secondary education, employment, and independent living. These are skills that can lead to students’ measurable annual goals and progress monitoring.
In my ELA classes we regularly build upon our vocabulary 
skills, comprehension skills, and writing conventions. In my math classes we regularly improve our basic math skills, time management skills, solving word problems, etc. For tracking purposes, I keep dated work samples and I track topics being taught in the classroom, through my daily lesson planning. Some skills we work on come naturally through daily instruction. Other skills we work on come from resources I have created.
I like to show students that skills being learned in the classroom are skills they will need after graduation. Some of these resources I use to help with this include my Workplace Writing Choice Boards, Vocation Scenario Task Cards and Job Preparation Task Cards, and Vocation Scenario BOOM Cards™and Job Preparation BOOM Cards™.
Tracking Transition Activities
Tracking transition activities can vary differently. Each activity is put into place to provide help to students to achieve their post-secondary goals. Keep in mind that students don’t all have the same goals. There are some activities I track off and on throughout the year. While other activities I only track once or twice a year.
Along with tracking students’ interest/preference assessments and academic assessments only once or twice a year, I also track the following activities:
- grade level meetings
- guidance counselor meetings
I think it’s important to include tracking of any grade level meetings or meetings with the guidance counselor. There have been several times that each grade level has a class meeting. I keep track of this date(or dates), too. These can be especially important to track, if graduation requirements or scheduling for the following year is being discussed. Students being able to make class selections based on their career goals, is a great activity to track. Sometimes at these meetings, students are introduced to new clubs or organizations they can join. Depending on the grade level, students can register for the PSAT, SAT, apply to post-secondary schools, register to tour the vocational school, etc. All of these are great activities to track, that don’t happen on several occasions throughout the year.
Post-Secondary Education and Training Activities
Let’s move on to post-secondary activities. Not all students have plans of attending post-secondary schooling after high school. That doesn’t mean we don’t complete activities for transition tracking. Transition activities might include:
- career portfolio
- develop a graduation plan
- after school tutoring
- learn accommodations
- use an agenda/planner to maintain assignments
- make a list of self reminders
- enter work into a computer and make appropriate corrections
- develop an understanding of time (ex. using a clock to plan completion of a task)
- demonstrating skills that involve manipulating money (ex. calculating sales tax, discount, cost, etc.)
- complete and turn in assignments on time
- demonstrate an independence in electronic communication (respond to/initiate e-mails)
- explore possible post-secondary programs
- attending college fairs (even virtual ones)
- guest speakers
- apply to schools
Employment Activities
Just like each student’s transition grid in their IEP looks different, activities for each grade level look different. My freshman are justing beginning to think about their goals, and my seniors are preparing for life after graduation. The activities would need to be different for each grade level. Some of the different activities we complete throughout the year include:
- career exploration
- career portfolio
- job fairs
- guest speakers
- career research paper
- job shadow
- résumé writing
- practice with completing job applications
- mock interviews
- meetings with OVR
- work experience (holding a part-time job or volunteering)
- applying problem solving strategies
Independent Living Activities
It is typically decided at IEP meetings, by each student’s entire IEP team, that my learning support students are not in need of an independent living goal. I document that a goal in this area was not needed and I document why. That doesn’t mean we don’t work on important independent living activities, that will help them after high school graduation. Some of the activities we complete include:
- family/consumer science classes
- driver’s education class
- identify/describe strengths and weaknesses
- asking for assistance when needed
- study for/obtain a driver’s license
- make and keep appointments with teachers/counselors
- check listings for homes/apartment
- rental applications
- banking skills
- manage finances/budgeting/money skills
- complete paperwork to open a savings account (practice deposits/withdrawals)
- maintain a checking account
- develop an understanding of time (daily/weekly planning)
- register to vote if 18
I hope this post will be helpful for you, when it comes to ideas for documenting transition services and activities. Is there a service or activity that you use that I didn’t list? Please, leave it in the comments so others (and myself) can see it!