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Transition Tidbits
Transition News and ResourcesFebruary/March 2013
In This Issue
Training: MT, Online
Training: Other States
MT News
Announcements
Employment
Health
National News
Post-Secondary
Technology
Transition
Web Sites

Learning Opportunities: Montana and Online 

 

Customized Employment

March 4-April 1, 2013

Cost: $125

This course will take a closer look at customized employment and how it can facilitate employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

 

Job Coaching and Workplace Supports

March 7-20, 2013

Cost: $159

This two-week course will cover effective job design, instructional and behavioral support strategies, and the development of natural and co-worker supports.

 

Transitioning with Technology: Using Handheld Technology Moving from School to Work and Community

March 11, 2013

1:00-2:00 PM MT

Learn what handheld devices and apps are being utilized to assist students as they successfully move from school to work and community. Emphasis will be on built-in features, and generic and specialized apps which promote independence, communication, productivity, and inclusion.

 

Barriers to Health Promotion for Individuals with Disabilities

March 13, 2013

12:00 PM MT

This webinar will focus on barriers to health promotion for individuals with disabilities and strategies to overcome them.

 

Into Adulthood: Transition to Work for Individuals with Autism

March 18-April 29, 2013

Cost: $300.05

This course will provide the participant with an in-depth understanding of the concepts related to positive transition planning for youth with autism.

 

RSA's Assistive Technology Programs and State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies - Working Together for Success

March 21st, 2013

12:00-1:00 PM MT

This webinar will demonstrate how the Assistive Technology programs offer potential cost savings and enhanced services for VR agencies/counselors, and people with disabilities.

 

Supported Employment Web-Based Certificate Series

April 1-June 17, 2013

Cost: $325
This ACRE-certified course provides an extensive overview of supported employment and how to facilitate competitive jobs for individuals with significant disabilities.

 

Providing Quality Training

April 10-23, 2013

Cost: $159

The course covers all the basics for good skill instruction. Also, it will feature more advanced information on error correction, data collection, and training strategies for difficult tasks.

 

"Picture Perfect" Interventions: Using Video Modeling to Support People with Autism

April 13, 2013

8:30 AM- 3:30 PM MT

Cost: $35-75 by March 1st; $50-90 after March 1st

Missoula, MT

Presenters will use a high-powered lens to develop evidence-based strategies to support people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Strategies will include the highly effective video modeling and video self-modeling strategies as well as story-based interventions, self-regulation, promoting, special-interest supports and Role Playing. Participants will engage in hands-on learning using Flip Cams and other technology with a comprehensive planning system.

 
Register on the Montana Professional Development Portal, Course ID 2883. Send payment to Western MT CSPD, Attn Nancy Marks, 215 South 6th St West, Missoula, MT 59801, or fax purchase orders to 406-728-2417.

 

Marketing and Job Development: Developing Opportunities for Youth and Adults with Disabilities

May 5-18, 2013

Cost: $159

This 2-week course will cover the key principles and hands-on tools for finding jobs for people with disabilities and other high-unemployment groups.

 

Customized Supported Self-Employment

May 6-July 15, 2013

Cost: $250

This online course is being offered by Virginia Commonwealth University's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center in collaboration with Griffin-Hammis and Associates.

Learning Opportunities: Other States

Ready by 21 National Meeting

March 11-13, 2013

Atlanta, GA

The Forum for Youth Investment is hosting a three-day meeting dedicated to improving the odds for children and youth. The goal is to get all young people ready by 21 for college, work, and life. Leaders in the field will share how they have (a) adopted standards for creating effective change, (b) implemented solutions to achieve goals, and (c) measured success.

 

2013 Disability Policy Seminar

April 15-17, 2013

Washington, D.C.

Two days of informative in-depth sessions from disability policy experts and opportunities to network with others from your state will culminate in a third day starting off with breakfast on Capitol Hill before you personally meet with your elected representatives and their staffs.

 

Employment First: Race to Success- Employment Comes in First

June 24-27, 2013

Indianapolis, Indiana

This year's conference will feature strands including State-of-the-Art Practices in Integrated Employment; Transition from School to Adult Life; Public Policy and Funding; Leadership and Personal Development; and Consumer, Family and Self-Advocacy.

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Greetings!

 

Welcome to the latest edition of Transition Tidbits. We hope you find the news and resources in this issue useful as you support young Montanans with disabilities in their transition to adult lives.

Montana News

Are you on Facebook? If so, visit the Rural Institute Transition and Employment Projects page and the Montana Youth Transitions page..."like" and "share" what you see!

 

The Rural Institute Consumer Advisory Council (partially funded through a contract with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Children's Special Health Services) is recruiting representatives from the Montana Developmental Disabilities Program and the foster care system (especially youth/young adults who are or have been in foster care). We also seek Native Americans/American Indians with a disability and children and youth with special health care needs to serve on the council. For more information or an application, contact Kim Brown at [email protected] or by calling 406-243-4852.

 

One of the Rural Institute Consumer Advisory Council members, Mathalia, was recently featured in the Missoulian newspaper and on KPAX television news for her active involvement in school and community activities, work, and her own business. Congratulations to Mathalia and her family!

 

The 2013 Montana Youth Leadership Forum (MYLF) will be held in Helena July 22-26. MYLF is a career and leadership training program for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors with disabilities. Delegate Applications, Staff Applications, and the Call for Presenters are posted on the

MYLF website
Announcements 

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month - what will you do to raise awareness in your community?

 

The U.S. Department of Education seeks input on Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE). This initiative was created to foster improved outcomes for children ages 14-16 who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) by supporting enhanced coordination between various services, such as those available through Vocational Rehabilitation, Medicaid, Job Corps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Through PROMISE, a small number of competitive, multi-year grants will be awarded to states. The deadline for comment is March 17, 2013.

 

The Office of Personnel Management issued a final regulation eliminating the "certification of job readiness" requirement for the appointment of people with intellectual disability, severe physical disabilities, and psychiatric disabilities to federal agencies.

 

The IRS released Where Taxpayers With Disabilities Can Find Online Help from the IRS [Video], a YouTube video that provides information about tax products and other IRS services offered to people with disabilities.

 

The 101 Friends website posted Researching Researchers: Sheenagh interviews Emma Van der Klift. In the interview Emma reminds readers of the importance of curiosity and seeing the people we serve as experts in their own lives.

 

The HSC Foundation, in partnership with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), is now accepting applications for a paid fellowship position [PDF] with the organizations' disability youth transition and collaboration work. This fellowship is ideal for a person with a disability who has an interest in youth career transitions and employment solutions. The fellowship starts June 2013, and continues for 12 months. Under the supervision of AAPD's Programs' Manager, the Youth Transitions Fellow will gain exposure to youth programs serving people with disabilities and will have the opportunity to facilitate collaboration among internship, fellowship, and apprenticeship programs based in the greater Washington, DC area. Applications must be received by 5:00 PM EST on March 22, 2013.

 

The HSC Foundation Advocates in Disability Award was created to acknowledge and encourage a young individual with a disability between age 14 and 26, who has dedicated himself/herself to positively affecting the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families. The selected recipient is awarded $3000 and may receive up to an additional $7000 to support an innovative project that serves and empowers individuals with disabilities. The application deadline is March 15, 2013.

Employment 

The U.S. Department of Labor released the Employer Resource Guide for Hiring and Retaining Persons with Disabilities. The guide provides relevant federal, state and local level information around employers' legal obligations, along with resources that can assist in identifying, paying for, and implementing effective accommodation strategies.

 

Disability.Blog, the official blog of Disability.gov, recently featured What Questions Are Illegal for Employers to Ask during Job Interviews? The author provides examples of illegal questions (about age, disability, etc.) and possible responses an applicant might give.

 

Leveling the Playing Field: Attracting, Engaging, and Advancing People with Disabilities examines the business case for employing people with disabilities and details the steps companies can take to encourage the hiring and engagement of employees with disabilities. The Executive Summary addresses a number of myths and misconceptions that can make it difficult for organizations to hire and support people with disabilities.

Health

The Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University offers the Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Knowledge Path, which directs readers to a selection of current, high-quality resources about preventing, identifying, and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health.

 

Funding Health-Related VR Services: The Potential Impact of the Affordable Care Act on the Use of Private Health Insurance and Medicaid to Pay for Health-Related VR Services analyzes the potential impact of the Affordable Care Act on the payment for certain health-related VR services, including physical and mental restoration services, assistive technology devices and services, and personal assistance services.

 

Informed Consent for Healthcare offers a variety of resources for individuals with intellectual disabilities, their families, medical providers and support staff.

 

The Health Care Notebook [PDF], developed by the Parent to Parent of NYS Family to Family Health Care Information and Education Center, provides a central location for information regarding an individual's health care needs. The American Academy of Pediatrics has developed a similar tool called Building Your Care Notebook. These notebooks can be invaluable...and empowering...to youth as they transition from pediatric to adult health care. 

National News

On February 26th, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on "State Leadership and Innovation in Disability Employment." The testimony from witnesses Gov. Jack Markell, D-DE; Jane Boone, consultant, Washington State Employment Leadership Network, Seattle, WA; Mike O'Brien, executive director, Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services, Oklahoma City; and Don Uchida, executive director, Utah State Office of Rehabilitation, Salt Lake City, can be accessed on the Committee's web site.

 

The Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2013 (ABLE Act; S. 313, H.R. 647) was introduced by Senators Robert Casey, Jr., (D-PA) and Richard Burr (R-NC) in the Senate, and Representatives Ander Crenshaw (R-FL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Pete Sessions (R-TX) in the House of Representatives. The Act would create ABLE savings accounts to allow people with disabilities to save for expenses such as education, community-based supports, housing, assistive technology and transportation. These accounts would be disregarded when determining eligibility for Medicaid, SSI, and other means-tested programs.

 

TEAM Act Reintroduced:

U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) reintroduced the Transition toward Excellence, Achievement and Mobility (TEAM Act), three bills designed to promoting meaningful post-secondary educational and employment opportunities for young adults with intellectual disabilities. The legislation is intended to:

� streamline federal programs and services that support youth with significant disabilities from youth to adulthood, and

� rebalance funding to focus on improved outcomes in post-secondary education and integrated employment

 

These three bills (known separately as the TEAM-Education Act, the TEAM-Empowerment Act, and the TEAM-Employment Act) all collectively seek to promote meaningful post-secondary educational and employment opportunities, with an emphasis on the eventual outcome leading to sustained, full-time employment in an integrated setting at a livable wage, long-term career development and growth, and inclusion in the community setting through independent living and social engagement.

 

The TEAM-Education Act would ensure that schools are provided additional resources to hire transition coordinators to proactively support our kids during their transition years in the public school system. The TEAM-Empowerment Act also creates an adult transition planning process and system of transition supports for youth and their families under the auspices of the state intellectual and developmental disability agencies to ensure that our youth can choose a broker to work with them as they seek to use their public supports to secure a desired post-secondary educational opportunity or employment at a livable wage in an integrated setting. The TEAM-Employment Act seeks to stimulate a national system-change initiative, which will ensure that agencies coordinate services better to produce the desired outcomes of integrated living and employment. This includes incentivizing and rewarding those states who reshape the focus of their current funding streams to promote those services that lead to getting our youngsters fully participating in the community through the general workforce and economic mainstream. 
Post-Secondary Education 

The National Federation of the Blind is offering thirty national scholarships worth from $3,000 to $12,000 to blind college students in the United States and Puerto Rico. Applications are due March 31, 2013.

 

Colleges Realign Programs to Meet Employers' Needs describes some of the ways in which two-year colleges are better aligning educational programs with the local labor market, strengthening student advising services, and creating flexible programs to help students successfully and rapidly enter the labor market.

 

Policy Research Brief: A Taxonomy for Postsecondary Education Programs for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities [PDF] from the Research and Training Center on Community Living presents the current state of the Taxonomy for Postsecondary Education Programs for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, along with examples of how it can be used. The taxonomy is intended to provide a basis for comparing the features of postsecondary education programs designed to serve students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and to lay the groundwork for further study and comparison of their outcomes.

 

Identifying Effective Components of a Collaborative Career Planning Model for Individuals with ASD in

Postsecondary Education [PDF], a Research to Practice Brief from the Autism Disability Rehabilitation Research Project, highlights some of the results from structured interviews with col­lege students on the autism spectrum. For example, when asked what career-related activities they thought would be most beneficial, informational interviews and career exploration were most often selected, followed by internships and work experience. Disclosure plans to use with employers and mentoring in their chosen career area were also identified as important.

 

Survey Data Recap: College Students with Disabilities [PDF], Virginia Commonwealth University's Project Empowerment latest topic sheet, presents a study that explores the issues that are known to negatively affect all college students in order to examine how these issues also affect college students with disabilities.

Technology

The Virginia Commonwealth University-Autism Center for Excellence recently posted Autism Q&A: Introduction to Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). This fact sheet introduces AAC devices for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and offers guidance on how to choose and teach the use of the devices.

 

The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration has optimized some of its most popular online job search and training tools for smart phone and tablet use.

 

On February 1st, the American Foundation for the Blind launched the AccessNote, a specialized notetaker for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This is the first note-taking app designed for users with vision loss.

 

The January 2013 Job Accommodation Network E-News includes an article discussing the use of accessibility features of mobile devices as reasonable accommodations for sensory, motor and cognitive impairments.

Transition 

On February 12, 2013, the Systems Change Transition Projects Utilizing Direct and Indirect Service webinar  was held.  Tara Jordan, RSA Project Officer; Michael Kinney, Rehabilitation Program Specialist for Transition and Postsecondary Services, Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission; and Clayton Rees, Youth Transition Services Coordinator/Project ACCESS Project Manager, Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation Services, shared information that has been useful in assisting state VR agencies in providing effective transition services. The archived PowerPoint slides, transcript and session recording are now available to download.

 

If you weren't able to attend the 2012 National Transition Conference: College and Careers for Youth with Disabilities, you can now access the online archives! The Institute for Community Inclusion established a website that provides an overview of the conference program, materials provided by presenters and captioned video of both the opening session and the keynote speaker, Ann Wilson Cramer of IBM. Breakout session materials have been organized by theme track.

 

Students w/ Disabilities and College/Career Readiness: 101 Documents  from the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center synthesizes the research, policy, and discussion on topics pertinent to secondary special educators.

 

The IDEA Partnership at NASDE's Community of Practice on Transition has a workgroup focused on employment opportunities and career development for youth with disabilities. This workgroup is hosting a series of webinars in partnership with the National Post-School Outcomes Center and NSTTAC. "Get the Picture" was held on Wednesday, February 20th. Presenters shared the current national data and family perspectives regarding employment for youth and young adults. "Get in the Picture" will be held on Wednesday, March 27th from 12:00-1:30 PM MT, and will cover current national work including Employment First legislation and initiatives in states. Finally, "Change the Picture" will be offered on Wednesday, April 24th from 12:00-1:30 PM.

 

Iowa's State Department of Education website houses a Matrix for Transition Assessment that includes links to assessment methods and tools. The Matrix also provides a framework for gathering necessary transition planning information focusing on a student's interests and preferences, basic skills, attitudes, habits, self-awareness, and critical thinking and application skills.

 

MTV's documentary-style series "World of Jenks " features three young adults, one of whom has autism, navigating the ups and downs of the transition to adulthood.

 

Linking Youth Transition Support Services: Results from Two Demonstration Projects  presents an overview of two projects in the Social Security Administration's Youth Transition Demonstration: California's Bridges to Youth Self-Sufficiency and Mississippi's Model Youth Transition Innovation. Key outcomes are reported and the successful experiences of one youth in each project are highlighted.

 

NCWD/Youth recently released their updated Individualized Learning Plan guide, Promoting Quality Individualized Learning Plans: A "How-to Guide" Focused on the High School Years. This tool is designed for educators and other professionals who assist youth with college and career readiness and transition planning.

 

Work-Based Learning Opportunities for High School Students [PDF] describes the Year 5 work of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education's Technical Assistance Academy. Recommendations based on the findings from the project include:

  • Provide a clear purpose for work-based learning, emphasizing the learning component
  • Offer resources and information about components of high-quality programs
  • Provide professional development for teachers and coordinators to develop instructional strategies
  • Convene meetings with employer associations and labor unions to achieve buy-in
  • Provide resources and guidelines for employer mentor selection, training, and continued engagement
  • Support teachers to work closely with coordinators and employer mentors to develop detailed student training plans
  • Connect work-based learning to classroom learning
  • Provide better guidelines for accountability for student learning
  • Adequately fund coordinators
  • Market work-based learning programs
  • Ensure careful consideration of legal issues
  • Use consistent definitions and terminology
  • Examine ways to leverage various funding sources
Web Sites

The OSERS Transition Steering Committee launched a new webpage for the Year of College and Career for Youth with Disabilities Initiative. The page features news and resources for young people with disabilities, their families, educators and employment professionals.

 

The Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (KTDRR) launched its new website. According to the website, the purpose of KTDRR is "to make it easier to find, understand, and use the results of research that can make a positive impact on the lives of people with disabilities."

 

The Virginia Department of Education website houses a number of transition resources, including fact sheets, webinars and guides.

 

The CAST UDL Exchange is a free website community where educators can create, mix and share lesson plans and other teaching resources based on universal design for learning (UDL) principles and aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

 

The We Connect Now website was created in 2008 to connect college students with disabilities as a virtual community with a voice on important issues, especially access to higher education and employment.

 

Please note: the Transition and Employment Projects at the University of Montana Rural Institute shares information and resources our listserv members may find of interest. We do not endorse the web sites or workshop contents or their providers, and we assume no responsibility for the validity of information provided on sites or in sessions not hosted by our agency.

 

This project is funded in whole or in part under a Contract with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The statements herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Department.