Personalized Transition Planning

Meet Kim Chester in Bartow County

Kim utilized tools from Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA), Parent to Parent of Georgia, the Ga Dept. of Health and other agencies, her own lived experience as a parent, and community partners to assist families in setting goals and timelines for their transition planning process. By utilizing the resources and people in those other agencies and programs, Kim helped families understand how collaborating with community, good communication about needs and goals and high expectations for student success, can make a difference in the outcomes for students.

Kim’s 11 Step Process

1. I met with each family by phone conversation or an in-person meeting.
2. Parents were given hand outs.(What is Transition Planning?, Checklist for Adult Disability, Understanding the transition time line,https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/career-resource-center/careers-for-disabilities-abilities/, Project Search information, GVRA, DBHDD, guardianship)
3. Discussed options for their child. Explained Services offered by GVRA.
4. Verified that they have completed GVRA referral/VR client.
5. Parent and student were to discuss career opportunities and interests.
6. Phone conversation and/or meeting at a later time to discuss career choices.
7. Arrange for job skills/self-advocacy training through GVRA.
8. GVRA provided the “Picking My Path Program”.
9. GVRA provided Worked Base Learning Opportunities for experience.
10. Some of the students have been accepted to the Project Search Program.
11. Regular phone conversations to check on progress and changes in circumstances.

“I worked with families regarding transition to post school outcomes. I created a comprehensive transition manual with timelines, links, and general information. Then, I worked with these families one on one to determine their specific needs. We sat down and went through the manual and then had follow-up meetings to complete tasks identified by the families as priorities. By doing this in one on one settings, we were able to clearly define dreams for post school success, barriers to these dreams, student attributes and tools that could aid in meeting these transition dreams, and then finally creating an action plan.”

“From these individually developed action plan, we were able to strategically work towards achieving student/family goals within a reasonable time frame as defined within the action plan. We used Person Centered Plans to develop this road map which ended with the action plan that included dates and who would lead the action. We invited family, school, and community partners to the Person Centered Plans in order to build support within each plan.”

“Our plan is that students will leave school and achieve their desired appropriate post school outcomes.”

Sharing Power, Communicating, Student Success