Hand Over : - SpecialEducational Needs Coordinators´ Perceptionsof Supporting School Transitions from Grade 6 to 7

The aim of this study was to understand Special Educational Needs Coordinators´ (SENCO) perceptions of how pupils can be supported in school transitions from grade 6 to 7 and how SENCOs can be described as actors in the transition. Eight semi structured interviews were made with the same number of SENCOs from three different municipalities. Four of them employed in grade 4-6 and four in grade 7-9. In a thematic analysis, actions described by the SENCOs as supportive in the transition is discern. Building relationships between the pupils and professionals they will meet seems to be an especially important action. Transfer information to the receiving school, orientate the pupils both mentally and physically in the new context and plan the transition is also claimed to have powerful impact. Also, the informants mentioned the meaning of expecting positive outcomes in meetings with the pupils and how they will manage the transition. SENCOs as an actor in the transitions is portrayed as the organizer of the transition, the documenter and the filterer of transition information. The actions are in the study explained with the concepts of net of actions to visualize the schools’ organization of the transitions and street level bureaucracy how the SENCOs use their discretion. In the study the concept of net of actions was found useful to describe processes perceived to be fixed and chronologically. However, the processes can change in different ways depending on how they are constructed and reconstructed by actors´ actions and current conditions. The findings in this Swedish study seem to be in line with previous European research