Facilitating the transition from high school to post-secondary education for students with learning disabilities: How are we doing?

Federal and New York State (NYS) legislation require that students with disabilities receive services that assist them in the transition from high school to post-secondary life. Students with learning disabilities (LD) who pursue post-secondary education have specific needs. Research shows that transition services must address the following issues: student understanding of his or her disability, student strengths and weaknesses, career decision-making skills, and how to deal with the increased demands of post-secondary education. This study assesses how well transition services are meeting these needs. Seventy- four coordinators of programs for students with disabilities at various NYS colleges completed surveys measuring their perception of how well the students they serve are prepared through transition services in high school. Respondents rated students\u27 lack of advocacy skills as the greatest weakness of current transition services. Respondents were most satisfied with high schools\u27 provision of updated evaluations for students prior to enrollment in college