Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals' Identified Transition Competencies: Importance, Frequency, and Preparedness

148 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.Services and programs for transition-age youth with disabilities have been fragmented and inadequate (Noonan, 2004; Oertle & Trach, 2007; Sitlington, Clark, & Kolstoe, 2000). These often-ineffective services have contributed to the sizeable gap betweens students with disabilities and their peers without disabilities in employment and other aspects of community engagement (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996). Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) professionals are increasingly involved with transition-age youth as the only link that school programs have to post school environments and the reality of employment. It is critical that these professionals are continuously learning and evolving with the ever-changing fields of rehabilitation and special education. However, it is uncertain if state VR professionals have the knowledge to contribute to the transition process in a way that maximizes post-school outcomes for students. The purpose of this study was to identify VR professionals' perceptions of the most frequent and important transition competencies, and how prepared they report to deliver transition services. A web-based survey revealed that state VR professionals in Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin consistently identified that they are not performing many transition activities that they perceive to be extremely important. Also, a significant difference was found between general VR counselors and transition-focused VR counselors across level of preparedness, perceived importance and perceived frequency of delivering activities. Suggestions for further research into VR transition services are discussed.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD