Latina and Anglo Female Adolescent and Parent Values During the IEP Transition Process

Adolescent students with disabilities receive special education services in order to help them transition out of high school into adulthood. This transition process involves goal-setting, meetings, revision of individualized education plans, and student and parent participation. It is a crucial step in helping these young students be successful in adulthood. Latina and Anglo female students with disabilities and parents of Latina and Anglo female students with disabilities were studied. It was specifically examined how important traditional Latino values were to the groups of participants and how much the participants felt these values were being incorporated into the transition process by school personnel. Significant results were found in relation to the value of familismo. These findings have implications for successful transition processes for Latina adolescents with disabilities and their families