Transitions: preschool, new schools, moving and adulthood

What happens to an IEP at age 3, at a new school, on a move within or out of the state, when transition planning begins and at the age of majority, and what to ask at each.

1. Transitions reset the cycle Understand

How the process works described special education as a cycle that repeats each year: review, progress reports, reevaluation, review again. Some events break the rhythm. A child turns 3 and moves from one part of the law to another. A family moves, and a new school with new people and possibly a new state's rules takes over. A student reaches the age when the IEP must plan for life after school, and later the age when, in many states, the rights the parent has held pass to the student. Each of these is a transition: a point where the IEP is carried, rewritten or ended, and where things that were settled can be reopened.

Transitions are worth planning for because the paperwork changes hands. A new team does not know your child. A new state may use different forms and timelines. A student who turns into the decision-maker overnight may not have run a meeting before. The record you have kept through Observations and priorities, Reading the IEP, Goals, services and placement, Before the meeting, In the meeting and After the meeting is what carries the history across the gap.

The timeline below lists the transitions the federal regulations address and the source for each. It does not show your state's dates; your state's notice and its rules set some of them, and Rules and Record links them.

Most families meet two or three of these, not all of them. The Start here steps ask you for the next one only.

2. From early intervention to preschool

Before age 3, services for a child with a disability come under Part C of IDEA, called early intervention, and are written in an individualized family service plan (IFSP), which is organized around the family as well as the child. From age 3, services come under Part B, the part this manual follows, and are written in an IEP. The state must make sure the change happens smoothly: by the child's third birthday, an IEP (or, if the state allows and the family chooses, an IFSP) has been developed and is being implemented (34 CFR 300.124, transition from Part C). The school district must take part in the transition planning conference that the early intervention program arranges.

What that means in practice: a child in early intervention is not automatically eligible for preschool special education. The school district evaluates, an eligibility group decides, and the team writes an IEP, all before the third birthday if the timing works. The same consent, evaluation and eligibility steps from How the process works and Referral and evaluation apply. The early intervention records are information the evaluation can use.

The parts of this manual that apply to a 2-year-old: Referral and evaluation for the evaluation, Observations and priorities for observations (play, meals, dressing, transitions between activities), and Reading the IEP, Goals, services and placement, Before the meeting and In the meeting when the first IEP is drafted.

3. A new school or a move

Children change schools for ordinary reasons: kindergarten, middle school, high school, a new home. The IEP is written for the child, not the building, so it goes with the child. What changes is who carries it out and, after a move, who is responsible.

A new school in the same district

When a child moves up to middle school or changes buildings in the same district, the IEP stays in effect. The regulations require the IEP to be accessible to each regular and special education teacher and provider responsible for carrying it out, and each must be told their specific responsibilities (34 CFR 300.323, when IEPs must be in effect). A building change is a common time for that to slip: a new set of teachers, each seeing the child for one period. Convention A short meeting or email to the new case manager in the first weeks, asking who has read the IEP, is this manual's suggestion; the regulations do not call for one.

A move to a new grade level is also a natural time to ask whether the IEP should be reviewed early. You can ask for an IEP meeting at any time (After the meeting).

A move within the same state

When a child with an IEP transfers to a new district in the same state during the school year, the new district provides a free appropriate public education, including services comparable to those in the previous IEP, in consultation with the parents, until it either adopts the previous IEP or develops and implements a new one (34 CFR 300.323(e)). Comparable services means similar or equivalent to what the IEP describes; the regulation does not require the new district to copy the old one service for service, and it does not leave the child without services while the new district decides. Ask the authority What "comparable" means for a particular service is something to ask the new district, in writing, and, if you disagree, a question for the routes in When you disagree.

A move to another state

When the move crosses a state line, the new district provides comparable services, in consultation with the parents, until it conducts an evaluation (if it decides one is necessary) and develops a new IEP, if appropriate (34 CFR 300.323(f)). Two differences from an in-state move matter. First, the new district may evaluate the child under its own state's rules; that is an initial evaluation in the new state, and it needs your consent. Second, the new state's procedural safeguards notice, timelines, names and offices apply. Open the new state's page on the state links page and fill in a fresh copy of your state sheet from it.

Records travel

The new school must take reasonable steps to promptly obtain the child's records, including the IEP and supporting documents, from the previous school, and the previous school must take reasonable steps to promptly respond (34 CFR 300.323(g)). "Promptly" is not a number of days in the regulation. You do not have to wait for the schools: you have the right to inspect your child's education records (Before the meeting), and a copy of the current IEP is yours already. Carry the binder.

4. Transition to adulthood

In the special education regulations, "transition" also has a narrower meaning: planning for the student's life after high school. Beginning not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the student turns 16, or younger if the IEP team decides it is appropriate, and updated every year, the IEP must include (34 CFR 300.320(b)):

• Measurable postsecondary goals, based on age-appropriate transition assessments, for training, education, employment and, where appropriate, independent living skills; and
• the transition services, including courses of study, needed to help the student reach those goals.

Read the age rule carefully, because it is about the IEP, not the birthday. The rule applies to the first IEP that will be in effect on the student's 16th birthday. An IEP written at a meeting when the student is 15, and still in effect when the student turns 16, is that IEP. So in practice transition planning often appears at the annual review before the 16th birthday. Convention Some states start earlier than the federal floor; your state's notice or its rules say whether yours does, and Rules and Record links them. The team may also start earlier for any student.

What transition services are

The regulations define transition services as a coordinated set of activities, designed within a results-oriented process, focused on improving the student's academic and functional achievement so the move from school to post-school activities goes well: postsecondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living or community participation (34 CFR 300.43, transition services). They are based on the student's needs, taking into account the student's strengths, preferences and interests, and can include instruction, related services, community experiences, employment and adult living objectives, and, when appropriate, daily living skills and a functional vocational evaluation.

The phrase "strengths, preferences and interests" is the student's opening. A transition plan written without the student is a plan about the student. That is why the regulation on the team says what it says next.

The student at the table

When a meeting's purpose includes the postsecondary goals and transition services, the school must invite the student; if the student does not attend, the school must take other steps to make sure the student's preferences and interests are considered (34 CFR 300.321(b)). With the parent's consent (or the student's, once rights have transferred), the school also invites a representative of any outside agency likely to provide or pay for transition services, such as a state vocational rehabilitation agency.

Students do not usually walk into their first IEP meeting ready to speak. Convention This manual's suggestion is to start small at 14 or so: the student attends the first part, says one thing about what is going well and one thing that is hard, and hears the goals read. Each year adds a piece: the student explains the accommodations that help, then presents the postsecondary goals, then leads part of the meeting. CPIR's transition page collects resources on student involvement.

These ages are this manual's convention, not a rule. Some students lead much earlier; some prefer not to lead, and attending is enough. The regulation asks that the student be invited and that the student's preferences be considered.

5. The age of majority and transfer of rights

A state may provide that when a student with a disability reaches the age of majority under state law, the rights the parent has held under Part B transfer to the student, unless the student has been determined incompetent under state law (34 CFR 300.520, transfer of parental rights). When that happens, the school gives notices to both the student and the parents. The regulation also lets a state set procedures for appointing the parent or another person to represent the educational interests of a student who has not been found incompetent but is found unable to give informed consent.

The IEP must carry a statement, at least one year before the student reaches the age of majority under state law, that the student has been informed of the rights that will transfer (34 CFR 300.320(c)). If your child's IEP should have that statement and does not, write it as a question on your IEP at a glance sheet.

The age, and what exactly transfers, are set by state law, not by the federal regulations. Ask the authority Read your state's procedural safeguards notice through its Rules and Record page, copy what it says to your state sheet, and ask the school which rights will transfer and when. This manual does not state an age for any state.

What changes, and what to prepare

Where rights transfer, the student becomes the person the school asks for consent, sends notices to and deals with in a disagreement. The parent still receives notices, under 34 CFR 300.520, but the decisions are the student's. For a family used to running the IEP, that is a real change of roles. Preparing for it is mostly practice: the student leads more of each meeting in the years before, reads the IEP at a glance sheet, and keeps the binder (Your IEP binder). The family learns which rights move and decides with the student how the student wants help.

Some families look into legal arrangements for a student who will need help making decisions as an adult. Two terms come up: guardianship, a court process that gives another person authority to make some or all decisions for an adult, and supported decision-making, an arrangement in which the adult makes decisions with help from people they choose. Both are legal questions with consequences well beyond school. Ask the authority This manual names them only; ask your state's parent center, listed on your state's Rules and Record page, or an attorney.

6. Leaving special education

Special education ends in one of three ways: the student graduates with a regular high school diploma, the student ages out of eligibility (the upper age is set by the state within the federal limits), or the team finds the student is no longer a child with a disability. Before a school decides a student is no longer eligible, it must evaluate the student, with one exception: no reevaluation is needed when eligibility ends because the student graduates with a regular high school diploma or exceeds the age of eligibility. In those two cases the school gives the student a summary of the student's academic achievement and functional performance, with recommendations on how to help the student meet the postsecondary goals (34 CFR 300.305(e)). That document is often called the summary of performance.

Exit questions are among the hardest for families because the rules on diplomas, credits and the upper age differ by state. Ask the authority Ask the school, in writing, which kind of diploma the student is working toward, what it means for continuing services, and when the summary of performance will be ready. Your state's notice and its offices answer what the state allows.

7. Student-led meetings, earlier starts and special moves Go deeper

8. See it See it

Free sources on these transitions:

• Transition to Adulthood (CPIR): transition planning in the IEP, the student's role and transfer of rights, from the national parent center network.
• Special education, state by state (Rules and Record): the new state's page after a move, with its notice and offices.
• Find Your Parent Center (CPIR): the national map, for a parent center in a new state when its notice does not list one.

9. Practice Practice

Minimum: write the next transition and two questions about it on the prep plan. Time: about 30 minutes. Materials: the current IEP (its dates and, for older students, the transition section), the prep plan, and for a move the binder page.

1. Find the next transition. Use your child's age, grade and any planned move to find the next row on the timeline in section 1. Write it with its date or grade.
2. Read the section for that transition. Copy the questions that fit from its table, then rewrite two of them in your own words.
3. Put them on the prep plan. Add a task row for the transition and put the two questions on your questions sheet with Ask ticked.
4. For a student 14 or older: ask the student what they would want to say at the next meeting, and write it on the child's view sheet in the student's words.
5. For a move: export the binder from the binder page and save the file with today's date; write a short request to the current school for the documents in the move table.
6. Check the transition section against the definition. (Go deeper; optional.) For an IEP with a transition section, match each service to a postsecondary goal and write a question for any that do not match.

10. Your situation Your situation

11. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Have you named the next transition and its date or grade?
• Are your two questions questions, not statements of what the school must do?
• For an older student: does the student know what part they will play in the next meeting?
• For a move: is the binder exported, and have you asked for the records in writing?
• For the age of majority: have you read what your state's notice says, rather than assuming an age?

Worked example

Daniel's prep plan carries a task row, "Transition planning at the ARD meeting," and two questions marked Ask. The first asks whether this IEP will include the transition section; it does not tell the committee that it must, because whether this is the first IEP in effect at 16 depends on dates the committee confirms. The second covers Sofía's part and the interpreters. Sofía's own line about what she wants to study is on the child's view sheet. Nothing on the sheet states Texas's rules; Daniel's state sheet carries what he copied from the Texas page, with the date.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for the 16th birthday. The federal rule turns on the first IEP in effect at 16, which is often written at 15.
• Assuming the age of majority. It is set by state law and stated in your state's notice. Read it and copy it.
• Arriving at a new school with nothing. The schools exchange records, but you can hand over the current IEP and the binder on the first day.
• Planning the student's future without the student. The regulation asks that the student's preferences and interests be considered. Ask the student first.
• Treating guardianship as a school form. It is a court process with lasting consequences. Take the question to the parent center or an attorney.

What is still unresolved

This chapter tells you what the federal regulations say happens at each transition and what to ask. It cannot tell you your state's age of majority, whether it starts transition planning earlier, its diploma and exit rules, or what services count as comparable after a move. Your state's notice and offices answer those, and When you disagree describes the routes if you disagree with what a new school offers.

12. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The next transition is on the prep plan with its date or grade.
• Two questions about it are on my questions sheet.
• If my child is 14 or older, I have asked how the student will take part.
• If a move is coming, the binder export is saved and the records are requested.
• I have matched the transition services to the postsecondary goals. (Go deeper; optional)