Transition Assessments and Evaluation — The United Arc of Franklin and Hampshire Counties

The United Arc’s School Services Program offers the following transition assessments and evaluations for students with disabilities as they prepare to move from school to adult living.

Person Centered Planning: Trained facilitators can offer a variety of person centered planning tools to students and families to help them articulate their vision of the student’s future and develop action steps to move toward this vision. These tools include Personal Futures Planning, Whole Life Planning, Essential Lifestyle Planning, MAPs and PATHs. Creation of a person-centered plan typically takes 10 hours and includes interviews with the student and people important to him/her, a group planning process and a graphic representation of the student’s vision, with a final report detailing the action steps the student and his family and supporters plan to undertake.

Transition Planning Inventory: This standardized assessment tool analyses skills in the following areas as they apply to the student’s transition from school to adult living: Employment, further education or training, daily living, leisure activities, community participation, health, self-determination, communication and interpersonal relationships. The assessment involves separate interviews with the student, parents or guardians, and a professional from the student’s school or provider agency. A final report is generated which includes specific recommendations for measurable goals and settings in which the student can pursue community-based work, independent living and recreational activities.

Functional Transition Evaluation: This evaluation includes a 30-hour observation at the Community Attainment & Transition Program. The final reports summarizes observations of the student’s strengths and areas for growth, and recommendations for goals and activities that the student can pursue in the community related to the following skills areas: work, recreation, and independent living and life skills, social and interpersonal skills.

Supports Intensity Scale (SIS): The SIS provides information that can help planning teams and provider agencies understand the support needs of people with intellectual disabilities and closely related developmental disabilities. The SIS is composted of three Sections:

1) The Support Needs Scales consists of 49 life activities that are groups into six supports subscales,

2) Supplemental Subsection, consists of 8 items related to Protection and Advocacy Activities,

3) Exceptional Medical and Behavioral Support Needs includes 15 medical conditions and 13 problems behaviors that typically require increased levels of support, regardless of the person’s support needs in other life activity areas.

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Mission Statement: "The Arc will lead in forging a society that values, respects, includes, and recognizes the contribution of community members with disabilities."