Domain 7: Interagency Collaboration

Region 13's Transition Network is comprised of schools from districts in Austin and surrounding counties involved in transition planning that meets four times each school year. Noonan, Erickson, & Morningstar (2013) found that community transition teams act as a mechanism to increase transition interagency collaboration.  Region 13's Transition Network is able to support educators in developing strategies through a range of activities in quarterly meetings. Strategies employed through the Transition Network align with findings by Noonan, Morningstar & Erickson (2008) to promote interagency collaboration which include using a variety of funding sources, state supported technical assistance, agency meetings with students and families, ability to build relationships, training students and families, meetings with agency staff and transition councils, and dissemination of information to a broad audience.

Sample agenda items for a meeting may include:

• update school staff on new legislation impacting transition planning,

• link schools with community agencies by inviting community representatives to present about programming,

• share community events related to transition such as transition fairs,

• and enhance learning and collaboration among educators about best practices in transition planning and programming.

Competencies addressed: 7.8, 7.9, 7.10

​

Creating meaningful connections that families and individuals will access once they leave high school will help students achieve their post-secondary outcomes. By exploring and learning about the communities families belong to, professionals can identify and connect them with community resources and coordinate with informal support networks to meet the transition needs of young adults with disabilities and their families (Kim & Morningstar, 2005). Community experiences offer students a unique opportunity to explore, learn new skills and apply them in their community, and gain new perspectives in their environment before leaving high school. By using the local community as a transition resource for high school students with disabilities, participating in community activities can increase inclusion and participation in their community after graduation. By participating in a variety of community based activities, youth will be more likely to achieve post-secondary outcomes. Community mapping is one transition strategy that educators can use to match students to resources in the community based upon individual needs. By increasing knowledge about the communities that students live in, they can create more opportunities and provide linkages for individuals with disabilities. (Hoover, 2016). Building off community mapping, an additional resource for students and families can be a transition resource guide created to inform students about a range of services available at federal, state and local level. An example of a community resource guide is linked below.

​

Competencies addressed:  7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 

Documentation of interagency collaboration may be found within the IEP. An example of this can be seen in an IEP section of the transition plan used in KIPP Austin Public Schools. Within the IEP there are three specific sections which helps case managers consider community agencies and resources to help the student secure transition related needs and services. Community agencies KIPP Austin has developed relationships with are the ARC of Texas, CapMetro, and the Texas Workforce Commission. Assessment plays a key role in helping teams identify student needs but the transition meeting allows for case managers to leverage relationships with community partners, allows agencies to meet with students and families, and allows schools to use a variety of funding sources to share in meeting the post-school outcomes for students (Noonan et al., 2008). The IEP provides documentation of how agencies, schools and students with their families will work together to provide support as the student transitions from high school.

Interagency agreements are one way schools and community agencies can collaborate to problem solve and share resources between agencies to facilitate transition of services from high school to post-school settings. Interagency agreements are useful because it generates a written record of specific guidelines and procedures, clarifies roles and responsibilities for each agency, and shapes how agencies will work together (Mazzotti & Rowe, 2015). Mazotti and Rowe provide templates to help teams develop interagency agreements in their book, "Building Alliances: A How to Manual to Support Transitioning Youth" (2015). NTACT also provides a toolkit to support educators in developing interagency agreements. A link to the toolkit is provided below.

​

Competencies addressed: 7.1, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.11 

Juan is a student who was used in a case study throughout courses at the University of Kansas. Juan worked with his transition team to identify post-secondary goals and was working towards achieving them as he worked with an art studio in the community to participate in a work based learning opportunity. This experience helped the team identify additional interagency collaboration opportunities to explore such as job coaching, VR services, and travel training. Kim & Morningstar (2005) also highlight the availability of informal social supports that exist in the community. Juan could utilize these supports through peers at work, peers at school, and extended family supports such as his grandmother. We also learned that Juan would like to live independently with his brother in the future. Natural supports could include the support he would receive from living with his brother, apps on his phone for alarms, reminders, communication, banking and budgeting. If he has access to a computer he could use text to speech functions and autofill features to support him with completing applications or making online purchases. Low tech option could be sticky notes with reminders about locking the door, turning out lights, or a calendar of shared responsibilities for keeping the house clean. Additional information about Juan can be found in the link below.

​

Competencies addressed: 7.8, 7.12