Equipping youth with and without disabilities for the world of work has been the focus of ongoing legislative and policy initiatives. The authors examined the extent to which career development and vocational activities were available to and accessed by youth with severe disabilities or emotional and behavioral disorders attending 34 urban, suburban, and rural high schools. Although school-level representatives (e.g., administrators, guidance counselors, student services directors) identified an array of career development opportunities offered by their schools, participation by youth with disabilities in these experiences was reported to be fairly limited. Potential factors influencing the participation of youth included disabilityrelated needs and limited professional development opportunities for educators. The authors present recommendations for improving research and practice aimed at better preparing youth with disabilities for their future careers.

Although early work experiences during high school represent one of the most consistent predictors of postschool employment for young adults with disabilities, little is known about how these adolescents might access these valuable transition experiences. This study examined the summer employment and community activities of 136 high school students with severe disabilities. The majority of youth was either not working (61.7%) or reported sheltered employment (11.1%). The most prominent predictors of summer employment status were holding a job during the spring semester and teacher expectations for employment. Recommendations for research and practice focus on increasing the capacity of schools, families, and communities to support the involvement of youth with severe disabilities in meaningful summer activities.

We asked teachers and parents to assess the self-determination prospects of 135 youth with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Teachers typically reported that youth evidenced limited knowledge about self-determined behavior, ability to perform these behaviors, and confidence regarding the efficacy of their self-determination efforts. Parents and teachers diverged in their evaluations of the self-determination capacities of youth but agreed that opportunities to engage in self-determined behavior were available both at school and home. Although social skill and problem behavior ratings both were significant predictors of teachers' ratings of students' self-determination capacity, opportunities at school, opportunities at home, and problem behaviors were negatively correlated with ratings of students' self-determination capacities and opportunities.

Although connecting youth with disabilities with early work experiences has emerged as a recommended practice in transition education, little is known about the extent to which the summer months might offer a meaningful context for providing such experiences. To understand the perspectives of special educators regarding promoting summer employment and other community activities for youth with disabilities, the authors interviewed 14 teachers from 10 high schools. Although teachers identified the summer months as a promising avenue for engaging youth in career development experiences, they articulated several school-, family-, and employer-related barriers that may hinder youth from accessing these experiences. This article discusses recommendations for engaging youth more meaningfully during the summer months and offers direction for future research.

Although summer offers a natural context for adolescents to gain community-based work experience, little is known about the extent to which youth with disabilities are accessing these transition-related opportunities. We examined the summer employment experiences of 220 youth with high-incidence disabilities at two time points. Although more than half of all youth were employed at some point during the summer, youth with emotional/behavioral disorders and intellectual disabilities worked at significantly lower rates than youth with learning disabilities, and all received limited formal support related to finding and maintaining their jobs. Skill-related factors and spring work experience emerged as prominent predictors of summer employment outcomes. We present recommendations for schools, families, and communities to expand summer employment opportunities for youth with disabilities as an avenue for promoting career development.