Building Equity Into Transition Practice and Service Delivery: A Call for Systemic Changes in the Field of Transition

Abstract

There is a common narrative in the field of transition; students with disabilities continue to experience poorer post-school outcomes compared with their peers without disabilities. After decades of research and practice, scholars and practitioners have impacted countless numbers of students. However, disparate outcomes for diverse youth still exist. The Division on Career Development and Transition takes the position that if we are to begin reducing persistent differential outcomes for diverse youth, we must examine our current practices and apply anti-oppressive practices to transition planning to ensure we do not continue to perpetuate White cultural norms and ableist approaches to transition. We applied four equity frameworks to transition planning and provided recommendations for transition practice and service delivery.

Transition self-assessment tool: The development and field testing of a statewide assessment of pre-employment transition services

“…While currently the TSAT does not provide student-level data, we encourage school and VR administrators to review the TSAT data in combination with other school-wide and district-wide data to critically examine who is and is not benefitting from the current transition service delivery models. This recommendation aligns with the urgent call to embed equity into transition practice by engaging in equity-focused data-based decision-making (e.g., Sinclair et al, 2023).…”