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You're listening to the Disability Law Lowdown podcast, show number 47, with your host, Jacquie Brennan.

[music]

Jacuie Brennan: Today's podcast is really aimed at teenagers who are in high school and learning how to set their own goals in their IEPs. If you don't know what an IEP is, then let's talk about that for a minute. Under IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, every child who is covered by IDEA is entitled to an individualized education program, the IEP. And when students become teenagers and get into high school, they start considering transition issues and often come up even with this individual transition plan that they have. So, although parents are still really involved at this point, it's a good time for teens to start learning to self-advocate.

A lot of the information I'm going to give you today comes from the Pacer center action information sheet called "Chart Your Own Future: How Your IEP Can Help'. And this is published by the Pacer Center and that is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And you can get to their Website at pacer.org.

So, teens really have to think when they're in high school about what they'll be doing after high school. Where will you be working? where will you be going to school? Where will you be living and what kind of life do you want to live?

The transition IEP, or the transition plan, can help you the answer those questions and can sort of give you a plan for what the next part of your life is going to be. So remember that the IEP, that education plan, an individualized education plan, is a plan written just for you as the team. That's why it's called "individualized". That's that"I" in IEP. It's based on your particular strengths, your interests, and your goals about education and employment and daily living skills. So it really does matter when you're making this plan what you have in mind for after high school.

But taking an active role in developing that IEP is really important. Up until this point, you probably didn't even go to IEP meetings. Your parent or parents went and the teachers and the administrators and they got together and they came up with a plan for you. And of course that's how it should be when you're just a kid. But now, you're about to be an adult and so it's time for you to take a more active role.

If you take a more active role in developing that plan, it will help you get the information, the skills and the support that you need to reach your goals for the future. And it can start turning those dreams that you have into your actual life. And it'll help you discover what really matters to you. And it will also help you to have more control over your time and your activities at school. You can't control every single aspect of your school education, no matter how much you might want to. But you do have the power to make changes in your education program. And if you can influence major parts of your IEP, then you're going to get more freedom and more control over what happens to you. You have a lot more power than you might think.

So, the Pacer Center outlines three easy steps to becoming involved in your IEP. So these are just some ideas to help you really take ownership of that document. And you probably want to discuss these with a friend or with family members, just like we all discuss important decisions with other people. That doesn't mean that the decisions aren't yours to make, but it's always helpful when you're making big decisions to get input from other people.

So number one, start thinking about what you want in life. Planning for the future is exciting and really that's not just for teens who have disabilities, but for every person. Thinking about what you want to do in the future can really be exciting. And help you start to think about what skills and interests you have now and which ones you would like to develop in the future. So the things you might want to consider while you're planning that are: what do you like to do now? What kinds of things do you enjoy right now? What do you think you would like to be doing five years from now? What are you good at now? What would you like to be good at in five years? What do you really have passion for? What excites you now? And what do you think will give you that passion in five years? As your dreams and your visions become clearer to you, and you talk with your friends and family members to make your plans, listen to their ideas, too. You might want to add some of their thoughts to your plan.

Number two. Set one goal at a time. To make the planning process more manageable, it's going to pick one goal that's important you. Discuss it with somebody in your family or a close friend and then with your teacher at school. Have those people help you break down your goal in the small, practical steps that you can start taking now. So for instance, if your goal is to continue education. Maybe you want to go to college or a technical school work or continuing education or certificate program, you might want to take some small steps like visiting those places to see how they fit into your future dreams, or talking to people who have actually been through those programs. Even making the application process. Those things are small steps towards your ultimate goal. And don't worry if you feel confused about making decisions about your future, education, employment and housing. Everybody feels that way! It takes time and insight to figure everything out. All too often, people don't even think about what they want to do in the future and sort of plan for that, they just kind of let life happen. So this will really give you a leg up when you're looking at your future and making those decisions.

Your plans are probably going tochange many times did you learn more about yourself. When I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a music teacher. And and so I took the steps that I needed to do that. And in my fourth year of college, I decided that really wasn't what I wanted to be, after I had just about completed my music degree. And I did many other things in the ensuing twenty, thirty years and I eventually became a lawyer. But that was the farthest thing from my mind back in high school and making these plans. So it doesn't mean that once you make a play, then that's it and your life is set in stone. It just helps you to make a plan so that you have a goal that you're reaching for.

Number three. Know who can help you. Everybody needs somebody who will listen to their plans, to offer suggestions, to help sort through different options and find creative solutions to possible barriers. So think about the who in your life can do that for you. Make a list. Make a list of their names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and even write down like how each one of those people might be able to help you reach your goals. Some examples that the Pacer Center gives are: a cousin can be visited at a college you;re thinking about attending, a neighbor might allow you to volunteer at her day care, your older brother or sister might invite you to go apartment hunting with them, a family friend can show you how he runs a small lawn care business. Just different things like that. Think about your goals and who might be able to help you with just the different smaller steps.

At the next IEP meeting, you could show the IEP team and supporters what you've learned about your future options. You could invite everyone on your IEP team and your list of important people. You could show pictures or a video or even a PowerPoint presentation that sort of summarizes what you did to explore the possibilities. You could invite your employer or your volunteer supervisor or a friend to give his or her views at the meeting, too.

You can find out more about using your IEP to help you plan for your future by checking out some of these very helpful resources for teens and families that Pacer has listed on their sheet. One is youthhood.org. This site for teens was developed by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, which is headquartered at the University of Minnesota. You can look at a Student's Guide to the IEP and How Students Develop Their IEPs. There are several helpful publications from the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities and they can be downloaded for free or purchased as a hard copy for a very nominal fee. And those are at NICHCY.org. There's Pacer handout called "How Can My Child Be Involved in the IEP Process?" that you can get at Pacer.org. There is a book called "Creating Your High School Portfolio: An Interactive School, Career and Life Planning". And this book has different interactive activities and students, through those activities, learn to state, clarify and explore their values, interests, abilities and goals. And the workbook helps students make informed decisions about their educational and career goals after high school. aAnd you can get that at Amazon.com.

Another book is called "Making it Happen: Student Involvement in Education Planning, Decision Making and Instruction" by D.J. Sands and M.L. Wehmeyer and it was published in 1998, mainly for educators but it does outline the steps that families and teachers can take to ensure active student participation in education planning and decision making. And you can get that at Amazon.com or at Brookespublishing.com.

So I hope you've learned a little bit about how you might get more involved in planning your own future through your IEP.

The Disability Law Lowdown is brought to you by the Disability Business Technical Assistance Centers, which are a network of ADA centers that provide training, technical assistance and materials on the ADA and other disability related laws. Funding for the Centers is provided by a grant from NIDRR, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. You can subscribe to the Disability Law Lowdown at our website at disabilitylawlowdown.com or on iTunes.



The Southwest and Rocky Mountain ADA Centers are part of a program of Independent Living Research Utilization at TIRR - Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. If you have questions about disability law or would like to request materials or training, please call 1-800-949-4232. This podcast is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works 2.5 License. For more information and transcripts, visit www.ada-podcast.com.