A Collaborative Approach to Transition Planning for Students With Disabilities

Preservice teachers struggle with the complex concepts and aspects of special education transition planning, and as an instructor in a special educator teacher preparation program, I struggled to find just the perfect textbook to support my teachings in transition planning to my preservice teachers. That is until I found A Collaborative Approach to Transition Planning for Students with Disabilities by Dr. JoAnn Rae. Throughout the text, Dr. Rae’s decades of experience are apparent in the breadth and depth of her coverage of the legislation and implementation of transition planning, the goals and methods of transition planning, how to support our students in their self-advocacy and decision-making, and how to collaborate with families and special education professionals. The textual framework has been specially designed to support preservice students’ understanding and participation in transition planning meetings through research-based practices that help to maximize special education students’ self-determination, goal setting, and agency for successful life experiences. I have found Dr. Rae’s inclusion of student scenarios an excellent tool to teach my preservice teachers about students with low incidence disabilities, severe sensory and intellectual disabilities, and also students with health impairments, and multiple disabilities. Her unique scenarios are comprehensive and an extremely effective tool to demonstrate complexities not found in other textbooks, such as IEP team disagreements, students with a myriad of illnesses, students with complex family needs, and students living in poverty. These well-thought-out scenarios were perfect for group engagement and provided my preservice teachers with opportunities to work together to problem-solve and integrate knowledge with practice and provide strategies that help them understand the real-life challenges students, their families, and transition planning specialists encounter day-to-day. This book will serve as an excellent resource to any instructor supporting preservice or in-service teachers and transition specialists in understanding the complex concepts and aspects of special education transition planning, and postsecondary success for students with disabilities. Patricia R. Huskin, PhD, Retired Associate Professor, Department of Teacher & Bilingual Education, College of Education & Human Performance, Texas A&M University, Kingsville