‘Keeping the Focus on Secondary Transition’ by Jim Kreatschman

During these crazy times it’s hard to get what needs doing done! Even more difficult is focusing on planning for the future. Help is here.

The Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED) have partnered with the Southeast Regional Resource Center (SERRC) to build Transition Alaska.org as a virtual classroom for teachers and students to keep the focus on transition.

Public school students who receive special education services have a future looking ‘Transition Plan’ as part of their Individualized Education Program (IEP). The transition plan outlines goals unique to each student’s interests and strengths to insure a smooth transition from school to college and/or training, work and community living.

Transition Alaska.org has resources, activities and instructional content teachers can implement with their students to keep them moving towards a positive post-school transition. The activities are short and easy for students to understand, and new content is being added all the time.

Teachers can register at Transition Alaska.org and have total access to all the content. SERRC even provides teacher support and can track student progress throughout the learning process. Check out “Using Transition Alaska.org with Students” in the Educator Portal on the site.

Registering at Transition Alaska.org is the best way to keep up to date on what’s coming up with secondary transition services in Alaska. Along with supports and resources, the site will be hosting webinars for teachers and students that go deeper into transition topics like career exploration, entrepreneurship, and accessing supports for postsecondary education and training.

To help get Alaska’s educators acquainted with this new system, teachers can still register for the two remaining live sessions of the Fall 2020 Virtual Secondary Transition Training. Over 100 teachers participated in the first two sessions. Recordings of all sessions will be available on the Transition Alaska.Org site in December.