Transition Tennessee and Tennessee’s Vocational Rehabilitation services program have had a longtime partnership that will only grow and improve with time, thanks to a new five-year contract extension to increase transition services for teens and young adults with disabilities in Tennessee.
Transition Tennessee is an online source for training and resources on preparing students with disabilities for life after high school. Transition Tennessee’s goal is to improve transition outcomes for youth and young adults with disabilities by sharing research-based practices and policies. Its website – transitiontn.org – is organized into different sections for educators, for providers, and for students, each with free video-based lessons, ideas, resources, and more. Transition Tennessee is a partnership among the State of Tennessee’s Department of Education and Department of Human Services, Vanderbilt University, and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (VKC UCEDD).
Vocational Rehabilitation services (often shortened to Voc Rehab or VR) are made available through the Division of Rehabilitation Services within the State of Tennessee’s Department of Human Services. The Division is responsible for the provision of employment-focused rehabilitation services for individuals with disabilities consistent with their strengths, priorities, and resources.
Erik Carter, Ph.D.
“We share the Division of Rehabilitation Services’ deep commitment to supporting young people with disabilities to flourish in the workplace,” said Erik Carter, Ph.D., Transition Tennessee project director and VKC UCEDD co-director. “We see this continued partnership as a way of ensuring ever more high school students with disabilities across the state receive high-quality instruction and experiences that prepare them well for the world of work.”
“We have worked with VR in many capacities for a number of years, but we began our funded partnership with VR in March of 2018,” said Jessica Awsumb, Ph.D., Transition Tennessee project lead. “Our initial partnership over the past three years has really focused on expanding the capacity of Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) providers across Tennessee to deliver these transition services to students with disabilities. We did that by assessing the needs of providers through a statewide survey. That led to the development of content for providers and students that is housed on our website, as well as a variety of trainings and workshops.
“With this new contract, we plan to shift the focus of the partnership to measure the impact of Pre-ETS delivery and ways in which impact can be greater.”
The five-year contract between Transition Tennessee and Voc Rehab can be broken down into six main goals:
- Equipping providers to deliver high-quality Pre-ETS: Transition Tennessee plans to develop a training series that can be recorded and housed on their website that will serve as an introduction of Pre-ETS in Tennessee. They will also develop additional trainings that will be delivered regionally based on the needs of providers.
- Creating professional development content courses, or “modules”: By the end of April 2021, Transition Tennessee will have a total of eight content courses on their website. Three of the courses explore instruction in self-advocacy, work-based learning, and job exploration counseling in depth.
“We plan to add the final two Pre-ETS (Postsecondary Education Counseling and Workplace Reading) and a handful of additional courses based on the needs of providers,” said Awsumb. - Evaluating the quality of Pre-ETS implementation: Transition Tennessee will work with VR to understand the data they are currently collecting on Pre-ETS and what else could be collected. Additionally, they will develop and disseminate a statewide survey to Pre-ETS providers across the state with the ultimate goal of creating a tool that would allow providers to evaluate their impact.
- Supporting model demonstration sites: “We plan to implement model demonstration sites with providers of Pre-ETS, teachers, and other stakeholders to implement quality Pre-ETS and align/integrate it with school-based transition services,” said Awsumb. “This would be a partnership and training model approach that would help establish exemplary sites to serve as models for others.”
- Expanding pre-employment educational modules for students: Transition Tennessee’s student website – transitiontn.org/student – currently has a number of lessons for students who want to go straight to work after high school or to postsecondary education. Staff will continue to add lessons to each of these sections as well as an entirely new section on independent living. The student website is an interactive space for students to learn about their transition to adulthood and is designed for students to use by themselves or with the support of an instructor, such as a teacher, Pre-ETS provider, or parent.
- Maintaining the online portal: “As we add more and more content, we continue to ensure our existing content is up-to-date, that each piece of the website is currently working, and meets accessibility standards,” said Awsumb.
For more information on Transition Tennessee and its individualized education portals for educators, Pre-ETS providers, and students as well as additional resources for families, visit https://transitiontn.org/.
