Assessments
Assessments are an important piece of the transition planning process. Assessments can help to identify the goals/ hopes that youth have and the skills they need to be prepared for life after high school. Assessments can also determine what skills a youth already has and if there are gaps in skills that need to be developed in order to be prepared for their next steps in life.
The IEP team may use existing information and formal or informal assessments in transition planning. This document helps IEP teams to use assessment information to determine appropriate transition services, supports and goals.
To get an accurate and full picture of the youth’s skills and needs across settings it is important to get different points of view. Assessments can be completed by a range of individuals including the student, parents, teachers and other services providers to give different perspectives on the same skill area.
The resources listed below are available to support the assessment process.
Multiple Transition Assessment Resources
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| Personal Preference Indicators- Preference indicators are tools for educators, professionals, family members, and individuals with disabilities. The tools are designed to collect information about an individual's preferences and support needs from the individual and those people who know him or her best. |
| Indiana Transition Assessment Matrix- A collection of assessments are available through this site and can be sorted by areas of living, learning, working and grade level appropriateness. Includes Spanish language assessments. |
| Transition Education Resources- The Zarrow Center provides free lesson packages/ curricula that can be used for skill building. |
General Assessment Resources
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| T-Folio- T-Folio is a free online transition portfolio tool for high school-aged youth with disabilities. The curriculum provides lesson plans and tips to help youth build self-determination and job-readiness skills through a series of interactive exercises. |
| It's My Choice- This is a free downloadable workbook that helps to facilitate self-advocacy and transition planning for students with significant disabilities. |
| Transition Planning Guide- A transition planning guide with important questions and topics to be considered for adulthood for any individual with a disability. Topics covered include physical and mental health, housing, transportation, education, employment, money management, social, leisure, community, family support and public safety. |
| Individual Transition Planning Guide- This planning tool from the Minnesota Developmental Disabilities Council helps students and their families think about and plan for the student's transition needs. The is an electronic form that may be printed out or saved by the user. |
| ELSA Assessment- This assessment measures employability and life skills with versions for families and transition planning professionals. |
Interest Assessments
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| Interest Assessment- This interest assessment from Career Onestop produces a list of careers that match up with the identified interests. |
| Interest Profiler- The O*Net Interest Profiler (IP) is a family of self-assessment career exploration tools that can help clients discover the type of work activities and occupations that they would like and find exciting. |
Self-Determination and Self-Advocacy
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| AIR Self-Determination Assessment- The AIR Assessment produces a profile of the student's level of self-determination and identifies areas of strength and need. |
| The ARC Self-Determination Scale- The purpose of the self-determination Scale is to assess the self-determination strengths and weaknesses of adolescents with disabilities. The ARC Scale yields total self-determination and sub-domain scores in the areas of: Autonomy, self-Regulation, Psychological Empowerment, Self-realization and total self-determination. |
| The Field-Hoffman Self-Determination Assessment- This assessment battery measures cognitive, behavioral and affective traits to determine levels of self-determination. Perspectives are gathered from students, parents, and teachers. |