Critical Connections
Reflections from Don Dubuque

Compiled by Kim Brown

“Transition” is really about working together to support students to have fulfilling, meaningful lives after school. As a former special education teacher, I’ve been in the position of being very uncomfortable with and unknowing about transition. I understand what it’s like to be a beginner – the unfamiliar territory, the many, many questions. For years, I tried to learn from my students and teach them the things I thought they would need to know post-graduation. I placed some students in jobs and had a few “successes,” but the results were sporadic. I began to have this awful feeling of, “Is this all there is?” In 1998, my frustration reached the point that I drove my little red pickup to the District Office to resign from teaching. Something held me back, though. I didn’t turn in my notice and for that I’m so grateful because in 1999, I was introduced to the WISER Project through the University of Montana’s Rural Institute. Suddenly, I began to look at transition as a positive experience in students’, parents’, and teachers’ lives.

Transition is a new vision of possibilities for students; it’s seeing things through another lens. Transition means changing the focus of our activities and planning. As an example, one day Ellen Condon from the Rural Institute came into my classroom and saw a student named Alicia digging in a box of rice for blue and red toy bears. Ellen asked why Alicia was doing this activity and I didn’t have a good answer except that it was a “tactile experience.” How was I helping this young woman prepare for life in her community??? Transition also means changing our expectations of students and staff. On another occasion, a paraeducator/job coach and I were at St. Joseph’s Hospital with two students, Carley and Alicia. Ellen joined us and said we should let the young ladies take the elevator upstairs. The job coach and I assumed one of us would accompany them on their journey, but Ellen waited only long enough for Carley and Alicia to board the car and then pushed the button to send them on their way…just the two of them. I went to the chapel and prayed! Transition, really, means a change of heart. We are helping the student gain practical experience and then secure a job, an apartment or house, an adult support network…all the pieces we want and need to have in place to function as happy, healthy human beings.

This new way of thinking necessitates a focus on outcomes. We must have a vision of the person as a whole, thriving in the community through living independently, working for real wages, enjoying leisure activities, contributing back to society, having connections to friends, and experiencing zero exclusion. There can be no exceptions. That is, we can’t filter people out and say, “This process won’t work for him because of his particular disability.” The moment of mindset change represents a complete conversion and it can be scary. “How can I support this student to live independently?!?” “Me without a job coach? Never!” We panic, parents panic, students panic. We must help young people with disabilities believe in themselves, and we do this by our acceptance of them as they are, for who they are, with all the strengths and talents and wonderful individual contributions they possess.

We communicate our acceptance in several ways. Since how we speak influences the perceptions of our listeners, we change our language to “people first” (“she uses a power chair” instead of “she’s wheelchair-bound”) and to focus on adult themes such as employment. We change our approach to instruction and relinquish some of our control in order to encourage independence in our students. We change our teaching sites and emphasize learning in the community versus “getting ready” for the community by learning skills in isolation in the classroom. “Getting ready” can go on forever – where does this leave the student after graduation? As an illustration, in Polson we went from teaching “handicapped students” in self-contained classrooms to educating “students with disabilities” in the community as part of the Polson High School Vocational Program. We moved from the teacher doing things for the student (because the product was what we were interested in) to the student doing as much as possible for him or herself (the process is now what interests us). Not only is the classroom transported out of the school building, but with community-based education, we let members of the community teach. After all, they are the experts in their employment realms, and they are the future bosses, coworkers, and possibly someday employees of the students with whom we’re working.

I cannot emphasize the importance of community enough. This is where we get to know the student in terms of preferences, interests, contributions, and support needs. We spend purposeful time together in stores, parks, restaurants, and at work. As teachers, we learn things about the student in the community we’d never learn in a classroom, things that can make all the difference in a future job being successful or not successful. During a business tour with a young man named Maclaen, for example, he became overwhelmed by a powerful odor in the factory. On another occasion, while attending a workshop in the community, I observed Maclaen closing a window every time the instructor propped it open. He told me the fresh-mown grass outside bothered his sinuses. This was important information for me as I conducted job development activities for Maclaen – because of our time spent beyond the school walls, I knew he would not be at his best in a work environment with certain smells.

We must also never underestimate the value of connecting with the student in her home and getting to know the family. We learn a tremendous amount about someone’s skills, contributions, and impact of disability by gathering information from people who know her best and purposefully spending time with her in familiar surroundings. When I visited Carley at her house, for instance, her mom greatly expanded my view of Carley’s capabilities when she described how Carley makes breakfast for herself and her sister after Mom has left for work. Had I never ventured beyond the confines of the school, I never would have dreamed Carley was capable of this.

We take what we learn about students and reflect it back into the classroom. With Carley, we programmed the language in her Delta Talker (a speech generating device) based on what she would have to be able to communicate at work – we made it reflect the needs of a job. Maclaen earned Physical Education credit for walking to his work experience and Speech credit for giving a speech about the school’s work program to 20-30 seniors at the assisted living facility. The goal of working within the community and the focus on independence leads to a change of curriculum and gives students a reason to attend school. In this paradigm, academics aren’t lost but rather are enhanced and become relevant to students’ lives.

What excitement, as we watch the person emerging and blossoming through this process! When we move from a model of deficits to one of strengths, students start to see themselves in a whole new light – living, working, and playing in the community. For too long, families have been inundated with negative information about their child with a disability. Instead, we can start the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting with 30 minutes of strengths…what this person can contribute? Shift from discussions about how to make the student “better” or “fix” them to working with and supporting them instead. Integrate the services of physical, occupational, and speech therapists, as well as school counselors and psychologists, so they aren’t working in isolation and so that they focus their interventions on transition-related skills. Allow students to make and own their decisions, even when their choices are not what we might have chosen for them. Critical independence skills are earned through accepting responsibility and dealing with the consequences of our actions.

We must help students take more control over advocating for their own support needs – once they’ve graduated and services are no longer entitlements, self-advocacy will be essential for navigating the complex adult world of services and supports. Alicia developed a poster she displayed at the start of each of her IEP meetings. It clearly depicted her post-school goals: to get a new wheelchair, live in a house with friends, shop more independently, work, and explore her interests in music. Maclaen personally invited his previous year’s teacher to the IEP meeting to share with the new teacher his insight into how to best to work with Maclaen. Maclaen also discussed his own support needs at the IEP meeting, telling the team, for example, “When my head goes down, it’s not because I’m bored but because I don’t understand.” It takes time and patience to help students learn what they have to say matters, will be heard, and provides direction for their futures. This supportive model offers direction for educators, related services staff, and families as well.

In this shared venture, we move from the sporadic to the systematic, with the student always of utmost importance. We approach employment in a calculated manner, starting with Discovery of the student’s preferences, interests, contributions, and support needs; capturing this information in a Vocational Profile; creating a Marketing Portfolio to introduce the concept of supported employment and to serve as the student’s picture résumé; developing purposeful work experiences; and then securing community-based, customized, paid employment for the student prior to graduation. We accomplish this as a team, working in unison toward a common goal with each member contributing according to her or his expertise.

Connections are critical, with students, with families, with other school staff, with employers, and with agencies. We must learn what different agencies have to offer; develop strong lines of communication with agency staff; practice patience and persistence; personalize our relationships with these connections in a way that enhances rather than uses; provide ample lead-time, especially to agencies like Vocational Rehabilitation and Developmental Disabilities Programs, to increase the chances their staff will be able to participate in meetings; and follow-up and take the time to make that extra call to confirm meeting times, dates, and planned attendance. Our goals (students, families, schools, and agencies) are similar but our roles may differ. We all want a “full life” for this student upon graduation. We all bring strengths and weaknesses to the table. Just as we advocate doing with individual students, we need to identify and capitalize on team strengths, as well as look for and meet unmet needs.

It’s imperative that we always have a goal and make our activities fit toward that goal, evaluate why we do the things we do, seek sustainable transition outcomes, and stay focused. Why not move the transition page to the front of the IEP and have it drive the student’s education and experiences? This makes school time so much more rewarding. We need someone to take the lead in transition for each student, and we need to develop back-up plans in case a change in course is required. Meeting transition requirements is going to be hard work no matter what, so why not achieve meaningful outcomes? By making the critical connections, staying hopeful, continually encouraging team members, and vigilantly working toward the student’s post-school goals, we’ll find students fulfilled, teachers rejuvenated, and parents hopeful and relieved.

Don presented this speech as part of the keynote presentation for the Transition Institute in June of 2004, which was sponsored by the Region V Comprehensive System of Personnel Development, the Rural Institute on Disabilities, and the Montana Council on Developmental Disabilities. Don was the Special Education teacher at Polson High School during 2000 and 2001 when the school was a participant in Project WISER. In 2003, Don joined the Rural Institute Transition Projects staff as a Project Coordinator to support other schools in the Mission Valley. As WISER wraps up its four-year cycle, Don has returned to “semi-retirement” and is working with the migrant worker program in Polson where he lives with his wife Ginny. He continues to organize an international Rotarian-centered fundraising project to distribute wheelchairs to people who need them in Peru, babysits for his grandson Braunson, and pursues his quest for the perfect yard.

WISER was a four-year grant (2000 -2004) funded by the U.S. Department of Education to create an innovative model of transition.

Several tools that outline collaborative practices and steps for accessing Vocational Rehabilitation, Developmental Disabilities, and Workforce Investment Act services are currently being developed for schools by these agencies and the Rural Institute.  Once the documents are finalized, they will be posted on this site.

Teamwork Works!
Examples of Fostering Collaboration Between Schools and Agencies
Transition Tours - Special educators and related services personnel from the schools reported that they remained confused by the adult service system. They weren’t sure what services agencies provided, which agencies to invite to IEP meetings and when it was appropriate to invite the agencies. Bitterroot and Mission Valley schools participating in the Rural Institute Transition Projects developed Transition Tours to help educate school staff. (In the Mission Valley, families were also invited to participate.) These tours provided an opportunity to meet with agency staff, generally in their own offices; learn about services, referral procedures, eligibility requirements, and application processes; and ask specific questions of agency staff. A note-taking guide was developed to prompt attendees to seek and record specific information. Tour stops included Job Service, Vocational Rehabilitation, Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation, Independent Living Centers, and more. To increase participation, tours were scheduled during “early out” days (when classes ended early but teachers were still on-duty) and in some cases transportation was provided to support family participation. Attendees later said this activity was extremely helpful to them in terms of their gaining a better understanding of what services were available to students upon graduation and how to access those services.

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