All of us go through transitions in our life, from infancy to childhood,
from preschool to primary school to high school, and from teenagers to
adulthood. The journey to adulthood is often filled with joys and challenges,
hurdles to cross and paths to choose. Planning ahead and preparing for
these changes will help you to take full advantage of the choices that
lay before you.
Planning for the transition from pediatric doctors to adult doctors, moving from school to work, and achieving the highest level of independent living can be exciting and challenging. It is never too early to begin thinking about and preparing for your child's future. The materials listed below can help guide you and your child as you experience life's transitions.
The Transition
Information Sheet for Families
explains what medical transition is and why it is important. This fact
sheet also identifies the key issues that must be considered as your child
grows and matures and takes on more responsibility for their own health
and well-being.
The Transition Worksheet for Parents can be used to help you identify what you and your child have considered or planned for their life as an adult. It can be used to help you prepare for all aspects of independent living including transportation, employment, financial resources, medical care and many others.
The Transition Worksheet for Youth can be used to assist youth (adolescents and teens) with planning for their own future.
Teaching Sheets provide information on staying healthy, managing health care, becoming independent, future planning and adult health care.
These transition resources have been provided, with permission, by the Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs, Louisville, Kentucky. Some sheets have been modified to highlight Illinois resources.
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Activity Sheets provide suggested activities to help children and adolescents with learning new skills that will help build independence and self-sufficiency. These skill-building activities encompass Home Living Activities, Community Living Activities and Employment Activities.
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The Transition Timeline can be used to help children and adolescents with special health care needs, and their families, achieve independence in arranging and managing their own health care.
This transition resource has been provided and modified with permission by the Office of Children with Special Health Care Needs, Washington State Department of Health, and the Division of Adolescent Medicine, University of Washington, 1995.
The Health Care Checklist can be used to assist adolescents as they move toward adulthood in assuming responsibility for their health care. Assuming responsibility for one's own health care, as developmentally able, is part of growing up, becoming independent from one's family, and finding a place in the adult community.
This resource was adapted from the health care checklist developed by the State of Washington's Adolescent Health Transition Project, California's Healthy and Ready to Work (HRTW) Transition Health Care Assessment, and Massachusetts' Health Care Skills Checklist.
The Healthy & Ready to Work national center has develped a tip sheet Public & Private Insurance Plans to discuss the options available for youth with special health care needs as they move into adulthood. The tip sheet offers information on the benefits of both public health insurance and private health insurance
Post-Secondary Education & Training Information
The School to Work Checklist can be used to assist adolescents in planning for their future after high school. The checklist is designed to provide youth with key components of planning for independent living, employment and further education after high school.
The content for this resource was adapted from the Young Adult Services Program, Transition Checklist, South Bend, Indiana and the Best Practices for Transition Services, SWITP Educational Grant #H159a10043.
The Healthy & Ready to Work national center has developed a tip sheet Staying Healthy For Youth & Teachers that promotes health and wellness as critical factors to success in learning. The proactive approach to wellness includes attendance, appointments, personal needs, medications and more. A second tip sheet Success at School Involves You offers suggestions for school meetings. Topics include preparation for meetings, things to consider during meetings and follow up. There is a list of items to be considered when developing a plan for the student with special health care needs.
A Parent Brief from the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, Age of Majority: Preparing Your Child for Making Good Choices, provides suggestions for parents for teaching children how to make decisions. Educational decision-making rights are transferred to the student at the age of majority (in Illinois, the age of majority is 18).
College Planning for Students with Disabilities Supplement to EducationQuest Foundation’s College Prep Handbook
This publication is for students with disabilities planning to attend postsecondary education institutions and their parents or guardians. Although College Planning for Students with Disabilities was created by the staff of Project NETS at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and EducationQuest Foundation, it may be helpful for students applying to any college.
Students with Disabilities Preparing for Post Secondary Education: Know Your Rights and Responsibilities
(U. S. Department of Education). Booklet for students who plan to continue their education after high school; includes questions and answers about admissions, accommodations & academic adjustments, documentation, evaluations, and discrimination under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
What To Ask When Visiting the Campus’s Office of Disabilities
More students with disabilities are planning for postsecondary education than ever before. Getting informed about your rights and responsibilities and knowing what to ask the campus’s office of disabilities can help smooth your transition from high school to college. You might want to consider asking these questions when you contact/visit campuses of interest.
The Employment Information Sheet can be used to provide educational information on employment issues for youth. This tool is designed for use beginning at the age of fourteen.
The content for this resource was adapted from the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHYC), Transition Summary, September, 1991, Number 7 and Iowa Compass, Employment Services Fact Sheet Packet.
The Healthy & Ready to Work national center has developed a tip sheet Work & You: Your Special Health Care Needs in the Workplace that focuses on health care and work logistics. Topics include health routines, use of benefit time, insurance, schedules, work environments and emergency planning. The tip sheet also provides links to web resources on health issues & work.
A Parent Brief from the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, Preparing for Employment: On the Home Front, provides many practical strategies on ways to assist youth with skill development and preparation for employment.
Transportation enables individuals with disabilities to access health care, work, school, and community activities. Getting from here to there opens the door of possibility. Driving in Illinois is a resource to explore if you are interested in learning to drive and learning what is required in Illinois.
Preparing for
the Future Brochure
Defines what medical transition is and provides suggested activities
to help youth and families prepare for changes as the youth moves into
adulthood. Outlines the assistance that DSCC care coordinators can provide
in transition planning. Suggested use at age 12, 14, and at any time a
youth and his or her family are preparing for transition from pediatric
health care providers to adult health care systems.
Preparing for
the Future: Transition to Adulthood
The Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP) has
developed an informational brochure to help teenagers and their families
prepare for their future during the transition process to adulthood. The
brochure outlines school, medical, financial and legal issues that should
be considered and addressed when preparing for the transition to adulthood.
Questions to Ask Potential Adult Care Physicians can be used as an interview sheet for adolescents and their families as they undertake the transfer of medical care from the pediatrician to an adult health care provider. This interview sheet provides a list of pertinent questions to ask physicians when selecting adult health care providers to medically manage their special health care needs.
Bridging the Gap Between Pediatric and Adult Services is a guide created for youth and their families who are beginning the process of transitioning from pediatric to adult health care providers. This resource is a component of the Coordinated Care Record and includes topics on guardianship, adult medical services, Medicaid, SSI and adult work services.
Work Incentive Programs:
2 Social Security Administration videos
Discover the Social Security Work Incentive Programs for people with disabilities by watching these informative short videos. Learn how you can go to work, without losing your SSI or SSDI benefits, and get rehabilitation and vocational services.
Watch the Ticket to Work video and learn how the program can benefit you. The Ticket to Work is a Social Security Administration program that provides employment support services for people who want to work. The program is for people receiving Supplemental Security Income, SSI, or Social Security Disability Insurance, SSDI. It also includes adults who are the disabled children of a wage earner under Social Security rules. Ticket to Work includes:
- Employment, rehabilitation and vocational services;
- It increases your choice in obtaining services; and
- Assures that more Americans with disabilities have the opportunity to work.
For additional information about the Ticket to Work program, visit the Social Security Administration's web site.
The Plan for Achieving Self Support video has been specifically developed to explain how people with disabilities can take advantage of a work incentives program offered by the Social Security Administration. It's called the Plan for Achieving Self-Support, or PASS. The PASS allows you to set aside income or resources to put towards a work goal, such as money for education, vocational training, or start-up funds for a business. You could also use a PASS to pay for other work related items, such as a personal attendant, a job coach, an electric wheelchair, a computer or other assistive technologies, occupational therapy, transportation expenses, or even a custom van. The PASS allows you to earn more money to apply towards a work goal, without reducing your SSI benefits.
(These videos were produced by the Institute for Child Health Policy at the University of Florida through an inter-agency agreement (#U93MC00133) from the Social Security Administration and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.)
Family Handbook on Future Planning
This handbook is a guide to help families develop a future plan for their son or daughter with cognitive, intellectual or developmental disabilities and provide personal, financial and legal protections for their family member after the parents either die or can no longer provide care or support. It is designed to help families review and inventory the needs and strengths of their family member, determine what should be in a plan and then locate qualified professionals and resources to finalize the plan.
The handbook was published by the Arc of the United
States and the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center
on Aging with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities within
the Department of Disability Human Development, College of Applied
Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago.
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