This is the 30th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2008. Section 664(d) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as reauthorized in 2004, requires that the Department of Education report annually on the progress made toward the provision of a free appropriate…

This paper examines how various elements of five early- childhood-to-elementary school transition programs are being developed and carried out. Five transition programs were identified and investigated in regard to shared leadership and decisionmaking among stakeholders, comprehensive and integrated services, family involvement and empowerment,…

This monograph reports on an ethnographic study of the transition from school to work of 12 individuals with mental retardation. Throughout the book, examples from the lives of these individuals are used to illustrate findings and principles. The first chapter describes the methods of data collection and analysis, which focused on the relation…

In the fall of 1993, Quebec's Heritage College implemented a reception and integration (i.e., "d'accueil") session to help first term incoming students identified as "at-risk" and "undecided" succeed in their collegiate studies. This report describes the development and implementation of the project, focusing on…

This report summarizes results obtained for the first cohort of students (n=98) with disabilities involved in the pilot Transition Project begun in 1989 in New South Wales (Australia). Students were in either special schools (56 percent), special classes in regular high schools (40 percent), or integrated regular settings (3.5 percent). Of the…

A study assessed the effectiveness of Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) courses in different subject areas in preparing adults for degree-level study. It compared the experience of 100 students enrolled in 4 science, engineering, mathematics, and technology courses and 4 courses in social sciences or humanities. Findings suggested that,…

This document contains six papers on research about the school-to-work transition. Following an introduction (Nevzer G. Stacey), the first paper, "Determinants and Consequences of Fit between Vocational Education and Employment in Germany" (J. C. Witte, A. L. Kalleberg), concludes from a nationally representative longitudinal study of…

The College Discovery Summer Program (CDSP) is a 6-week program designed to bring students already accepted for admissions to Bronx Community College (BCC) onto campus prior to their first year at BCC. The curriculum component of the CDSP includes intensive courses in mathematics, reading, and writing, while the student development component is a…

The report documents the follow-up of mentally retarded school completers in the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) area, begun with parents/guardians of students who completed their special education programs in 1985-86 (N=73) and also in 1986-87 (N=60) and preliminary follow-up of a 1990 cohort (N=102). Findings for the first two groups are reported in…

Survey responses of 46 state directors of special education regarding the problems faced by severely handicapped students who exit public schools but require adult services indicated that severe discrepancies exist in most states between the number of people needing adult services and the capacity of such service systems to meet these needs.…

These three essays are intended to provide an overview of southern efforts to help increased numbers of young persons make a successful transition from school to work with a future. The first paper, "Smoothing the Path from School to Work: A Promising Venture in Structural Change in a Southern State," by Peter B. Edelman and Myrtis H.…

A needs assessment determined the need for independent living skills for high school students with severe disabilities, as perceived by the students (n=45), their parents (n=38) and their teachers (n=7). Results revealed that the students believed that their lives were steadily improving, that they were more satisfied than dissatisfied with the…

This report examines the ways that credit-based transition programs (CBTPs) may help middle- and low-achieving students enter and succeed in college. It highlights promising practices used by CBTPs to help students who might have been considered noncollege-bound prepare for college credit course work. The report also discusses the challenges that…

To assist workers dislocated as Hungary and Poland move to market economies, the governments of both countries provide their labor force with unemployment compensation and various active labor programs (ALPs). ALP impacts were examined by surveying four randomly selected samples: 7,228 ALP participants from 10 counties in Hungary; 4,414 Hungarians…

This paper reports results of a survey of 237 Massachusetts special education teachers in programs for students with significant disabilities as the teachers work to learn and use unitary standards-based curriculum. The study examined: familiarity of the teachers with the state's curriculum frameworks; variations in teachers' experiences and views…