A system was developed to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of transition services for special education students in Maine. The project's three phases included preliminary activities relevant to the development of the evaluation system; activities in developing, field testing, and revising the evaluation strategy; and selecting and evaluating the transition programs. Twenty-one of the 123 school districts in Maine participated. The system was designed to allow the state education agency to conduct further longitudinal study and to track the progress of individuals receiving transition services. The study contributed the following major findings, among others: (1) a significant number of local education agencies are not addressing transition needs in a formalized way; (2) successful transition programming shares some components with special education, such as referral and assessment, interagency collaboration, use of functional curricula, and active participation of parents and students; and (3) components unique to transition programs are not as successfully implemented, including community involvement, quantity and quality of job placements, student follow-up, postsecondary educational placements, and adjustment to community living. This executive summary contains a description of the project, methods and procedures used, results and discussion, recommendations, and a 46-item bibliography. (JDD)