As with all decisions, we did not just wake up one day and decide to go the self-direction route. The actual transition process began long before we even knew what self direction programming was. In addition to following the general Transition Planning Checklists (See the post “Transition #2 Transition 101: Transition Checklists”) , below is a general overview of the “steps” that we took to get to our decision to explore the self-direction model. In upcoming posts, I will go into more detail about each of the sections.
- We had to begin with transition planning in general. In Massachusetts, transition planning begins at 14 years old. The transition planning form is a subsection of the IEP, and is used to guide the student vision statement, goals and objectives in the IEP. Please see the post “Transition #1: Transition 101: It’s never too early to start planning” for more information on the basics of transition planning.
- Make sure that the 688 referral form is initiated 2 years prior to your child exiting the public school system. This is just a referral…..you still have to go through the application process to get approved. For L, his referral form was submitted to the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) (There will be a dedicated post with the details of this process coming soon!).
- Application process to DDS: after the 688 referral form was submitted, we received confirmation that L could apply for adult services with DDS. Even though L was approved for DDS services as a child, we still needed to go through the process again and have him re-apply as an adult. In order to utilize the self-direction programming model, he needed to be eligible under DDS adult services.
- After he was accepted under DDS Adult services, we made sure that his DDS Transition Coordinator met L and began attending his IEP meetings at least 1 year prior to him aging out. If you can start the relationship as soon as you get DDS Adult Services approval, it makes the process a bit easier.
- We attended DDS webinars on the Self-Direction Model: This Mass.gov website has a listing of upcoming Self-Direction Information webinars that you can attend.
- Find out who your Self-Direction Coordinator is in your area DDS office: While you will primarily be working with your Your DDS Transition Coordinator during this time period, they may not be familiar with the self-direction model. If you have additional questions, work with your transition coordinator and self direction coordinator to get the information that you need.
- Do a person centered plan: in future posts, we will go over what a person centered plan is and some different models and templates that you and the team can use. For us, this became the pivotal document in creating L’s initial Self-Direction plan proposal and his Individual Support Plan (ISP)
- Have transition assessments completed: this was very helpful for us to have completed to help guide goals and objectives within L’s Person Centered Plan. While we had those transition assessments that were completed by the school as part of his 3- year re-evaluations, we also did an independent transition assessment.
- Start writing out your draft program: we used the person-centered plan, information from the transition assessments and the 3 pillars of transition planning to map out what L’s program would like like. We created this draft and submitted it to our DDS Transition Coordinator to officially start the self-direction model process.
- Once L’s self-direction draft was accepted, we met with the DDS Self-Direction Coordinator in our area to complete a Self Direction Orientation and began the detailed planning process.
As I said earlier, future blog posts will break down all of these steps and provide more detailed information. For this post, the intention was to give a general overview of what we needed to do before the program even started for L.
-Cheryl
#Life Without a Filter 