Successful and Organized Transition Meetings for Special Education

I am excited to introduce this week’s guest blogger, Heather from Sped with Heather Gehrke to talk about transition meetings for special education students. Heather is a special education teacher for 20+ years and Master IEP Coach®️.

I remember the second year I was teaching at my current placement when I had a frustrated parent come in. It was back to school time. The parent was upset that no one had been in contact with her about her child. I had been to his previous school for a short time at the end of the last school year. That was the only thing I had done to prepare for this student’s transition meetings. After working with the family that day we ended up having a great relationship supporting their child. However, this experience made me reevaluate how I was preparing myself, students and families for transition meetings.

Since I teach middle school, each year I have two transitions to work with. First is my 8th graders heading to high school. The other transition is my incoming 5th graders. The strategies I have developed will work whenever a student is transitioning to a new teacher or school.

Hold Transition Meetings to Discuss New Placement

The first thing that should be done is to hold a meeting to determine the student’s new placement. The team should discuss all the options available and work with the family to determine which option will best meet the student’s needs. This may require an IEP amendment if any services or minutes will be changed.

Meet with the Previous Teacher

The teacher who currently works with the student will be able to help answer questions about what the student’s current placement looks like. They can give you insight into who the student is and what works best for the student. They can give you ideas of what their educational day and activities look like.  This can be done in person, over the phone or even Zoom these days. I have often reached back out to the teacher after the student has been with me for a little bit in the fall to get any additional questions answered.

Observe the Student in Their Current Placement

My district gives me a release day to observe my incoming students at their current school. It is nice to be able to meet the student prior to Fall and for them to meet me with transition meetings. It is also very beneficial being able to see the student in action. Teachers are able to observe how staff interacts with them. I observe what tools and strategies they use with the student. Typically, I can also see what kinds of activities they are doing and how they do them. I usually try to observe at least a half day since I am often observing more than one student and this lets me see a variety of activities.

Invite the Students to Visit the New Placement

Each year 8th graders take a field trip to the high school and my incoming 5th graders take a field trip to my school. It is nice for the student to be able to see the building they will attend and take a tour. They also get to meet some of the staff and students they will be interacting with next year. When I have the incoming 5th graders come visit we always do a cooking activity. This is so they can see one of the fun things we do in class. 

If a student is not able to come to the classroom in the Spring, invite them to come see the school and classroom prior to the start of school. Some schools may have a Meet & Greet time when this can be done. You may also invite them at a time where others are not there if having everyone there would be overwhelming. In middle school and high school it can be good for the student to be able to walk to all of their classes and get a feel for what their day will be like.

Host a Parent Information Night

Some years in the Spring both the high school and the middle school host a Parent Information Night. If you have large numbers of students transitioning this is a nice way to let parents know a little more about your program. This can be done in the Spring, right before Back to School or in the Fall. Often schools will host Open House, but sometimes this may not give enough time to really discuss your program and the things students will be doing with you throughout the year. 

To read more about transition meetings, read this blog post!

Learning about evaluations? Read this blog!