Transition Symposium

In January the Disability Resource Center conducted Transition to College Symposium, an event designed to pull together the colleges of Miami-Dade County and public schools and parents so everyone could know what is being done and what needs to be done to prepare students with disabilities for college success. There were only 80 attendees, but their response was positive and exciting. Everyone wanted to know when we’re going to do it again! Two of the access areas of the Miami-Dade County Public School District have asked for repetition of this event for parents; the district special education department will be conducting regular transition events for parents during the upcoming school year at neighborhood schools, and they would like to see our event reproduced once in each area (there are 6). All in all, the event accomplished several goals: bringing together the secondary and post-secondary providers to improve the transition between the two; bringing support services of many kinds so school staff can educate parents about them and put their services into transition IEPs; bring parents to a position of knowledge about what they need to do for their children; create a solid understanding among high schools about what must be done to assure college readiness for students with disabilities.