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This paper addresses the question of how interagency service coordination for youth with disabilities can be more flexible, youth centered, and culturally responsive. Poor interagency service coordination creates barriers to postsecondary educational access. These barriers are even more prominent for students with significant disabilities. The authors identify four models of service coordination represented in the literature and four major barriers to effective service coordination and management of supports. Recommendations for resolving major barriers are presented.

This academic paper examines the goals of inclusive postsecondary education for students with intellectual disabilities, within the context of a broader political movement, that of inclusive community living, and explores the limitations of a rights discourse as the foundation for advocacy and social change. The author deconstructs the "othering" of persons with disabilities, exposes the separate special education system as a form of institutional exclusion and oppression, and asserts that full inclusion is possible through modifications and adaptations to curriculum and instruction.

This reader-friendly chapter introduces concepts, strategies, tools and resources to help parents ensure their son or daughter enjoys a meaningful life after high school. The author recommends preparing for transition during the youth's first year of high school, using a planning approach such as Person Centered Planning. The chapter presents an overview of youth's rights under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, defines accommodations, and provides examples of accommodations currently used in college settings. Included are descriptions of resources for income supports (e.g.

Participation in postsecondary education is a known predictor of a successful employment outcome for youth without disabilities. There is research documenting that this is true for youth with disabilities as well. Most literature on postsecondary education for youth with disabilities focuses on individuals with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, and physical or sensory disorders. There is limited research that addresses youth with intellectual disabilities regarding successful outcomes of participation in postsecondary education.

Recent studies of innovative supports and services in postsecondary education reveal more effective and cooperative mechanisms with which to provide supports to individuals with disabilities (Stodden, Jones, & Chang, 2003; Whelley, Hart, & Zafft, 2003). Colleges and universities can design supports that permit consumer choice while avoiding establishment of isolating parallel "service systems." Providing individual supports for students with significant disabilities will establish new and creative alliances driven by wishes and dreams of the students.

Observations, individual interviews, focus groups, and document reviews were used to address the following: (a) What criteria (i.e., rationale for development, allocation of resources, staffing decisions, admission into program, factors that facilitate or act as barriers to program development and sustainability) are employed in the development and implementation of a public school-sponsored program for students ages 18 to 21 with SD within a community college campus?; (b) What program components described in the literature as best practices for secondary students with significant disabilit

This article presents an overview of options that improve access to age appropriate educational and transition experiences for youth with significant disabilities ages 18-21. The article describes two models for providing access to post secondary education: (a) programs that serve public school students in college and community settings, and (b) individual support approaches for serving public school students in college and community settings.

Teachers in 11 public school systems serving students with significant disabilities ages 18-21 in 13 postsecondary settings were surveyed to collect information on students' access to college courses, employment training, activities in the community and on college campuses, and interagency linkages with adult services. In addition, teachers provided input on inclusion and follow-up activities. Results indicated that while students with significant disabilities were successfully engaged in employment training, access to college courses and extracurricular activities was limited.

This book chapter presents an overview of dual enrollment, an inclusive postsecondary education option for students with intellectual disabilities. The chapter begins with a definition of intellectual disability and a discussion of post school outcomes for students with disabilities. The chapter summarizes the results of a national survey of post-secondary educational options for youth with intellectual disabilities, and briefly describes the characteristics of three program models: substantially separate, mixed, and inclusive individual support.

Traditionally, youth with intellectual and developmental disabiliites (IDD) have not been given the option of participating in and thus benefiting from a postsecondary education. There are school districts and community colleges across the country, however, that are creating opportunities for these youth to have the option of meaningful participation in a postsecondary education while still in secondary school (i.e., Dual Enrollment).