Abstract
Following high school, students with disabilities continue to lag behind peers without disabilities in success with employment, independent living, community engagement, and post-secondary education. Despite decades of best practice research, the field of special education must evaluate why these discrepancies persist in order to improve long-term outcomes for people with disabilities. This qualitative study examined how students were prepared for their transitions to secondary settings from the perspectives of transition service providers at one northern California high school. Research questions sought to answer how transition occurred at this site, what mechanisms contributed to the transition process, what challenges and successes existed in transitioning students, and under what contextual conditions these events occurred. Data sources included interviews with transition service providers, including administration, related service providers, and case managers, and IEP document analysis of 25% of the active IEPs at the site. Data analysis revealed complex interactions between instructional components for students in the classroom regarding transition and the perceptions, preferences, and values of transition service providers. In addition, a lack of data on student transition outcomes following graduation was found to hinder the improvement of transition service delivery at this site. Service providers’ responses revealed a unique set of limitations imposed on service delivery. These results demonstrated how service providers prioritized transition needs in light of contextual limits, which inadvertently restricted the ability of service providers to implement some transition best practices. This study recommends additional site based studies on transition service delivery in order to inform legislation and future best practice research about how transition service theory is put into practice locally.