Legislation Impact on Transition Services for Youth With Disabilities: An Impact on Lnteragency Collaboration Between Schools and Vocational Rehabilitation

Transition for youth with disabilities can be one of the most critical and empowering times in a youth’s life. However, many young adults exit high school without a plan for the future or ability to take control of their own lives, and many youth with disabilities are not employed, not living on their own, and not integrated into the community (Harwick et al., 2017). The role of transition is to help youth with disabilities “develop requisite skills and knowledge that will allow them to successfully adapt to and even thrive in new environments” (Akos et al., 2007, p. 273). Various responsibilities are held by both vocational rehabilitation counselors and special education teachers in relation to transition services but there is still a debate on who should assume the leadership role in specific competency areas (Kwiatek, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to provide detail related to the roles and responsibilities of vocational rehabilitation (VR) and special education professionals to assist in the transition collaboration to improve service-delivery outcomes for transition-aged youth with disabilities.