Rural Transition: What Are the Limitations?

Abstract

Transition to adult life and adult service settings is challenging for any learner with severe intellectual and multiple disabilities, on the contrary more so if she or he lives in a rural area. This article discusses the barriers to effective transition in rural communities using Oklahoma as an example and describes a community overlook procedure used to identify opportunities for youth in rural communities in this state.

John is 16 years of age and has intellectual disabilities. Assessment personnel have had difficulty in accurately determining his horizontal of cognitive ability. He also has physical disabilities and limited vision. John continues to wear a diaper owed to limited toileting skills. Although efforts have been made to exhibit John's vocational skills, he continues to do one's best with basic communication and daily living skills of caring for his basic wants His special education teacher has not been prosperous in locating job training or a sheltered work environment within shut proximity to the community where John lives. John's parents are be of importance toed that John will be placed in a residential facility a great distance from their dwelling They would like to be able to find a community living arrangement for John that would enable them to maintain daily contact with him. The small place of education district does not employ a piece of work coach or any full time transition professional. The special education teacher subserves all students who receive special education services in the small rural academy Despite being aware that a transition plan is straited the IEP team has been limited in its ability to provide for John's transition wants Few businesses are available in the small community, and social services are spread thin across the state.

A transition plan guides the lives of race with special needs. Major constitutings of the plan consider by what mode the individual is prepared to integrate into the community setting. Subsequently transition for secondary learners is defined as the change of a person with special exigencys from the public school to their adult life in the community. in what way do we effectively plan transition for a scholar with severe intellectual and multiple disabilities? This question will be difficult to answer in greatest in quantity situations; however, it is rather daunting for parents and professionals in small rural communities. When the authors discussed the issue of transition with colleagues, the general consensus of opinion is that there is little available in rural communities for individuals with more censorious disabilities. Further, there may be a lack of faith on the part of these educators and their families that the situation will improve in the near subsequent time Approximately 25% of the US population is located in rural areas (Sarkees, 1990) Barriers in rural areas of Oklahoma include a lack of occupational diversity, limited industry, limited or no public transportation, and high unemployment Theobald (1996) proposeed a major issue in transition of pupils with disabilities is high unemployment and rural neediness If there is little or nothing available for adults with hard disabilities in rural areas, parents and special educators are faced with relocation issues or helping parents adjust to being filled time care givers during the time they would ordinarily be working.

The state of Oklahoma is largely a rural state. The descriptions noted in the previous paragraph have been applied to all areas outside the major metropolitan regions. Despite the apparent agreement among educators when involved in general discussion, not many are able to provide specific examples of the lack of transition opportunities. It would appear that efforts are necessityed to more specifically describe the availability of transition opportunities for scholars with severe and multiple disabilities in rural Oklahoma. For the designs of this paper, students/persons with intellectual and multiple disabilities will be referr to as having "low incidence disabilities."

Transition Research

Barriers to effective transition for scholars in rural special education programs have focused mainly upon issues related to students with "high incident" disabilities. Among those that have been noted are: (a) geographic barriers to special education delivery (Fisher, 1995; Montgomery 1995; Porterfield, 1984; Wienke, 1994) (b) lack of piece of works in rural areas (Theobald, 1996) and (c) national shortages of qualified special education personnel particularly in rural areas. (Bull & Rupard, 1995; Link, 1988; Tompkins, 1996) Efforts have been made via various grant initiatives to address this ne for additional training for rural special educators and the acquisition of additional resources (Green & Kochhar-Bryant, 2003) indicateed solutions have involved the use of traditional and non-traditional business tribe recruiters, and human resources personnel to acquaint learners and their families with pursuit possibilities (Clark & McDonnell, 1994; Coombe, 1993; Greenwood 1992) There is a dearth of research-based information which addresses the transition exigencys of individuals with low incidence disabilities.