Next month, local special educators will gather at Keene State for an institute on integrating transition (from high school to post-high school) techniques into Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities.

The institute, which will be held August 2-3, is part of the KSC-sponsored Monadnock Center for Successful Transition, which provides preservice and inservice curriculum and training in secondary transition for improved outcomes of students with disabilities in New Hampshire. The institute follows a recent course on career assessment for youth with disabilities.

According to Steve Bigaj, associate professor of education and the institute co-organizer, the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) emphasized that students with disabilities are to be prepared for employment and independent living and that specific attention is to be paid to the secondary education they receive, including planning for transition in students' IEPs.

The institute will be led by Dr. Ed O'Leary, a program specialist with the Mountain Plains Resource Center at Utah State University, who has more than 30 year's experience working in special education.

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