About the Book
Too often, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) youth with disabilities have a tougher road to adulthood than their Caucasian peers with disabilities. Reverse the odds with this concise how-to book, the first guide to easing the complex transition process for CLD students with a wide range of special needs.
A veteran trainer of transition specialists, Gary Greene is one of the foremost experts on helping students with disabilities launch successful adult lives. Combining his 25 years of experience with the latest research on cultural and linguistic diversity, this evidence-based quick-guide teaches readers key skills and best practices in culturally responsive, family-centered transition planning. Professionals who work with young adults from ages 14 to 22 will
- understand the special challenges CLD families may face during the transition process, including cultural biases, immigration issues, and limited English proficiency
- develop culturally responsive transition IEPs
- prepare the IDEA-required Summary of Functional Performance (SOP) documents
- minimize conflict and strengthen communication with CLD families
- encourage students' active participation in transition planning
- collaborate closely with families throughout the whole process
- provide effective cultural competence training to school personnel
- implement successful parent support programs
- conduct transition assessments to determine a student's individual needs
- discover how teacher leadership can improve transition services
- make the most of the transition services available in high school and beyond
To help readers apply best practices, this book gives them case studies of professionals successfully helping students and families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Readers will also learn from revealing interviews with transition specialists and other experts, discover proven tips and strategies for every part of the transition process, and get photocopiable forms and tools they can use right away.
A great resource for quick and effective professional development--and an ideal preservice textbook--this highly practical guide puts better outcomes for CLD youth well within reach as they navigate the road to adulthood.
The book is part of theBrookes Publishing Transition to Adulthood Series
About the Author:
Gary Greene, Ph.D., Professor, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, California 90840
Dr. Greene is a tenured full professor of special education at California State University, Long Beach, where he trains public school special education teachers in how to accommodate youth with special needs in general and special education classrooms. He also works as a special education consultant for the U.S. Department of State, Division of Overseas Schools. Dr. Greene has traveled extensively throughout the world conducting international school site reviews, as well special education teacher and parent trainings. He has been teaching and supervising classroom teachers since the mid-1980s.
Dr. Greene has a strong background in teaching youth with disabilities, having worked as a resource specialist for 10 years in the public schools with children with learning disabilities. He has teaching credentials in both general and special education, a bachelor's degree in psychology from University of California, Los Angeles, a master's degree in special education from the University of Southern California, and a doctoral degree in special education from the University of California, Riverside. He also holds an administrative services credential. Dr. Greene has an extensive list of publications and has conducted numerous local, state, national, and international presentations on a variety of subjects related to special education. In 2003, he coauthored a college textbook on the topic of transition of youth with disabilities from school to quality adult life titled Pathways to Successful Transition for Youth with Disabilities (with Carol A. Kochhar-Bryant, Merrill-Prentice Hall). A second edition of that book was published in 2009 titled Pathways to Successful Transition for Youth with Disabilities: A Developmental Approach (Merrill/Pearson).
Dr. Wehman is Professor of Physical Medicine with joint appointments in the Departments of Rehabilitation Counseling and also Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves as Chairman of the Division of Rehabilitation Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Wehman has his Ph.D. in Behavioral Disabilities from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As one of the original founders of supported employment, he has worked closely with business and industry since 1980 and has published over 200 articles and authored or edited more than 40 books primarily in transition, severe disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury and employment for persons with disabilities. He has been the Principal Investigator on 41 million dollars in grants during his career.
As the father of two young adults with disabilities, he brings a strong parental as well as business perspective to his work. He is highly active in speaking to professionals, parents, advocates and businesses on transition and employment for people with autism, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other developmental disabilities. On a daily basis he works with individuals with disabilities, communicates regularly with professionals in the world of business related to disability and diversity, and is active in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and doctoral students in rehabilitation medicine, special education, rehabilitation and psychology. A major focus of Dr. Wehman's work is on expanding the partnerships with businesses of all sizes so that more persons with disabilities can gain entrance into the workplace and retain employment successfully.
He is a recipient of the Kennedy Foundation Award in Mental Retardation in 1990 and President's Committee on Employment for Persons with Disabilities in 1992. Dr. Wehman was recognized as one of the 50 most influential special educators of the millennium by the Remedial and Special Education journal in December, 2000. He is also Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Renee Cameto, Ph.D.
Senior Social Science Researcher
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, California 94025
Teresa Grossi, Ph.D., is Director of the Center on Community Living and Careers at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University.
Debra Hart is the Director of the Education and Transition Team for the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She serves as the Principal Investigator for the NIDRR funded Center on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, the ADD funded Consortium on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities and Office of Postsecondary Education funded National Coordinating Center. Debra has over 25 years of experience working with youth and adults with disabilities, their families, faculty, and professionals that support youth in becoming contributing valued members of their community via participation in inclusive secondary and postsecondary education, and competitive employment. Since 1997, Ms. Hart has directed five federal grants designed to create access to postsecondary education for youth with intellectual disabilities.
Peg Lamb, Ph.D.
Director
High School Diploma Completion
Initiative
Lansing Community College
Post Office Box 40010
Lansing, Michigan 48901
Dr. David W. Test, Ph.D. Professor of Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, teaches courses in single subject research, transition, classroom management, and professional writing.
The majority of Dr. Test's publications have focused on self-determination, transition, community-based training, and supported employment. Along with Dr. Nellie Aspel and Dr. Jane Everson he wrote the first transition methods textbook titled Transition Methods for Youth with Disabilities. Dr. Test currently serves as a Co-Principle Investigator (with Dr. Paula Kohler and Dr. Larry Kortering) of the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, Co-Director on the North Carolina Indicator 14, Postschool Outcomes Project (with Dr. Claudia Flowers), and the UNC Charlotte Doctoral Leadership Personnel Preparation Program (with Dr. Diane Browder). He and Dr. Bob Algozzine currently serve as co-editors of Career Development for Exceptional Individuals.
Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D. is Professor of Special Education; Director, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; and Senior Scientist, Beach Center on Disability, all at the University of Kansas. He has published more than 25 books and 250 scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to self-determination, special education, intellectual disability, and eugenics. He is s co-author of the widely used textbook Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools, published by Merrill/Prentice Hall, now in its 7th Edition. His most recent book, co-authored with J. David Smith, is Good Blood, Bad Blood: Science, Nature, and the Myth of the Kallikaks, published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). Dr. Wehmeyer is Past-President (2010-2011) of the Board of Directors for and a Fellow of AAIDD; a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Career Development and Transition (DCDT); a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Division (Div. 33); a Fellow of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD); and former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Remedial and Special Education. He is a co-author of the AAIDD Supports Intensity Scale, and the 2010 AAIDD Intellectual Disability Terminology, Classification, and Systems of Supports Manual.
