GED and transition information

[Guest guest]

For those of you that have upcoming 14 year old's, transition will be an

issue that you will discuss during the course of this year's IEP ( if the

child turns 14 during the IEP ). One thing that alot of parents forget is

that diploma options are very important to plan for so that, when your child

leaves high school, he or she actually has a diploma that means something

rather than just a certificate of attendance. There are several issues to

think about for the purpose of transition planning also so I hope the below

information helps.

Taking the GED pretest and even the GED does not change an IEP placement.

The IEP designates his placement- period. Say he takes and passes his GED

and wants to be done with school. Age of majority is normally 18. Because

he is under an IEP, you as his parent could pursue that age of majority not

transfer over to him at age of 18. Because of his age, he should be an

active IEP team member, and as such have a say in his placement. As far as

services / education until the age of 21, he can be in school up to the age

of 21 ( in fact, up until his 22nd birthday, I believe ) . If that happens

during a school year, he is allowed to finish that current school year.

Again, this is an IEP team decision. Most Special Ed parents have a strong

pro argument that their child should have the equivalent of a 12 th grade

education, just the same as what non disabled students have. If it takes

your son 2-3 extra years to attain that then so be it.

The school needs to find the right way to teach so it connects for him.

Remember, LD, EBD, OHI or , for that matter, any eligibility does not mean

that the student can't learn but most schools try to convince us of that.

NOT TRUE.

The IEP drives the diploma issue. In order to graduate from high school that

means a diploma is issued. A GED is not a high school diploma in any state

that I am aware of.

A GED designates a general education diploma, not a high school diploma. A

Special Education diploma becomes more of a certificate of attendance than

anything the child can actually do anything meaningful with after school.

Many times, they will still have to get a GED anyway.

There are many negatives that accompany the receipt of a GED: Perceptions

of it being inferior to a high school diploma negatively impact job, further

educational and credit pursuits and make for more of an uphill challenge.

Transitional planning with his IEP can including things like GED pretesting

as well as it can be under tests / measurements as another tool of measuring

progress that is independent of subjective teacher drawn up testings for

example.

Another way of looking at this is while he can pursue and even obtain a GED,

that shouldn't absolve the high school diploma issue unless he invokes age

of majority and quits school or the IEP team / school may decide to accept a

modified diploma as basis for graduation and in this case that would be the

GED.

If you r child is transitioning to middle school or high school next year,

there are also some considerations concerning logistics of getting around

the school building in both of those locations. Check out the " files " are

under " transition " for some other information. Remember, too, that

Extended Schoolyear should be a topic of concern for some of you starting in

January or February. This gives the school plenty of time to locate an

appropriate program over the summer for your child's needs. If you have a

program in mind,you can always suggest it to the school too,