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Tools and Resources
These resources are designed to support educators, families, and service providers in planning and implementing effective Secondary Transition services. While the Colorado Department of Education does not mandate or endorse specific tools, this toolkit offers a comprehensive collection of assessments, planning guides, student-led resources, career readiness materials, person-centered planning guides, and interagency collaboration supports to help teams address students’ strengths, needs, and post-school goals.
Secondary Transition Assessment and Planning Tools
CDE - Secondary Transition Assessment Identification & Resource Tool:
Designed to help educators and service providers select and use age-appropriate Secondary Transition assessments for students ages 15–21 receiving special education services. It provides tools to plan and map assessments over grade years, analyze existing data to identify needs, and develop a targeted action plan for the current year Covering education, employment, independent living, and self-determination, it includes guidance on who should complete each tool and when, supporting flexible, strengths-based, and student-centered transition planning.
CDE - Comprehensive Secondary Transition Planning:
CDE - Comprehensive Secondary Transition Planning: Interviews and Guidance for Parents and Guardians
Serves as both a parent/guardian interview guide and a rating scale to support individualized transition planning. It is designed to spark meaningful conversations about a student’s strengths, needs, and future goals as they prepare for life after high school.
NTACT:C - Collaborative Assessment Guide:
NTACT:C - Collaborative Assessment Guide for Transition Planning Services
Designed to help students, families, educators, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and other partners develop a coordinated assessment approach for transition planning and service delivery. The guide includes sections for students and families, as well as supplements highlighting assessment requirements under federal laws and providing sample assessment tools.
NTACT:C - Collaborative Assessment for Transition Planning:
NTACT:C – Collaborative Assessment for Transition Planning: Student Supplement
NTACT:C provides a guide to help students understand transition assessments, interpret assessment data, and translate it into meaningful information. It supports educators in engaging students in identifying their strengths, needs, and goals to inform planning for education, work, and independent living after high school.
Center on Transition Innovations VCU:
The Center on Transition Innovations provides a structured framework for educators to gather information about students’ strengths, preferences, interests, and needs (SPIN) across three tiers: screening (broad, quick checks), progress monitoring (ongoing tracking of skills and growth), and comprehensive assessment (in-depth evaluation for planning). This tiered process helps develop measurable postsecondary goals and coordinate transition services to support students’ successful movement from high school to postsecondary environments.
Community-Based Transition Options (CBTO):
CBTO Community-Based Transition Options for 18-21-year old Students with Disabilities
Designed as a framework for planning community-based transition options for 18-21 year old students with disabilities. This tool will assist local districts in assessing needs and developing transition-focused options within a community-based environment. In addition, the guide assists districts to create a step-by-step process using practical activities and user-friendly forms. The forms have been created to identify student needs, analyze in-school and community resources, set priorities, develop meaningful action plans, and establish the process for evaluation.
OCALI Lifespan Transition Center:
OCALI Lifespan Transition Center
The OCALI Lifespan Transitions Center supports individuals with disabilities in successfully moving from school to adult life. It offers person-centered resources, training, and tools, like the LifeSkills for Adulthood Framework and Age-Appropriate Transition Assessments, to guide families, educators, and students in planning for employment, community living, and independent skills.
Condition Specific or Specialized Secondary Transition Toolkits
Autism Speaks:
Autism Speaks: Autism and the Transition to Adulthood Tool Kit
This toolkit offers a structured roadmap to support students with autism as they move into adulthood. It guides educators (and families) through key transition planning steps, such as developing self-advocacy, independent living, employment, and postsecondary goals, and helps align IEPs with real-life outcomes. It’s a practical, evidence-based resource to help your students plan and prepare for life beyond school. [KL1]
Indiana Secondary Transition Resource Center:
Indiana Secondary Transition Resource Center: Transition Assessment Matrix
The Transition Assessment Matrix, developed by the Indiana Northeast Cadre of Transition Leaders and INSTRC, offers a collection of approved assessments and tools for secondary transition planning. Authentic Assessments within the Matrix help document real-world skills and experiences across school, community, and career settings to inform Transition IEP decisions. [KL1]
Transition Toolkit for Students with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI):
Transition Toolkit for Students with Traumatic Brain Injury
The Transition Toolkit for Students with Traumatic Brain Injury (CBIRT, 2012) offers educators, families, and community providers a structured, evidence-informed guide to supporting young people with brain injuries as they move from school toward adult life. It identifies typical barriers to successful transition, outlines best practices (e.g. student-led planning, interagency coordination, family engagement), and provides practical tools like goal-setting maps, action plans, self-advocacy forms, and feedback instruments to help tailor transition supports to each student’s needs.
Self-Determination and Student-Led Planning
The University of Oklahoma's Zarrow Institute:
The University of Oklahoma's Zarrow Institute
The Zarrow Institute offers a comprehensive suite of curriculum resources aimed at enhancing self-determination and successful transition outcomes for students with disabilities. These materials are designed for educators, families, and professionals working with middle and secondary students, providing tools to foster goal setting, self-advocacy, and independent living skills. Key offerings include:
- ChoiceMaker Self-Determination Transition Curriculum
- ME! Lessons for Teaching Self-Awareness & Self-Advocacy
- Pulos' Career Assessment & Exploration Tool Kit (P-CAET)
- Student-Directed Transition Planning
- TAGG (Transition Assessment and Goal Generator
Welcome to T-Folio:
T-Folio is a free transition portfolio tool for high school age youth with disabilities. It is designed to guide youth in exploring, identifying, and planning for their desired post-school goals. This tool represents a compilation of activities and products showcasing each youth’s ongoing transition process. It is their individual story of who they are, where they have been, and where they are headed after high school.
Student-Led IEP Resources:
These resources work together to help students take an active role in their IEP process. The Student-Led IEP Checklist guides preparation and participation, while the I’m Determined Elementary and Secondary IEP Templates provide age-appropriate tools for students to share their strengths, goals, and needs—building self-awareness, confidence, and self-determination.
- I’m Determined Elementary IEP Template and Resources
- I’m Determined Secondary IEP Template and Resources
- Student Led IEP Checklist
Career Readiness and Skill-Building
Creative Thinking Activities:
Creative Thinking Activities – The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM
This resource provides arts- and STEAM-based activities designed to foster creative thinking, problem-solving, and innovation skills in students. It supports transition planning by helping students explore interests, build self-confidence, and develop transferable skills that can guide future education, employment, and independent living goals.
Empower Your Future:
Empower Your Future: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide
Empower Your Future: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide is a standards-based resource designed to help youth, including those with disabilities, build essential skills for successful career transitions. It includes interactive lessons on self-assessment, career exploration, job readiness, and goal setting, all grounded in a positive youth development framework. This flexible curriculum supports educators and youth-serving programs in guiding students toward meaningful post-school outcomes.
ACT for Youth:
ACT for Youth: SEL Toolkit: Decision Making
This resource offers strategies and tools to enhance young people's decision-making skills, emphasizing critical thinking, problem-solving, and reflection. It provides activities that encourage youth to evaluate options, anticipate consequences, and make informed choices, fostering responsible and caring decision-making.
Person-Centered Planning and Future Vision
Project 10: Transition Education Network:
Project 10: transition education network Student-Focused Planning
The Student-Focused Planning resource from Project 10 presents a framework for creating IEPs with — not just for — students. It emphasizes integrating assessment data, student self-determination, and long-term goals into IEP development, planning strategies, and student participation throughout the process.
Person Centered Planning:
Project 10 Transition Education Network: Person Centered Planning and Tools
The Person-Centered Planning (PCP) resource from Project 10 outlines a collaborative, strengths-driven approach that helps students with disabilities and their teams envision a future grounded in the student’s interests, priorities, and aspirations. It describes PCP methods like MAPS, PATH, GAP, and Circles of Support, and explains how these tools can promote self-determination, connect youth to adult services, and improve coordination across school and community systems
LifeCourse Nexus: Person-Centered Planning
The LifeCourse Person-Centered Tools offer a flexible, strengths-based approach to planning for a "good life." Designed for individuals, families, and professionals, these tools support meaningful conversations and decision-making by helping users articulate their vision, identify necessary supports, and plan for the future. Whether navigating transitions, setting goals, or solving problems, the tools promote self-determination and holistic planning across life domains.
Interagency Collaboration and Team Building
The Building Your Interagency Transition Team resource from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is a foundational component of the Sequencing of Services initiative. It provides a structured framework to help communities establish and strengthen collaborative teams that support students with disabilities in their transition from school to adult life. The resource emphasizes the importance of coordinated efforts among education, vocational rehabilitation, families, and community agencies to ensure seamless service delivery, shared information, and collective problem-solving. By fostering these partnerships, the initiative aims to enhance student outcomes and promote successful transitions into post-school activities.
Colorado Department of Education: Building Your Interagency Transition Team
Colorado’s Interagency Sequencing of Services Initiative for Students and Youth with Disabilities