Introduction
Parents and professionals involved in facilitating the student’s transition after age 14 but no later than 16 should consider the developmental maturity of the student as well as the skills that the student will need to adjust to community living and employment. The skills that should be considered include such things as daily living skills (e.g., managing money, preparing food), personal/social skills (e.g., hygiene, social skills), and occupational/vocational skills (e.g., job-seeking skills and appropriate work habits). The degree to which the student already possesses these skills and the extent to which these skills need to be developed can be determined in part by the vocational assessment. Vocational assessment should be more formalized as the student moves through grade levels and the assessment information gathered in later years should be multi-level and include assessment at both the junior and senior high levels (Hann and Levison, 1998).
