General Assessments for Educators, Families & Students | Ohio Age-Appropriate Transition Assessment (AATA) Library

The 411 on Disability Disclosure

Available from the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability or NCWD/Youth, the 411 on Disability Disclosure is a workbook that teachers can use with youth and young adults to help them learn about disability disclosure. The workbook is filled with activities that may be used both by students as an assessment, and by educators who are looking to build discovery and advocacy processes and practices into their curriculum.

Age-Appropriate Transition Assessment Toolkit

The National Technical Assistance Center of Transition (NTACT) provides an Age-Appropriate Transition Assessment Toolkit designed to provide information, rationale, and tools to assist educators in preparing transition assessments for students with disabilities. The toolkit includes sample instruments, considerations, and discussion.

Air Self-Determination Scale

The AIR Self-Determination Scales offer assessment surveys for students, educators, and families that will produce a profile of the student’s level of self-determination, identify areas of strength and areas needing improvement, and help set specific educational goals that can be incorporated into the student’s IEP. The American Institutes for Research (AIR), in collaboration with Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, developed the student, family, and educator versions of the AIR Self-Determination Assessments with funding from Office of Special Education Programs.

Casey Life Skills Transition Tool

Developed by Casey Family Programs, the Casey Life Skills Transition Tool is a free practice tool and framework for working with youth in foster care. It is available in youth and caregiver formats and is used to assess independent living skills. It provides different levels of questions for students across functioning levels (Level 1 Basic Skills – Level 4 Complex Skills) in the areas of daily living, self care, relationships and communication, housing and money management, work and study life, career and education planning, and future planning. The Casey Life Skills Transition Tool is offered in English, Spanish and French.

Editorial Note: The tool tends to over-estimate skills for students with severe multiple developmental disabilities.

Choicemaker Self-Determination Assessment

Created by Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment, the ChoiceMaker Self-Determination Assessment is a curriculum-referenced tool that measures the self-determination skills of middle and high school students with mild to moderate disabilities. Educators can also assess opportunities for students to exercise these skills across three areas: (1) choosing educational, vocational, and personal goals; (2) involvement in IEP meetings; and (3) the attainment of IEP goals, including developing a plan, implementing the plan, self-evaluation of plan progress, and adjusting any of the plan parts.

Community Investment in Transition Youth with Disabilities Tool

Developed by Ohio Employment First the Community Investment in Transition Youth with Disabilities Tool is a self-assessment/checklist that may be used to guide and inform schools and agencies in their readiness and capacity to serve the transition needs of youth in community employment. It helps to identify areas for improvement and supports the development of an improvement plan, if necessary.

Effective Practices and Predictors of Post-School Success

The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition or NTACT has identified several effective practices to teach students skills associated with post-school success. The Effective Practices Matrix provides the practices and related lesson plan starters identified by NTACT to support post-school success as well as brief descriptions of the individual predictors of success. The matrix also includes resources regarding effective practices associated with the transition planning process, implementation of transition services, and graduation.

Let’s Get to Work: Self-Directed Planning Tool

Available from the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, the Let’s Get to Work: Self-Directed Planning Tool was created to help students and their support teams think about and discuss employment goals. The seven-page survey can also serve as a guide to teams and works best when the information presents a true reflection of the student’s experiences, thoughts, and opinions. Teamwork from a group of people who know the student well is important to this process. This tool is not intended to be a form for one-time completion, rather it is designed to be an ongoing guide for teams to use as students move through transition, build life skills, and engage in educational and work experiences in preparation for adulthood.

MyLife Software

Available through the Ohio Department of Education, the MyLife Individual Transition Planning Tool is a free, downloadable program for students with disabilities, their families, educators, and others to use in making plans for the future. Students respond (with or without assistance) to prompts that ask about their life inside and outside of school. The program enables them to answer questions about their preferences and interests, needs, and strengths. The student’s responses may be saved and printed for teacher use when writing Transition Plans and Individualized Education Programs. This program may be accessed in more than one session.

Editorial note: We recommend downloading the Read Me file for information on using the program.

My Next Move: O*NET Interest Profiler

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration and developed by the National Center for O*NET Development, the My Next Move: O*NET Interest Profiler helps students discover their interests and how they relate to the world of work using a color-coded survey that includes smiley-face symbols to accompany the numbers to denote level of interest.

Preference Indicators

The Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment at the University of Oklahoma in cooperation with Dr. Valerie N. Williams, Director of the Center for Learning and Leadership and Associate Vice Provost has provided three resource surveys to determine student interest:

These tools can be used by the student, family, educator, or even employer to help determine student preference.

Secondary Transition Evidence-Based Practices in the Classroom

From the National Technical Assistance Center of Transition (NTACT), the Secondary Transition Lesson Starters list provides numerous links that lead teachers to evidence-based practice tested lesson plans on a variety of topics concerning transition including student-directed IEP meetings, Self-Advocacy, “Check and Connect,” various video-modelling lesson plans and more.

Self-Determination Inventory

Created by the University of Kansas, Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report asks students how they feel about their ability to make choices, set and pursue goals, and make decisions. It is designed for young people ages 13-22 with and without disabilities, takes only 10 minutes to complete, and offers read-aloud options and word definitions.

Student Dream Sheet

Originally created by National Secondary Transition Technical Assessment Center (NSTTAC), the Student Dream Sheet is a two-page survey which allows students, educators, families, and/or transition coordinators to participate in a guided interview with the student about the student’s vision for the future. This tool could be used when discussing future planning with the student for IEP and transition planning purposes.

Student Inventory for Technology Supports (SIFTS)

Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) provides a Student Inventory for Technology Supports (SIFTS), a quick and easy survey tool developed to support IEP teams seeking assistance in matching student needs and strengths to assistive technology features. The tool features embedded text, picture, and video supports to assist teams in building their knowledge of assistive technologies and build capacity in implementing assistive technology assessments. Users will be required to create a free account through the site, but all information entered on the website is confidential and secure. Student results can be retained for future use. Multiple assistive technology domains can be collected and stored for the same student.

Transition Assessment Matrix

Available from the Indiana Secondary Transition Resource Center, the Transition Assessment Matrix allows educators and practitioners to select and explore transition assessments by domain (employment, education, training, independent living), grade level, and disability category most similar to the needs of the student being assessed.

This page was updated January 26, 2021

Air Self-Determination Scale

The AIR Self-Determination Scales offer assessment surveys for students, educators, and families that produces a profile of the student’s level of self-determination, identifies areas of strength and areas needing improvement, and helps set specific educational goals that can be incorporated into the student’s IEP. The American Institutes for Research (AIR), in collaboration with Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, developed the student, family, and educator versions of the AIR Self-Determination Assessments with funding from Office of Special Education Programs.

What is Health Care Transition?

Available from the Michigan Department of Education, Health Care Transition, or HCT, is the process of getting youth ready for health care as an adult. During childhood, a parent or caregiver will usually help youth with their health and health care needs-calling to set up appointments, filling out forms, and keeping track of medications. As youth get older, managing those needs becomes their own responsibility. Achieving this independence requires an organized transition process for them to gain independent health care skills, prepare for an adult model of care, and transfer to new clinicians.

I’m Determined: Self-Determination Toolbox

One of the many resources offered by the Virginia Department of Education’s I’m Determined project, the I’m Determined: Self-Determination Toolbox offers dozens of short assessments and activities designed to help students and/or their families explore and measure their self-determination skills as well as tools for become more self-determined, including My Good Day Plan, Core Components of self-determination, and more.

MyLife Software

Available through the Ohio Department of Education, MyLife Individual Transition Planning Tool is a free, downloadable program for students with disabilities, their families, educators, and others to use in making plans for the future. Students can answer (with or without assistance) prompts that ask about their preferences, interests, needs, and strengths inside and outside of school. Students may save and print their responses for teachers to use when writing Transition Plans and Individualized Education Programs (IEP). This program can be accessed in more than one session, depending on how much the student chooses to expound upon each answer.

Editorial note: we recommend using the Read Me File first for information on using the program.

Secondary School Success Checklist

The Secondary School Success Checklist (SSSC) is an evaluation of student skills completed by staff, families, and students. Designed by the CSESA team, the SSSC tool can support teams in identifying priority goals related to independence and behavior, transition, social competence, and academic skills (with a focus on literacy). These four domains are the focus of the CSESA intervention, and positive outcomes in these domains have been directly linked to post-secondary success for students on the autism spectrum.

The SSSC data, along with the transition assessment and plan, and information about the student and family, can guide the team in identifying priority goals and matching those goals to evidence-based practices in an effort to develop the most effective programming. You can download the fillable pdf documents from the CSESA website.

Self-Determination Inventory

Created by the University of Kansas, Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report asks students questions about how they feel about their ability to make choices, set and go after goals, and make decisions. It is designed for young people ages 13-22 with and without disabilities, takes only 10 minutes to complete, and offers read-aloud capabilities and in-text definitions of words.

Supporting Families of Individuals with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

Originally developed by families for families by the staff and stakeholders of Missouri Family to Family, the LifeCourse Toolkit for individuals, families, and professionals contains tools for having conversations with individuals and families about a vision for a good life and how to achieve it along with corresponding handouts to supplement, further understand, and generate ideas.

Transition Milestone Skills Lists & Other Resources

Developed by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Division of Specialized Care for Children, the Transition Milestone Skills Lists and Resources contain a variety of checklists that are designed to help families and their child with disabilities prepare for adulthood. Included are a transition timeline and individual checklists that address health care, independent living skills, and work resources. All of the resources are available in English and Spanish.

This page was updated February 16, 2022

This page was updated January 26, 2021