To support the educational needs of children with disabilities, Congress originally enacted IDEA in 1975. Part B of IDEA authorizes federal funding for children aged 3 through 21 with a range of disabilities who need special education services. To receive federal funds, states and local education agencies must identify and evaluate children who have disabilities and provide special education and related services, as well as supplementary aids and services when necessary, to those who are eligible. Such services and supports are formulated in an IEP, which is In the developed, discussed, and documented by a student’s IEP team.2004 reauthorization of IDEA, Congress required that, beginning no later than age 16, a student’s IEP must include measurable postsecondary goals related to training, education, employment, and where appropriate, independent living skills. The IEP also must specify the transition services needed to assist the student in reaching those goals. School officials are required to invite the student to a meeting where the transition services detailed in the IEP are discussed. When appropriate, they also must invite a representative of any participating outside agency (with the prior consent of the parent or student who has reached the age of majority). As students with disabilities exit high school, they may apply as adults and be found eligible for a number of federally funded programs, including federal disability programs, if they wish to obtain services important to their transition. There is wide diversity in this population—students with disabilities can have a range of physical and cognitive disabilities that can affect their ability to learn. They may also demonstrate varying levels of academic aptitude and achievement in different areas. Thus, the number of programs for which each student may be eligible can vary widely based on their abilities, postsecondary goals, and the types of supportive services they may need to be successful. We identified a range of programs that provide services to support students with disabilities in their transition out of high school. These programs vary in the target population served, services provided, grant funding amounts, and other characteristics. In addition, they are authorized by multiple federal laws (administered through various federal agencies), each with its own eligibility requirements and application processes. (See fig. 1). Moreover, federally funded programs that provide transition services, as defined in this report, are often delivered through state and local entities that have flexibility on how to administer services. The following four agencies have primary responsibility for administering federal programs that can provide services to transition-age youth with disabilities: Education’s Rehabilitation Services Administration awards funds to state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies in the form of matching grants to help individuals with disabilities prepare for and engage in gainful employment. VR programs require that an individualized plan for employment be developed for eligible students before they leave high school. Furthermore, if the student is receiving special education services, this plan must be coordinated with the student’s IEP in terms of goals, objectives, and services. Labor oversees the one-stop center system, a comprehensive workforce investment system created under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) that brings together multiple federally funded employment and training programs that can help all eligible individuals seeking employment and training—including students with disabilities. Labor also administers the Disability Employment Initiative, which is designed to improve educational, training, and employment opportunities and outcomes for youth and adults with disabilities who are unemployed, underemployed, and/or receiving Social Security disability benefits. SSA provides cash benefits to qualifying individuals with disabilities— including transition-age young adults—through its Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. SSA also administers the Ticket to Work program, which is designed to enable individuals with disabilities (who are receiving disability insurance or SSI benefits and are between the ages of 18 and 64) to obtain services needed to find, enter, and retain employment. They obtain these services from providers such as VR agencies. HHS’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services manages Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care financing program for qualifying low- income individuals. Within the Medicaid program, states provide home and community-based services to individuals with certain types of disabilities—which may include young adults—who might otherwise be cared for in institutional settings. Because Medicaid usually does not cover home and community-based services, states must obtain a waiver to provide these services. Services provided in accordance with these waivers vary by state, are individualized, and may include, for example, case management, personal care attendants, or day or residential habilitation. In addition, these and other federal agencies fund a number of other programs through grants to states, localities, and nongovernmental organizations that may assist students and young adults during their transition from high school. Some of these grants explicitly target improving postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities and others provide a range of support services such as assistive technology, information and referral, advocacy, transportation, leadership development, benefits counseling, and independent living services. (See app. II for more information on federal programs that received federal funding in FY 2011 to provide transition services to students with disabilities.) Students with disabilities face several challenges accessing federally funded programs that can provide transition services as they leave high school for postsecondary education or the workforce. These include difficulty navigating multiple programs that are not always coordinated; possible delays in service as they wait to be served by adult programs; limited access to transition services; a lack of adequate information or awareness on the part of parents, students, and service providers of available programs that may provide transition services after high school; and a lack of preparedness for postsecondary education or employment. Prior GAO work identified many of these same challenges, which is indicative of the longstanding and persistent nature of the challenges facing students with disabilities as they transition out of high school. In each of the five states we contacted, state officials said it can be difficult for students with disabilities and their families to navigate the multiple federal programs that provide transition services. Some officials said that the shift from being automatically entitled to services under IDEA if identified as disabled while in high school to having to apply as adults and be found eligible for multiple programs after exiting high school is difficult for students and their parents to understand. (See fig. 2). Many of the stakeholders told us that a lack of coordination between programs was another key challenge for students with disabilities and/or their families. For example, staff from a parent training and information Center in Minnesota said that it is very challenging for parents to navigate the system and coordinate resources for their children across programs. In their experience, none of the program officials coordinate with those from other programs to share information on clients. State officials suggested that a lack of coordination between programs often arises as early as during IEP transition planning meetings. IDEA requires high schools to invite, with parental or student consent, representatives from adult programs likely to be responsible for providing or paying for transition services to the student after high school, such as VR, to these meetings to the extent appropriate.not required to attend, and we heard that they are often not at the table for transition planning meetings. VR officials from one state acknowledged this, saying that while they try to attend transition planning meetings, it is not always possible because of resource and time constraints. Some of the stakeholders suggested that without the commitment of local leaders and service providers to coordinate services between high school and adult programs, there is little to no communication between programs, which can create difficulty for families trying to navigate across different programs. These representatives, however, are In each of the five states we contacted, some officials said that differing requirements for adult programs can confuse students and parents. For example, officials from Florida’s department of VR said that the requirement for VR clients to have an individualized plan for employment that identifies an employment goal and the services and supports necessary to achieve that goal can be confusing for youth who already included transition plans and identified a career goal in their IEP. In addition, the amount of documentation each program requires can be overwhelming for students with disabilities and their parents. According to a student in Maryland, there is a continuous administrative burden on applicants to provide the same or similar information to multiple programs. Officials we interviewed from three of the four federal agencies acknowledged these challenges. In each of the states we contacted, officials suggested that it would be helpful to appoint a case manager to coordinate services and guide students and their families through the transition process. Some of the parents and also officials from two of the four federal agencies agreed that a case manager could help students with disabilities and their families navigate across the multiple programs. However, officials from one federal agency cautioned that it could be costly and, given that programs that provide transition services are administered by different federal agencies and implemented at the state and local level, challenging to administer. Students with disabilities may also face delays in service upon leaving high school as they wait to obtain services from adult programs or for their eligibility determinations to be finalized. Many stakeholders said that delays in service can be caused by limited financial or program resources, which may leave youth with disabilities on waitlists for services. In particular, states may have waitlists—sometimes with several thousand individuals—for home and community-based waiver services. The departments of VR in four of the five states we contacted were operating under a federally required order of selection, requiring them to serve individuals with the most significant disabilities before serving others. Several parents from Minnesota said that their children had been on waitlists for waiver services or VR services for years. One parent from Florida said that her adult son was living at home with no services or employment options as he waited for waiver services from the state’s department of disability. Officials from Nevada’s department of VR said that delays in service may also occur when students with disabilities, upon leaving high school, must return assistive technology devices on loan from the school, such as software for blind individuals that reads text on a screen in a computer-generated voice. According to officials, some students go without these critical adaptive devices until VR is able to equip them with the same or similar technologies.