Transition for Young Adults With Severe Mental Retardation: School Preparation, Parent Expectations, and Family Involvement

Little is known regarding the extent to which schools are implementing transition programming for students with severe mental retardation and other related issues: parent expectations of transition outcomes, postschool vocational outcomes, and parent involvement in the transition process. These issues were examined with 52 families who had transition age sons or daughters with severe mental retardation. Results revealed that (a) schools are providing a variety of instruction in the area of transition; (b) parents' ideal views of vocational outcomes are not always consistent with their realistic views; (c) for students who have exited the school system, the majority (54%) are working in segregated environments; and (d) families are very involved in the transition programming of their sons or daughters.