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The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: the Collaborative (NTACT:C) Collaborative Assessment Guide for Transition Planning (CAG) is intended to help students, family members, educators, vocational rehabilitation counselors, human services and health agency staff, and other partners develop a coordinated assessment approach for transition planning and service delivery. The set of resources which make up the CAG includes sections designed for students and families. It also includes a supplement to highlight the assessment requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehab Act), as amended by title IV of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) as well as a supplement of Definitions referenced throughout. Finally, it includes a supplement of sample assessment tools. The assessment process for identifying post-school goals and relevant transition services for students and youth consists of six separate but interconnected processes: (1) Determining What to Assess; (2) Determining Stakeholders; (3) Selecting Appropriate Assessments; (4) Conducting Assessments; (5) Reviewing Assessment Results; and (6) Using Assessment Data.

This set of resources organizes evidence-based strategies for re-engaging and supporting students with disabilities and their families through school completion. This document is comprised of three related quick references--Part 1: Identify Who Is Missing; Part 2: Re-Engaging Students; and Part 3: Continuing Ongoing Dropout Prevention. Each section includes research-based guiding steps, a deeper dive into additional information, and an opportunity for users to identify their own next steps. The steps and additional information reflect culturally responsive and sustaining practices, critical to working with the populations of most concern. The purpose is to support school- and district-level practitioners, families, and administrators in efforts to reclaim successful educational experiences for secondary students with disabilities and their families most negatively impacted by events since 2020.

Over the past three decades, transition practices research has demonstrated that post-school outcomes of students with disabilities improve when educators, families, students, and community members and organizations work together to implement a broad perspective of transition planning, more appropriately referred to as transition-focused education. In general, this concept represents the perspective that "transition planning" is the fundamental basis of education that guides development of students' educational programs--including strategies that keep them in school--rather than an "add-on" activity for students with disabilities when they turn age 14 or 16. The impact of transition-focused education is greatly enhanced when service systems and programs connect and support the implementation and application of such learning. This report builds upon the earlier "Taxonomy for Transition Programming" (ED399722) and provides concrete practices--identified from effective programs and the research literature--for implementing transition-focused education. As indicated in the references at the end of this document, the Taxonomy 2.0 brings in the latest literature regarding predictors of post-school success, strategies to increase graduation and reduce dropout, school climate, and vocational rehabilitation services focused on fostering successful transition of youth with disabilities in college and careers. The model continues with five primary practice categories: (1) Student-Focused Planning; (2) Student Development; (3) Interagency Collaboration; (3) Family Engagement; and (5) Program Structure.