¶ … Transition Experiences for Students with Disabilities Several years ago I was privileged to teach students with cognitive disabilities in Korea. I taught in an after school program for high school students. As I thought about the subjects that were being taught, I realized that no provisions were made to provide opportunities for the students to interact within the community setting.

Even though most of the students were going to work in a sheltered workshop after graduation, a need existed for them to learn "community skills" such as paying for things with their own money, using public transportation, and interacting with various residents of the neighborhood. It was there that my strong belief that cognitively impaired students should have chances to engage in as many "normal" activities as possible as long as the students were not confused or upset by the situation or were subject to negative comments, etc. from others.

My experiences during that short teaching opportunity impressed upon me the need for special needs students to be part of the community as a whole whenever possible.

Introduction to the Educational Proposal presently teach high school age special education students with mild to moderate cognitive impairments in an after-school program at a medium sized high school. Most of these students will never be able to own and drive an automobile,...

And go to school with.
According to Sitlington, Clark, and Kolstoe (2000), the life skills needed to help integrate students with cognitive disabilities into the community overlap considerably with communication skills, employment skills, self-determination skills, independent living skills, employment skills, and leisure skills.

However, the young people who might not otherwise be able to integrate to some degree into a community setting, are hindered by a lack of training in the use of public means of transportation.

The Importance of Transportation Skills

Transportation skills are very frequently included among the most important IEP objectives for older adolescent learning disabled students. There are many means of transportation available in the Los Angeles area which may be assistive, considerate, and understanding enough to accommodate special education students.

There are three major reasons why learning to use public transportation is so important to these special education students:

Increasing mobility among the different environments has a definite positive influence on a student's self-determination.

Self-determination implies all the decision making skills which we, as normal" members of society take for granted such as choosing what we will wear, where we will go, or what we will do. Each of these is an expression of personal independence by which individuals define themselves. The ability to make choices because it expresses ownership of one's life. However, most special education students, cannot determine where they will to or want to go because they cannot drive and haven't been trained to use public transportation.

Consequences of not being able to use public transportation include not being able to…