This wiki-handbook provides the most current and comprehensive information about the transition to adulthood to people with autism spectrum disorders and their families. While some information is geared specifically to people living in Pennsylvania, much of the information is applicable and relevant to people with autism spectrum disorders and their families throughout the United States.
Read the Website/Wiki – Autism Transition Handbook: An Online Resource for Families.
The Developmental Disabilities Assistance Act and Bill of Rights Act of 2000, better known as the DD Act, serves to improve service systems for individuals with developmental disabilities, and for other purposes. The Act is provided here in its entirety.
Read the Website – Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000: An Introduction.
Dage, Daniel blog – Writing effective IEP goals and objectives: Suggestions for teachers and parents
This blog is part of a large series about Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and the IEP process which explains each portion of an IEP in great detail and describes the process that both a parent and educator must use. In this particular section, the author overviews the setting of IEP goals and objectives from both these perspectives and discusses what constitutes meaningful and measurable goals and objectives in an IEP.
Read the blog post – Writing Effective IEP Goals and Objectives: Suggestions for Teachers and Parents.
This is an online support group for mothers of multiple children with autism spectrum disorders. Currently, this group has over 84,000 members.
Visit the online community – Circle of Moms: Moms of Multiple Children with Autism.
This site provides a one-stop shop for resources regarding The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 and the regulations that are used to implement it. This website provides several factsheets, questions and answer documents, and topical sections explaining various portions of IDEA. This website also provides webcasts, video clips, and training materials for families and professionals further explaining topics and regulations in the IDEA act.
Visit the Website – Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004.
This document presents an overview on the definition of family support and the needs of families who have loved ones with developmental disabilities. Additionally, this document discusses additional challenges that families may face as a result of diversity in the United States and the need for organizations to provide and coordinate services that address the needs of a multiplicity of cultures, languages, and values in families.
Read the Brief – Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Family Supports by the National Center for Cultural Competence (PDF).
This issue brief highlights many of the new Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services provisions included in the Affordable Care Act. This Act provides states options for financing Medicaid home and community based services and supports through several different plan options. These include the State Balancing Incentive Payments Program, the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration, State Plan HCBS, and Community First Choice Option. This resource analyzes the provisions and tries to explain the context in which states may adopt a particular plan option.
Read the Brief – National Academy for State Health Policy: Implementing the Affordable Care Act: New Options for Medicaid Home and Community Based Services.
This information brief outlines a model to help integrate people with significant disabilities into the workplace in the final year of education. This model brings together the school system, state vocational rehabilitation services, and state developmental disabilities agency to help youth receive individualized transition services. The results from some test cases are discussed, and implications from these findings are presented.
Read the Brief – Transition Service Integration Model.
This textbook, geared towards people in graduate or upper level undergraduate university courses, develops and analyzes a public health framework and model that can be applicable and beneficial to social policies focusing on child welfare, education, mental health, health, developmental disabilities, juvenile justice, and poverty. This text includes policy examples, web-based resources, case studies, and explanations in recent policy developments that can better discuss the evolution of social policies aimed at supporting children and families.
You can purchase the book at the Sage Publications website.
Pengra, L.M., (2000), Your values, my values: Multicultural services in developmental disabilities. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
This book, geared towards family members of people with developmental disabilities and professionals (teachers, social workers, clinicians, and support staff), explains how to provide culturally responsive services that support the values of people who receive them. The author provides practical methods for finding variations and values and how to support self-advocacy, facilitate community inclusion, and interpret challenging behavior for people from any cultural/linguistic group.
This book is available for purchase at the Brookes Publishing website.
