Overview of the Annual Performance Report Development:

See Overview of the Development of the Annual Performance Report (APR) in the Introduction section, page 1.

Indicator 14:  Percent of youth who had individualized education programs (IEPs), are no longer in secondary school and who have been competitively employed, enrolled in some type of post-secondary school, or both, within one year of leaving high school.

(20 U.S.C. 1416(a)(3)(B))

*”Percent of youth with IEPs” refers to the percent of students who could be reached for interview.
**In these targets, competitive employment excludes military service

Actual Target Data for FFY 2007:

91.2 percent of youth with IEPs*, who exited school in 2006-07 and are no longer in secondary school, were competitively employed, enrolled in some type of post-secondary school, or both, within one year of leaving school.

* This percentage is based on 2,453 students interviewed from the sample of youth with IEPs, who exited school in 2006-07.

The 2007-08 target was nearly met at 91.2 percent (see pie chart).  The difference between this percentage and the target of 92 percent is not statistically significant.  The 0.8 percent difference represents less than 20 students.  Four percent more students were both working and attending post-secondary school, with four percent fewer students working as their sole activity.  (See New York’s State Performance Plan (SPP) Indicator 14, reported in the February 2008 APR for definitions of outcome terms, targets and baseline data http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/spp/apr2008/APR-1008.pdf).

Representativeness of Survey Pool

Table 1 below compares the representativeness of the survey pool with all exiters with IEPs for 2006-07.  The survey pool is the group of students that the 108 sampled school districts identified for interviewing to the contractor, the Potsdam Institute for Applied Research (PIAR) at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam.  The National Post-School Outcome Center (NPSO) recommends using a +/-3 percent difference to evaluate the representativeness of demographic subgroups reported in Table 1.  By this criterion, students with emotional disabilities are slightly underrepresented in the survey pool at -3.1 percent.  Minority students and students who dropped out of school are under represented at -6.2 percent and -10.0 percent, respectively.  Under-representation occurred in the sampled districts represented in the non-Big Five City areas called, “Rest of State.”  These rates of representation are improved compared with the baseline year, 2005-06, reported in the February 2008 APR.

The consent process influences the composition of the survey pool.  The consent process requires school districts to contact potential exiters and their families prior to the student exiting school to inform them about Indicator #14 activities, to obtain contact information and to make them aware they can expect to be interviewed a year after leaving school.  If a district cannot contact potential exiters or their families or if there is a refusal of consent, the student is removed from the survey pool.  It is most difficult to contact students who have left by dropping out or have less stable living situations.

Representativeness of Response Pool

Table 2 below compares the representativeness of the response pool with all exiters from 2006-07.  The response pool refers to the group of former students from the survey pool that could be contacted and interviewed within the year after exiting their schools.  Using the NPSO criteria of +/-3 percent to compare the representativeness of subgroups to that of all exiters for the sampled school year, the response pool is representative of gender. Exiters with emotional disabilities are slightly underrepresented at -4.0 percent.  Minority students and students who dropped out of school are under represented at -11.5 percent and -16.5 percent respectively.  Under-representation in the survey pool by minority students and those who dropped out magnified the lower representation of these groups among those who responded.  However, changes in the outreach process improved representation during 2006-07 as compared with the baseline year 2005-06 data reported in the February 2008 APR.

Response Rates

• From the 2006-07 school exiters in the statewide survey pool, 74 percent of former students were reached for interviews within the year of leaving school.  This is an improvement over the previous year, when the overall response rate was 65 percent.  For this reporting year, the response rates for three demographic subgroups were notably below 74 percent: students with emotional disabilities at 68 percent; minority students at 64 percent; and students who dropped out of school at 49 percent.  Despite these differences, response rates were improved over the previous year for these groups.
• For the Big Five Cities, the response rate was 59 percent, with two groups falling notably below this rate: females at 55 percent; and students who dropped out at 42 percent.  The early interviewing strategy was particularly beneficial in maintaining contact with New York City (NYC) students.
• For the Rest-of-State, there was a response rate of 78 percent, with three groups falling notably below this rate: students with emotional disabilities at 70 percent; minority students at 71 percent and; and students who dropped out at 56 percent.

Data Reliability and Validity

There were improvements in representation rates and response rates over the baseline year.  One strategy was to review student lists as soon as they were submitted and to follow up with school districts to request additional contact information right away when only one or two contacts were provided.  In large urban districts where centralized data systems are used, contact information in the district computer is typically outdated or incomplete.  This is a particular barrier in NYC, and contributes to a lower response rate in spite of increasing the sample size.  Additionally, in some communities, especially high poverty areas, the contact information provided by the school district becomes outdated when families move.  To help maintain contact, 2,000 former students were contacted for a preliminary survey within 6-8 months after leaving school (November to January), then interviewed in full beginning 9-14 months after leaving school (May through August).  This enabled inclusion of data on an additional 412 youth who were surveyed in the preliminary round, but could not be located by the later cycle.  This strategy increased the response rate from 62 percent to 74 percent.  In the baseline year last year, the response rate was 65 percent.

Implications for Interpreting and Applying the Data

Even though the representativeness of students surveyed improved over the baseline year, the percentage of former students with positive post-school outcomes is still somewhat less representative of students who dropped out of school, minority students and students with emotional disabilities.  Given the relatively high numbers of students who dropped out of school and who could not be reached at all, these outcomes probably represent an overestimate of what outcomes were achieved.

Data analysis found that increasing response rates through the strategies described above did not significantly change the percentages of outcomes by category reported above, but data are more inclusive of all the exited students, especially students who had dropped out prior to June 2006.  The outcomes reported reflect the outcomes for 2,453 student interviews conducted, including the results reported by the 412 pre-surveyed youth who were unavailable at the time of interview, but whose post-school status during the year after leaving school was determined during the preliminary round interviews.

Major Findings

• 91.2 percent of the 2,453 students interviewed from the sample of youth with IEPs, who exited school in 2006-07 and who were no longer in secondary school in 2007-08 reported that within one year of exiting school they were competitively employed, enrolled in some type of post-secondary school, or both, within one year of leaving school.
• If military service (n=21) is counted as “competitive employment” then the percent of students with positive post-school transitions would be higher at 92 percent.
• Data continue to show that the type of school exit makes a difference in achieving positive post-school outcomes.  As shown in the following table, the percentages of positive transitions among students achieving a regular high school diploma or high school equivalency diploma (95.4 percent) far exceeds the percents of positive transitions by students receiving an IEP diploma (83.9 percent) or who dropped out (80.5 percent).  There was no change between 2005-06 and 2006-07 in the percentage of positive transitions among students who exited with an IEP diploma.  There was a slight increase in the percentage of positive transitions among students who dropped out, from 77.7 percent in the 2005-06 baseline year to 80.5 percent in 2006-07.

• Of the 1,625 former students who participated in post-secondary school at any point during the year since leaving school, 1,029 (63.3 percent) participated in two- or four-year college programs.  Of these college participants, nearly two-thirds (n=664) participated in two-year college programs and a little over one-third (n=365) participated in four-year college programs.  This emphasis on choosing two-year colleges over four-year colleges is consistent with past findings about New York State (NYS) students with disabilities.  Nine out of every ten students reporting college participation enrolled as full-time students.
• Of the 1,840 former students who worked competitively at any time within one year of leaving school, 560 were found on interview to be still employed one year later and not attending post-secondary school.  Of this group for whom employment is the primary activity, two-thirds (63.8 percent) worked full-time, defined as 35 or more hours per week.  The majority of these full-time workers (89.4 percent) worked at least 40 hours or more per week.  The average wage for all 560 former students, full- and part-time combined, was $7.97 per hour and the average hours worked was 33.9 hours per week.
• School characteristics make a difference in post-school transitions.  Students from NYC, which has the highest resource needs, had fewer positive transitions (85.9 percent) in comparison to students from the rest-of-State (92.2 percent).
• There are no significant differences in outcomes by gender.  Male students had one percent more positive transitions (91.5 percent) than did female students (90.5 percent), but this difference is not statistically significant.
• Fewer minority students had positive post-school outcomes (88.8 percent) than did white students (92.5 percent).  Minority students slightly less often transitioned to post-secondary school (64 percent) than did white students (67.5 percent).  Minority students slightly less often transitioned to competitive employment (72.7 percent) than did white students (76.3 percent).

Discussion of Improvement Activities Completed and Explanation of Progress or Slippage that occurred for FFY 2007:

Improvement Activities Completed in 2007-08

The Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) accessed technical assistance to further inform its activities to improve transition planning for students with disabilities.  This included a review of information and resources, including but not limited to information available through the following OSEP technical assistance centers:  NPSO, National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) and National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC).  Also see resources accessed as identified for indicator 1.

Activities Completed:

• See Indicators 1, 2, 8 and 13.
• Workgroups of the Transition Coordination Sites (TCS) network developed reference and technical assistance materials (e.g., presentation packages, reading lists and articles that discuss dropout prevention strategies) that show how effective delivery of transition services contributes to increased graduations and reduced dropout rates.  Resources accessed to compile these resources include NDPC-SD, NPSO, NSTTAC and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Partnership Communities of Practice.
• In April 2007, VESID issued revised policies regarding college and university training vocational rehabilitation services http://www.acces.nysed.gov/vr/current_provider_information/
  vocational_rehabilitation/policies_procedures/0405_college_and_university_training/policy.htm

In August 2008, VESID issued updated vocational rehabilitation policies regarding serving youth in school http://www.acces.nysed.gov/vr/current_provider_information/
vocational_rehabilitation/policies_procedures/0421_youth_in_school_transition_planning_and_services/policy.htmTaken together these policies are designed to enhance the availability of vocational rehabilitation counseling and career development services for students two years prior to school exit and increase access to post-secondary education services and supports.  Beginning in fall 2008, all 15 vocational rehabilitation District Offices began professional development on the new policies.  TCS and Special Education Training and Resource Center (SETRC) Technical Assistance Center (TAC) representatives supported the training by presenting information on school policies and procedures to increase vocational rehabilitation counselors’ awareness of effective ways to communicate with school districts.  Through questions and answers discussions, the networks advised on strategies to work collaboratively in the secondary transition process.

• Eleven Independent Living Center (ILC) transition projects worked with students in transition, their families and school district personnel to improve student access to community based work experiences, student and parent participation in IEP meetings to discuss transition planning and identified student needs for and facilitated access to community services (e.g., vocational rehabilitation, housing, social security income (SSI) and social security disability income (SSDI) benefits, Medicaid, driver licensing).  ILCs worked with TCSs on transition implementation support teams, planning informational conferences for students with disabilities transitioning to college or work settings, providing information on benefits and advocacy training, helping to prepare job coaches, and participating in career and technical education fairs.  The 11 projects provided 285 training programs to 2,583 students with disabilities, 1,471 parents, 1,016 school personnel and 783 community service agency personnel.
• VESID's Model Transition Program (MTP) funded 60 collaborative projects involving more than 180 private and public high schools to develop school-wide plans, activities and programs that facilitate the transition of students with disabilities to post-secondary placements.  These placements include college, vocational training programs and competitive employment with and without supports.  At the end of this project, successful transition strategies will be identified and shared with high schools throughout the State.  As of June 2008, a total of 9,454 students received transition services; over half of those were expected to achieve a Regents Diploma.  Highlights include:
  • Sixty-five percent (6,104) of MTP students had measurable post-secondary goals in their IEPs.
  • Sixty-one percent (5,769) of students participated in career development activities.
  • Nineteen percent (1,782) of MTP students participated in paid/unpaid work experiences, most of this being part-time work.
  • Eighteen percent (1,664) of MTP students participated in activities aimed to facilitate transition to post-secondary education.  Most of these were college information nights and assistance with college applications.
  • More than 3,000 referrals to vocational rehabilitation were made.
• Technical assistance resources for Indicator 14 were provided in the annual determination letters sent to school districts scheduled to report on this indicator in the 2008-09 school year.  The State Performance Plan (SPP) web page for Indicator 14 was updated during 2007-08 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/spp/14postschool0809.htm. Links for national technical assistance resources for improving post-school outcomes in the protocol on the web included NPSO (http://psocenter.org/index.html).

Revisions, with Justification, to Proposed Targets / Improvement Activities / Timelines / Resources for FFY 2007 [If applicable]

None