3/13/06 Contact: Katie Wilder, 334/844-2994 (wildeka@auburn.edu)
David M. Granger, 334/844-9986(grangdm@auburn.edu)

TRANSITION CONFERENCE THIS WEEK HIGHLIGHTS WORK AT AU TO HELP TEENS WITH DISABILITIES

AUBURN - Making the transition from high school to college can be tough. However, the challenges can be even greater for someone with a disability. Auburn University’s Transition Leadership Institute is helping teenagers with disabilities throughout Alabama overcome these challenges and successfully move from their teen years to adulthood.

The work of the Auburn institute is highlighted across Alabama this week as AU hosts the 16th annual Alabama Transition Conference at The Lodge and Conference Center at Grand National in Opelika from Monday through Wednesday. The annual conference brings together teachers, counselors, agency representatives, parents and others to examine the latest research and outreach developments in the transition process.

The Auburn institute, headquartered in the AU College of Education, works with state agencies such as vocational rehabilitation, mental health, workforce investment and social security to develop programs and provide services for special education students.

Karen Rabren, the institute’s co-director, says Auburn’s Transition Institute is unique among the handful of transition institutes and centers in the United States because it both conducts research on the transition process and offers outreach services.

“The institute is important because we systematically provide the collaboration, planning and policy development with all our state partners,” Rabren said. “If we didn’t have this structure, this might not happen. We provide a foundation from which those agencies can build and provide assistance.”

The institute began in the early 1990s and was recently recognized by AU when Philip Browning, institute co-director, was awarded the 2005 Annual Outreach Award for Faculty Excellence.
Rabren, who is also head of the Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education at AU, said the institute works to help prepare students for the changes that occur once they finish high school. For some, this means entering college. For others, the change is from education to a job or vocation. “The idea is to not have a gap between when a student leaves high school and when that student moves to the next phase,” she said.

The institute assists agencies with grant writing, training and other services. The agencies in turn work one-on-one with the transition students. For example, they help with job coaching, they help teachers learn how to make classroom modifications for special education students, and they work with the students to teach them how to help themselves.

The students receive transition services that range from mild for those who continue on to college, career and independent living to severe for those who may need assistance for the rest of their lives.

One component of the institute is the Alabama student tracking system, a comprehensive research effort that provides school systems and agencies throughout the state with accountability and program improvement measures.

Besides assisting professionals, parents and advocates for the disabled, information gathered through the institute’s research helps inform lawmakers in the crafting of legislation and allocation of funding for programs that benefit special education students.

For more information on AU’s Transition Leadership Institute, visit www.auburn.edu/rse/institute .
Auburn University is a preeminent land-grant and comprehensive research institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama’s largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.

(Contributed by Katie Wilder.)

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