Graduation and Post-Secondary Transition

Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education, sets the direction for the state’s education system and its partners. The aligned goal reflects student success one year after completing a high-quality and supportive preK-12 education experience.

What We Do

Our consultants offer support to educators, families, and community partners to promote successful post-secondary transition and post-school outcomes through technical assistance, coaching, networking opportunities, and professional development.

Contact Us

As a part of the Statewide System of Support, State Support Teams work closely with the Ohio Department of Education to provide training, resources, and technical assistance to schools and districts as they strive to ensure that each child has access to a high-quality education. The documents, policies, and laws shared here provide the foundation to this work.

Links:

• Each Child Means Each Child
• Ohio Graduation Planning Law
• Ohio’s Graduation Requirements
  • Graduation Planning Template (xlsx)
  • Graduation Plans & Policies for Identifying Students at Risk of Not Graduating
    
• Career Advising Policy and Student Success Plans
  • Career Advising Policy FAQs
  • Career Advising Toolkit 
• Career Connections Framework

Ohio High School Graduation Planning Infographic

There are direct connections between the Career Advising Policy, Ohio Graduation Planning Law, Success Plans, Graduation Requirements, and Ohio’s One Plan. Our team created the graphic below to demonstrate these connections and how the initiatives and expectations support each other in regards to Ohio Graduation Planning.

Graduation Requirements and Planning

Graduation Planning helps to inspire high school students to identify paths to future success, while recognizing that each student has unique skills and knowledge.

Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education calls for a student-centered system that:

• recognizes that students demonstrate a variety of skills and knowledge in different ways
• inspires them to identify paths to future success, and
• prepares them for a rapidly changing workplace.

In support of this student-centered approach, and to help ensure students are successful in college, the military, and/or the workforce, the Ohio General Assembly enacted a requirement for each board of education of a school district and governing authority of a chartered nonpublic school to adopt a policy regarding students who are at risk of not qualifying for a high school diploma.

Career Advising Policy & Student Success Plans

It is critically important that students see a connection between what they are learning in the classroom and their future careers. 

To support students as they begin to plan for adulthood, Ohio law requires local boards of education to adopt a Career Advising Policy that provides links between academic learning and career awareness, exploration, planning and preparation. 

Career Connections provides resources and strategies for grades K-12.

• Career Advising Policy
  This district-level policy focuses on successful post-school outcomes for all students. Each district should have a Career Advising Policy in place dating back to 2015-2016 school year, and the plan should be reviewed with considerations for updates every two years. The policy must address how the district will provide the eight components of a Career Advising Policy.
  
• Student Success Plan
  These plans are used in conjunction with the Career Advising Policy to provide additional support for students found at-risk of not graduating. Districts are expected to use a local, research-based method to determine students who are at risk of not graduating starting in grade six. Student Success Plans (SSP) allow students to assess their academic progress, understand test scores, schedule appropriate classes, prepares students for graduation from high school, make plans for future education and careers. Success Plans must be revisited and updated yearly. While not all students who have an IEP are at-risk for not graduating, a student with an IEP who is at-risk of not graduating should have a SSP that aligns with and supports their Transition Plan.

Collaboration with outside agencies and community partners has been shown to be an evidence-based predictor of success. Research shows that youth benefit from having a support network of both “formal” (agency-based) networks and “informal” (friends, family, community members) networks, and that they all enhance youth success both during school and in regards to successful post-school outcomes.

The resources below provide access to collaborative opportunities for districts and families in order to support successful post-secondary outcomes for students.

Links

• Ohio Department of Education
  • Secondary Transition and Workforce Development with Students with Disabilities
  • Ohio Longitudinal Transition Study
  • Ohio Department of Education Learning Management System (LMS)
• Career Connections
• Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities
• Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities
• Ohio Employment First
  • Ohio Employment First: The Journey Webinar Gallery
• Ohio Means Jobs
• Ohio Age-Appropriate Transition Assessment (AATA)
• NTACT Transition Gradebook
• Resources for Essential IEP, Essential ETR, and Post-Secondary Transition LiveBinder
• The Ability Center of Greater Toledo
• The Ability Center of Greater Toledo – Independent Living Program
• PACER Center
• Ohio Center for Autism & Low Incidence (OCALI)

We are here to help!

State Support Team 1 is happy to assist with any questions or support requests you may have. Our Transition and Post-Secondary Planning consultants are here for you.

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