New Hampshire

State Transition Resources:

Next Steps-NH Grant: College, Career and Life Readiness

The overall goal of Next Steps NH, a five year (2012-2017) federally funded State Personnel Development Grant, is to increase the number of students with disabilities and/or those at risk of dropping out of school who are college and career ready in New Hampshire through implementation of evidence based transition practices.

Next Steps NH will focus on four strategies to achieve this goal:

1. Increasing student competency through increased use of Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs),
2. Enhancing transition planning, activities and opportunities,
3. Greater family-school engagement
4. Sustaining practices through our state institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), regional professional development intermediaries, a transition Community of Practice, and the use of technology.

This project offers seven objectives designed to support these strategies:

1. To develop the capacity of those providing professional development on Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs), transition planning, and parent engagement, and to define the expectations and commitment of those receiving professional development.
2. To increase and expand the use of ELOs in all regions of New Hampshire, by increasing the knowledge and skills of NH special and general educators, related service personnel, and administrators in the design, implementation with fidelity, and sustainability of evidence based ELOs.
3. To increase the use of best practice, evidence-based transition planning, including enhanced family engagement strategies.
4. To sustain the use of ELO, transition planning, and parent engagement strategies, through evidence-based and quality coaching.
5. To increase the use of implementation, intervention, and outcome data to support decision making at the school, LEA, and state level.
6. To ensure LEA administrators are trained to support their staff and initiatives to implement and sustain the use of ELOs, transition planning and family engagement strategies.
7. To enhance the inclusion of evidence-based training materials on ELOs, transition planning, and parent/family engagement in IHE pre-service training programs to sustain delivery of grant services throughout the state.

NEXT STEPS New Hampshire Website:

A new website to help students, parents, and educators work together to plan for the student’s life after high school. Includes all content from the previous transition resource site, http://transitions.keenecommons.net/ . New website: http://nextsteps-nh.org/

(Download Informational Flyer Now)

NH Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education Secondary Transition and Indicator 13 Process and Training Resources  - http://www.education.nh.gov/instruction/special_ed/sec_trans.htm

Professional Development Resources:

 See http://nextsteps-nh.org/ website above under state resources.

Additional Resources

NH’s Transition State Community of Practice (CoP)

The NH Transition State COP works with the IDEA Partnership to collaborate with various partners and share resources.  This state coordinating group, is open to anyone  in NH passionate about secondary transition  who wishes to participate.  The State COP meets on a monthly basis and plans an Annual NH Transition Summit usually held in November.   The State CoP currently has five focus areas: Promoting best practices in the area of transition to life after high school; Promoting family & youth engagement/advocacy; Formalizing communication “vehicles” for our local, state and national CoP work; Planning and implementing Annual Transition Summit; and Continuing to evaluate the COP strategy at the local and state level.   

For Information about the NH Transition Community of Practice or materials from our Annual Transition Summit please contact Lori Goetz, (505) 827-1461 Lori.goetz@state.nm.us