Collaborative Planning

Definition: Families, educators, and relevant service providers collaborate to plan and provide instruction and services that will reasonably enable students to reach their post-school goals.

Transition planning checklists

  • Gateways Community Services in Nashua, NH has a transition planning checklist (PDF, 2 pages, 2012) geared for students who will remain in high school until age 21.
  • Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH developed a WHS transition checklist (PDF, 7 pages) a few years ago that is a checklist plus lots questions for interviewing students about their thoughts and wishes.

Person-centered planning

Person-centered planning is an ongoing problem-solving process used to help people with disabilities plan for their future. A group meeting focuses on an individual and that person’s vision for the future. It’s a structured way of organizing planning that focuses on the unique values, strengths, preferences, capacities, needs, and desired outcomes or goals of the student.

  • One page overview of person-centered planning, from the PACER center.
  • Charting the LifeCourse was developed by families to help individuals with disabilities and families at any age or stage of life develop a vision for a good life, think about what they need to know and do, identify how to find or develop supports, and discover what it takes to live the lives they want to live.
  • Futures Planning is an adaptation of person-centered planning. Watch a 36:50-minute introduction, Futures Planning, from the NH Behavioral Health Collaborative.
  • A comprehensive introduction to all elements of person-centered planning, from the University of Arizona, Person-Centered Planning: Pathways to Your Future (PDF, 131 pages, 2015).
  • Online course on person-centered planning: Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute offers free online courses on the basic concepts of person-centered work: Person-Centered Planning Education website. The courses each consist of an overview and a short quiz, an activity, in-depth reading, and a resources page.

Career counseling services

Updated 10-3-22