Did you know you can start receiving VR services while you are still in high school?
It is true that certain VR transition services are not available until you turn 14 years old, but you can still apply and/or invite VR to your Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings before age 14 if you think there are VR services you need to reach an employment goal. VR cannot find you ineligible for services simply based on your age.
For example, Sascha is a fourteen-year-old ninth grader with a visual disability and is wondering about life after high school. They are not sure if they want to go to college yet or what they should do for their first job and they worry about having the skills to move out on their own. Sascha thinks they probably need Orientation and Mobility training and budgeting skills. They have heard about VR from friends and wonder if it is an option for them. Sascha and their family could reach out to VR directly to ask them to attend the next IEP meeting, before they apply. Or, if the school already has a relationship with VR, then a staff person such as the Transition Specialist may be able to make the arrangements.
For more information about transition services, see the Office of Special Education Program’s document: A Transition Guide: To Postsecondary Education and Employment of Students and Youth with Disabilities (August 2020).
If you have a dispute with VR about their participation in your program while you are in high school, you may call DRAZ and do an intake form.
Source for Today’s Tip: 34 CFR §361.42 (c)(2)(ii)(A))
