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In Washington, DC, only 22% of the special education students who graduated from High School in 2018 went to college, attended post-secondary training programs, or started viable careers when compared to the 77% national average.

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Throughout the research, very little focus has been given to the thoughts of the disabled with mild to moderate disabilities who are experiencing struggles during and after the transition process.  The voice of these individuals needs to be captured to help identify in what areas they required more support and what measures they feel could have been taken to help them succeed in the workforce and in college.  Teacher, administrators and other vocational professionals have been evaluated and studied, as well as the results of available curriculum, yet the opinions of the disabled have been largely ignored.

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The purpose of this study is to conduct a qualitative examination of the perceptions that self-determination has on students with disabilities that has contributed to their successful transition from high school.

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It is important to speak to young adults with disabilities who experience and are impacted by transition programs to learn what areas need to be improved and how we can decrease the gap between their outcomes and the outcomes of their non-disabled peers.  The lack of research through this median has an effect on the creation of proper curriculum and transition programs that could be making a big difference in the lives of the disabled.

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1.     What is it like to manage a disability and try to start college and or a career?

2.     In what ways does self-determination education support and develop drive to succeed after high school.

3.     What are some of the experiences of graduating from high school and having to advocate for yourself as a disabled adult?

4.     To what extent can we learn from students with disabilities that will help improve the transition process?

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The theoretical frameworks that will guide this study are Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and The Casual Agency Theory (CAT).  “The Self-Determination theory is a meta-theory that proposes that people are motivated to act to meet three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness” (Whemeyer, 2018, p. 55).  This framework is important to this study because it helps to interpret responses that derive from basic human instinct that may not have been deliberately taught in high school.  As a result, participants who do not recall being a part of a lesson on self-determination will still be able to contribute to the findings.  Casual Agency Theory plays an alternative role to SDT as it refers to “the policy initiatives pertaining to transition services that place issues of student-involvement in transition planning and self-determination at the forefront of practices to promote more positive transition outcomes” (Whemeyer, 2018, p. 55).  As a result, information gathered using this framework can help in determining what programs and what aspects of self-determination training contributed to successful transition outcomes.

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The intention of this examination will be understood through the view of a constructivist paradigm. “A constructivist conception of reality refers to the idea that reality is constructed through social interaction and interaction with the environment” (Creswell, 2014, p. 52).  As a constructivist one believes that we all learn differently and our experiences construct the way we view the world.  Therefore, everyone views the world differently because we all have different experiences and different reactions to those experiences which shape our beliefs and the way we think. The researcher has worked in special education for 20 years and has worked as a Special Education Coordinator for 12 years.  During those 12 years the researcher has worked for 6 years in the high school setting.  The researcher has always wondered where the schools went wrong and why transition outcomes are so poor.  It was the researchers stance that the students need to talk about their experiences and share their stories of what worked and what areas they felt they were not supported.

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Throughout this qualitative study.  Several Qualitative instruments will be utilized to obtain desired information.  Among those instruments are narratives, interviews, observation and open-ended questioning.  The methodology of phenomenology will be the focus, specifically transcendental phenomenology.  The purpose of transcendental phenomenology is to describe the essence and the nature of an experienced phenomena. (Sheehan, 1989)  This type of methodology is most often used in medical fields however its purpose in this study is to provide insight on the effects of the transition process and the high school experience helped to develop a student with disabilities current self-determination.

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The research designed that will be used throughout this study is associated with qualitative research called narrative research design.  Narrative research designs are qualitative procedures in which researchers describe the lives of individuals, collect and tell stories about these individuals’ lives, and write narratives about their experiences” (Creswell, 2019, p. 21).  Using a narrative design approach will help to identify the real needs of this population through their storing telling of what they experienced during the transition process.  Qualitative research will be the best method to understanding narrative research.  “To learn about this phenomenon, the inquirer asks participants broad, general questions, collects the detailed views of the participants in the form of words or images, and analyzes the information for description and themes” (Creswell, 2019, p. 627).

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Transition planning is very important in the overall success of students with special needs adult life.  Transition planning takes a combined effort of teachers, outside agencies, parents and student input.  Successful transition planning is not the current norm.  Although there are several federal and state mandated laws that make transition planning a requirement, there is a disconnect between planning and implementation.  This research seeks to explore the reactions of these disabled adults who have recently gone through the transition process and are now either in college, post-secondary training programs, have started a viable career, are unemployed or underemployed, and those individuals not attending college.

Job skills training, career exploration, social skills, and self-determination are among some of the important skills that are a necessary part of the transition process.  It is the goal of this research to use student input to determine how to improve the transition process