TDNet Discover

The purpose of this qualitative document review study was to investigate the transition process for students with disabilities that are educated within the state of Ohio. This study aimed to compare the differences in transition support for students within the K-12 education setting, 2- year and 4-year institutions. For the utility of this study, the gaps have been generally defined as institutional support and students’ involvement. The theory guiding this study was explanatory behaviorism framework. Explanatory research was used to investigate external factors such as special education policies, educator support and higher education systems. This study addressed the question, what were the similarities and differences between the transition process for K-12 public schools and post-secondary 2-year and 4-year institutions in Ohio for students with diagnosed disabilities? The target population chosen for this study was K-12 school districts in Ohio, a 2-year institution and a 4-year institution located in Columbus Ohio. The researcher utilized thematic analysis to identify codes and organized the codes into themes by using Taguette coding software. Based on the data analyzed for this study, the findings of this research study identified the K-12 and post-secondary education transition process similarities as transparency of accommodation guidelines and providing easily accessible information regarding accommodations within their website. K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions transition processes also differed in many ways. Gaps presented were observed in both the K-12 postsecondary settings surrounding topics such as student expectations, teacher/professor expectations, and parental roles.