Examining the Career Paths and Transition Services of Students with Disabilities Exiting High School

Career paths and transition services were investigated for students with disabilities who were exiting special education for comparison with two models of transition developed by Siegel (1998) and Greene (2003). Teachers and parent-mentors from 52 local education agencies (LEAs) conducted a record review and an exit interview of 741 students with disabilities in their final year of high school. An SPSS two-step cluster analysis was used to group these students according to twenty-four variables relating to their postschool goals, secondary education services, and level of performance on proficiency tests. A Tamhane's post-hoc analysis was used to identify the variables that were significantly different for each of seven identified clusters. These clusters resembled the career paths identified by Greene and had some elements in common with the transition intensity model developed by Siegel. The authors suggest that both transition intensity and career paths are key aspects of transition systems.