Education and Transition Committee

Assist VR with enhancing transition services for high school students with disabilities. Also participates in the development of the state plan.

Chairperson

• Lu Nations- Miller

Committee Members

• Tom Dennis

•  Alice Ritchhart

• Wes Massey

• Sheila Thomas

• Linda Shepard

VR LIAISON

• Christine Fleming

Goals

• Schedule next VR/CRP meeting to focus on transition models across CRPs to increase the number of students transitioned through  CRP services.

• Lu and Car will collaborate to achieve more cooperative agreements with school systems.

• Alice will follow-up on BEP developments.

Report

The committee continued its collaboration with transition specialists from the Georgia Department of Education, the VR program, Tools for Life and other partners to update and revise the interagency transition council web site, and to increase the number of Collaborative Agreements in school systems to enhance VR services to eligible students with disabilities. The Education Committee also discussed at great length the Business Enterprise Internship Program. The program proved a positive step forward for transitioning students who are blind, but economic cutbacks necessitated the program be discontinued after one year. Students and the BEP vendors themselves want to be able to continue the internship project. The committee believes every effort should be made to find funding and will do its utmost to bring about a favorable outcome.