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...with ethnic minority youth with disabilities preparing to transition out of high school. We consider the roles of community psychologists in the process of seeking to effect a redistribution of power to address the needs of students in transition. We examine the process by which the various stakeholders (students with disabilities, their parents, teachers, school administrators, and members of our university-based research team) negotiated or failed to negotiate compromises in the process of addressing students' needs.
Unfortunately, 30% of youth with disabilities drop out of school, 43% graduate with attendance certificates (not a high school diploma), and only 27% graduate with diplomas (U.S. Department of Education Annual Report, 2000). Students from special education who drop out or age-out without receiving diplomas are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to earn less money--if and when they eventually do secure work; and are more likely to receive public assistance than those who complete their education and work preparation programs in high school (Fabian, Lent, & Willis, 1998). The real impact of missed transition planning can be observed in the increasing number of youth with disabilities who apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) each year. As of June 2000, about 355,000 persons, aged 18-24 were receiving SSI or SSDI benefits nationwide (National Council on Disability and Social Security Administration, 2000). Among SSDI recipients, less than 1% of the individuals who continue to meet the Social Security Administration's definition of disability ever leave the program to return to work (Ross, 1996). For these reasons, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education has been funding demonstration projects like the one described below with the intent of promoting successful transition of youth with disabilities from school to employment, postsecondary education, and/or independent living.
THE CHOICES IN TRANSITION PROJECT
The goal of this 3-year project was to implement and evaluate a comprehensive model to facilitate attainment of transition-related goals for low-income minority youth with disabilities (Balcazar & Keys, 1997). The program attempted to empower participating students by increasing their awareness about their rights, develop their skills to set goals, plan actions, and recruit help from others in the process of goal pursuit. In addition, students received case management support, expanding their resources to take actions to address their needs. We hired three full-time case managers to assist participants with transportation, social skills development, crisis management, and to provide mentoring, on-the-job training, and job coaching and follow-up supports as needed. Formative (Taylor-Ritzler, Balcazar, Keys, Hayes, Garate-Serafini, & Ryerson-Espino, 2001) and summative (Ryerson-Espino, Keys, Balcazar, Taylor-Ritzler, & Garate-Serafini, 2002) evaluations of the intervention model have consistently yielded positive results. Those evaluations focused on analyzing the outcomes and predictors of students' success, whereas this article focuses on the behind-the-scenes process of conflict resolution that was necessary to support the intervention and facilitate students' attainment of transition goals. We have selected events that happened at two of the participating schools to highlight here.
THE SCHOOLS' CONTEXT
This intervention took place in schools from a large urban school district, with close to 450,000 students, over 45,000 employees and an annual budget over four billion dollars. The school district has more than 75 high schools, which includes some of the best and the worst in the state. The target high schools served students of color from low-income communities. School A, where the first two case stories evolved was very large, with over 1,800 students, 86% of them Latino and 12% African American, with a dropout rate of 23%, a mobility rate of 29%, and a graduation rate of 59%. With regards to academic standards, only 15% of the students in the 10th grade were reading at grade level: only 7% were doing math at grade level; and only 15% were writing at grade level. School B had been traditionally a special school exclusively for students with severe disabilities, with close to 500 students, most of them African American (79%) and Latino (15%), with a dropout rate of 10%, a mobility rate of 20%, and a graduation rate of 75%. Academic data for this school indicated an average of 15% of the students in the 10th grade reading at grade level, and 31% doing math at grade level (CPS, 2000). The school district has been recruiting general education students from around the district to attend this school and in the past 10 years it has become a reverse mainstream school.
We have had a collaborative relationship with the district's office of special education services through other intervention projects over the last 9 years. Staff from that office provided support in identifying schools and facilitating the entry with administrators. They provided a letter of support for the grant application to the U.S. Department of Education and had expressed their desire to expand the services and supports available to special education students. They appreciated the opportunity to try new intervention approaches that would supplement existing services to some of the most challenging populations. We had also conducted a dropout prevention program at school A, and this resulted in a more smooth transition and entry process with the staff invited to participate in this study. In school B, the entry required more involvement by the administration of the school district. In fact, the principal was at first reluctant to participate in the study, but the central administration decided that this school needed an innovative approach to transition to complement their services. In order to secure approval for the project, we had to present the idea to the various stakeholders and seek their support, including the local school council (governing board), principals, and special education chairs and academic department chairs, teachers, students, and parents. They all agree on the importance of helping increase the supports available to special education students transitioning into adulthood.
The students eligible to participate in the intervention were high school students between the ages of 15 and 20 who were still in high school at the start...
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