Louisiana Post-Secondary Transition Planning for Students with Disabilities

Most families focus their IEP energy on elementary and middle school — getting evaluations done, fighting for services, surviving ARD meetings. Then high school arrives and suddenly there's a completely different set of questions: What happens when your child turns 22? What diploma pathway are they on? Will they have job skills? Who's going to help once the school is out of the picture?

Louisiana has built several systems designed to answer those questions. But those systems only work if you know they exist and know how to make the IEP team use them.

What the IEP Must Include Starting at Age 16

Federal law under IDEA requires that a student's IEP include transition planning components by age 16 — Louisiana Bulletin 1530 extends this, and best practice in Louisiana is to start transition conversations no later than 14 for students with significant disabilities. The IEP must include:

• Measurable post-secondary goals based on age-appropriate transition assessments — covering education or training, employment, and (where appropriate) independent living skills
• Transition services needed to help the student reach those goals — coursework, community experiences, vocational training, daily living skill instruction
• Courses of study aligned to the student's transition goals

The transition assessment piece matters more than most parents realize. If the district hasn't conducted a formal transition assessment — something that evaluates interests, skills, learning style, and post-secondary preferences — the IEP's transition goals are built on guesswork. Ask specifically: what transition assessment was used, when was it conducted, and how did it inform the goals written?

Louisiana's Jump Start Program and What It Means for Students with Disabilities

Louisiana Jump Start is the state's career and technical education credential pathway, an alternative to the traditional academic college-prep diploma track. Under Jump Start, students complete a defined sequence of coursework and earn industry-based credentials — certifications recognized by employers in fields like construction, healthcare, IT, manufacturing, and culinary arts.

For students with disabilities, Jump Start can be a genuine pathway to competitive employment — but only if the IEP supports it correctly. A student pursuing a Jump Start credential still needs IEP accommodations applied in their CTE coursework. They may need extended time on credential exams, modified note-taking support, or job coaching during work-based learning components. The IEP team must document which Jump Start pathway the student is pursuing and what supports will be provided in that setting.

Students with significant disabilities may pursue the Alternate Jump Start pathway through the April Dunn Act framework. Under Act 833 (the April Dunn Act), the IEP team can set individualized graduation criteria for students who cannot meet standard exit requirements. This can include demonstrating employability skills, completing supported employment placements, or mastering specific functional independent living skills — all documented in the IEP rather than measured by a standardized test score.

If your child's IEP doesn't mention Jump Start or identify a specific career pathway, that's worth raising. A 10th grader with an IEP that references only academic remediation — and nothing about career interests, work-based learning, or credentials — is leaving the most important part of transition planning on the table.

Louisiana Rehabilitation Services (LRS): Your Most Valuable Post-School Partner

Louisiana Rehabilitation Services is the state's vocational rehabilitation agency, administered through the Louisiana Workforce Commission. LRS is federal- and state-funded and provides individualized services to people with disabilities to help them become employed and maintain employment.

Here's the critical piece most families miss: LRS must be invited to participate in IEP transition planning while the student is still in school. IDEA requires that when a student is likely to need vocational rehabilitation services after graduation, the school must invite LRS to participate in the IEP meeting. This connection must happen before graduation — not after.

LRS services available to eligible students and adults with disabilities include:

• Vocational evaluation and career counseling
• Education and training funding (including community college, technical school, and four-year university)
• On-the-job training and supported employment
• Assistive technology assessments and funding
• Job placement services
• Business enterprise program training (for entrepreneurship)

To access LRS, the student (or parent, for minors) submits an application to their regional LRS office. LRS staff conduct an eligibility determination based on whether the applicant has a physical or mental disability that results in a substantial impediment to employment, and whether they can benefit from vocational rehabilitation services. Most students with IEPs will qualify.

The key advocacy point: don't wait until graduation to apply. Many LRS services — like assistive technology assessments and vocational evaluations — are most useful when used in conjunction with the last two years of school. LRS and the IEP team can work together to make the final years of school count toward employment goals, not just seat time.

Contact information for LRS regional offices is available at laworks.net. Families Helping Families (FHF) regional centers across Louisiana also help families navigate LRS applications — FHF of Greater Baton Rouge can be reached at 866-216-7474, and FHF of Greater New Orleans at 800-766-7736.

What Happens If the School Hasn't Been Planning for Transition

If you have a student in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade whose IEP contains no meaningful transition planning — no post-secondary goals based on assessments, no transition services, no connection to LRS or Jump Start — that's a procedural violation of IDEA, tracked by the LDOE through State Performance Plan Indicator 13.

The LDOE monitors compliance with transition requirements annually. An IEP that lacks compliant transition components can be the basis for a formal state complaint to the LDOE's Legal Division ([email protected]). A finding of non-compliance on transition planning typically results in a corrective action requiring the district to reconvene the IEP team with proper transition planning components.

The practical fix, before escalating: request an IEP meeting specifically to address transition. Bring documentation of what assessments have or haven't been done. Ask the team to identify which post-secondary pathway is being planned, what LRS referral has been made, and what the graduation criteria are for this student. Get it in writing in the revised IEP.

The Louisiana IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook covers transition planning requirements in detail — including how to read Indicator 13 compliance checklists, what to demand at transition IEP meetings, and how to make the connection between school services and LRS before the clock runs out.

The Clock Problem

Louisiana schools are responsible for providing special education services until the student turns 22 or receives a regular high school diploma, whichever comes first. Once that happens, school-based services end — no extensions, no grace periods.

That deadline makes proactive transition planning urgent in a way that most families don't feel until it's too late. The students who exit school and land in meaningful employment or continuing education are overwhelmingly the ones whose IEPs spent years building toward that outcome. The students who exit and end up on waiting lists for adult disability services are often the ones whose IEPs focused only on academic remediation until the end.

Start the transition conversation early. Push the IEP team to connect with LRS and Jump Start. Get post-secondary goals in writing. Those are the IEP conversations that actually change outcomes.

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