West Virginia Measurable Postsecondary Transition Goals for IEPs

Most West Virginia Transition Goals Fail the Same Test

Under WVDE Indicator 13 monitoring, a transition plan is flagged as entirely non-compliant if it fails any single one of ten audited items. The most common failure point across West Virginia school districts: postsecondary goals that aren't actually measurable, or annual IEP goals that don't connect logically to the stated post-school outcome.

This matters for parents because a non-compliant transition plan isn't just a bureaucratic footnote. It means your child's IEP team hasn't built a functional bridge between what's happening in school today and where your child needs to be when services end. And under West Virginia's Policy 2419 timeline, transition planning starts at age 14 — meaning there are up to seven years of IEP meetings where these goals should be tightening, not drifting.

What "Measurable Postsecondary Goal" Actually Means

A measurable postsecondary goal describes what the student will do after leaving school — not what they'll do during school. This distinction trips up IEP teams regularly.

This is not a postsecondary goal: "Student will explore career options related to their interests." That's an activity. It describes something happening inside the school system, and it doesn't specify a measurable outcome.

This is a measurable postsecondary goal: "After graduating from high school, [Student] will enroll in a certificate program in automotive technology at a West Virginia community and technical college."

The formula is straightforward: After exiting school, [Student] will [specific action] in [specific setting].

West Virginia requires postsecondary goals in at least two domains, and a third if appropriate:

1. Education/Training — What the student will do for continued learning (college, vocational program, apprenticeship, adult education)
2. Employment — What kind of work the student will pursue (competitive integrated employment, supported employment, self-employment)
3. Independent Living (when appropriate) — How the student will manage daily life (independent apartment, family home with supports, group residential setting)

Each goal must be based on age-appropriate transition assessments — not on what the teacher thinks sounds reasonable, and not on what the parent hopes will happen. The assessment data drives the goal. If there's no assessment linking the student's interests, preferences, and abilities to the stated outcome, the plan can be flagged under Indicator 13.

Age-Appropriate Transition Assessments: The Foundation

Transition assessments are the evidence base for postsecondary goals. Policy 2419 requires that the IEP team use "age-appropriate transition assessments" to inform the transition plan, and WVDE monitors whether assessments are documented and current on the IEP Part VI form.

There are three categories of transition assessment, and a thorough evaluation uses all three:

Formal assessments use standardized instruments with established reliability. Common ones used in West Virginia include:

• Transition Planning Inventory (TPI-2) — covers employment, education, and independent living domains with student, parent, and teacher rating scales
• BRIGANCE Transition Skills Inventory — measures academic, daily living, and employment skills against grade-level norms
• Career Scope or O*NET Interest Profiler — maps student interests to career clusters aligned with West Virginia's Personalized Education Plan (PEP)
• Psychological and adaptive evaluations — part of the Acentra Health evaluation process for students being evaluated for I/DD Waiver eligibility

Informal assessments capture information that standardized tools miss: student interviews, interest inventories, situational observations during community-based instruction, and teacher-completed checklists. The WVDE's Pathways to the Future portal includes career exploration activities that generate data usable as informal transition assessment evidence.

Situational or community-based assessments observe the student performing real tasks in real environments — stocking shelves at a local business, navigating public transit, managing a mock bank account, ordering food independently. These are especially important for students with intellectual disabilities whose standardized test scores don't capture what they can actually do in context.

The assessment results should appear explicitly in the IEP Part VI under "Transition Assessments Reviewed." If the section just lists the name of the assessment without summarizing what it found, the plan is vulnerable to a compliance flag — and more importantly, the goals that follow it probably aren't grounded in real data about the student.

Writing Goals That Survive an Indicator 13 Audit

Here is how the Indicator 13 audit areas connect to what parents see on the IEP:

Education/Training and Employment: Are there measurable postsecondary goals in these domains, updated annually and based on age-appropriate transition assessments? → If the goals haven't changed since age 14 and the assessment data is four years old, this can trigger a compliance flag.

Independent Living (when appropriate): Is there a measurable postsecondary goal for independent living? Is it based on assessment data? → IEP teams often skip independent living goals entirely. For students with significant disabilities, this domain matters as much as employment.

Annual IEP Goals: Are there annual IEP goals that connect to the postsecondary goals? → Each annual goal must logically support at least one postsecondary goal. If the postsecondary employment goal says "competitive integrated employment in food service" but there's no annual goal addressing food safety skills, customer interaction, or workplace stamina, the plan is incoherent.

Transition Services and Course of Study: Are transition services listed? Do they include courses of study that align with the postsecondary goals? → The course schedule should reflect the transition direction. A student whose postsecondary goal is automotive technology should be enrolled in career-technical education courses, not just filling elective slots randomly.

Student and Agency Participation: Has the student been invited to the transition IEP meeting? Have appropriate agencies (DRS, BMS, etc.) been invited with parent consent? → Policy 2419 requires student invitation to every transition-focused IEP meeting beginning at age 16. Outside agency consent forms should be signed at least 45 days before the annual IEP meeting.

Goal Examples by Domain

Education/Training — College-Bound Student: "After exiting high school, [Student] will enroll as a full-time student at a West Virginia public university or community and technical college, registered with the campus disability services office with accommodations for extended test time and note-taking support."

Supporting annual IEP goals might include: completing a college application independently, registering with a disability services office mock intake, writing a self-disclosure statement explaining accommodation needs, and maintaining a course load with decreasing teacher support.

Employment — Supported Employment: "After exiting high school, [Student] will work at least 15 hours per week in competitive integrated employment in a retail or food service setting with job coaching support provided through the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services."

Supporting annual goals: completing a DRS Pre-ETS work-based learning placement, following a 5-step task sequence with no more than one verbal prompt, interacting with customers using a practiced script, and clocking in/out independently using a digital time system.

Employment — Competitive Integrated (No Supports): "After exiting high school, [Student] will obtain and maintain competitive integrated employment in an office or administrative support role, earning at or above minimum wage, without ongoing job coaching."

Supporting annual goals: completing a career-technical education concentration in business/office technology, passing the workplace readiness component of the STEP program, independently completing a job application and participating in a mock interview.

Independent Living: "After exiting high school, [Student] will live in the family home with supports from the Medicaid Personal Care Services Program, managing personal hygiene, meal preparation, and medication administration with no more than verbal prompting."

Supporting annual goals: preparing a simple meal following a visual recipe, sorting and self-administering daily medications using a pill organizer, and completing a personal hygiene routine independently using a task analysis checklist.

What Parents Should Push For at the IEP Meeting

If you're reading your child's transition plan and the postsecondary goals sound vague ("Student will pursue employment in the community"), here's what to bring up:

Ask what assessment data supports the goal. If the team can't point to a specific assessment result that connects the student's documented interests and abilities to the stated outcome, the goal is a guess. Request updated transition assessments — the school is required to provide them.

Ask how the annual goals build toward the postsecondary goal. There should be a visible logical chain. If the post-school goal is competitive employment but every annual goal is academic, something is missing.

Ask whether DRS has been invited to the next IEP meeting. By age 16, the IEP team should be coordinating with DRS for Pre-ETS. If nobody has invited a DRS counselor, sign the agency consent form now and make sure the invitation goes out for the next meeting.

Ask about the course of study. The student's class schedule should align with where they're headed. A student targeting a health sciences career shouldn't be filling their schedule with courses that have no connection to that pathway.

The West Virginia IEP Transition to Adulthood Guide includes a complete Indicator 13 self-audit checklist that lets you evaluate your child's transition plan against all ten compliance items before the annual IEP meeting — so you walk in knowing exactly which items need strengthening.

See more West Virginia guides →