Five reasons to consider the Supports Intensity Scale for transition planning for people with intellectual disabilities

School districts and state departments of special education are poised to consider using the Supports Intensity Scale for planning transition services for adults with intellectual disabilities. Here are some reasons why SIS is a valuable addition to transition planning.

• The SIS is a natural companion to the progressive principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, with its focus on person-centered planning and individualized supports. The SIS meets the requirements of the Statement of Performance (SOP), a relatively new addition to the IDEA that requires every child in special education to be provided with a summary of the child?s academic and functional performance, including recommendations on how to assist the child in meeting post-secondary goals.
• SIS is a norm-referenced and age-appropriate tool. Existing tools used for transition planning while many, are mainly in the form of checklists. The Supports Intensity Scale has been normed on 1,306 persons with intellectual disabilities between the ages of 16-72 and has been developed over a period of five years by ten experts in disability and special education. The Scale is known to have excellent validity and reliability.
• SIS is a ready-to-use instrument for transition planning. With 49 items in home living, community living, lifelong learning, employment, health and safety, social activities, and protection and advocacy, as well as 28 items in the behavioral and medical areas, the tool has all the domains required to successfully plan for post-secondary education and community living supports for a student with an intellectual disability.
• SIS measures support needs directly, and the explicit and direct information provided by the assessment scores takes the guessing away from the transition planning process. Existing tools may be more useful for developing instructional goals, whereas SIS specifically tells professionals what supports are required to transition the student into an adult world.
• SIS is available electronically in a convenient web-based format (SISOnline). School systems can conveniently purchase access to SISOnline based on the number of professionals accessing the system and the number of students being served.

To read excerpts on transition planning requirements in the IDEA legislation, click here. To contact AAIDD on use of the SIS within your school system, send an email to books@aaidd.org.  Click here to review the SIS interview form.