The end of the school year is a season of celebrations, closeouts, and chaos. For special education teachers, there’s one thing that can make or break how a student starts their next school year: what you hand off, and how.
Every student is about to experience a transition. New teachers, classrooms, schools. For students with IEPs, a smooth transition can be integral to their success. The information their new team needs doesn’t always travel with them, and when it doesn’t, teachers spend the first weeks of school playing catch-up while students spend those same weeks struggling to feel seen.
At DLC, we believe that transition is an act of advocacy for your students.
Here are two strategies to close out the year well in order to set your students up to hit the ground running in the fall.
Strategy #1: Complete the Case Manager’s End-of-Year Transition Tool
The DLC’s Case Manager’s End-of-Year Transition Tool is a fillable form you complete for each student and hand directly to the receiving teacher. The tool walks you through four key areas for each student:
Classroom Snapshot — What setting does the student spend most of their day in? What learning environment or teaching techniques do they thrive in? What are their academic strengths and areas of greatest challenge? What instructional approaches have you actually seen work?
Behavior, Social, and Motivational Profile — What motivates this student? What positive behavior strategies do they respond to? Are there known triggers for challenging behavior? How do they interact with peers? What are their personal interests?
Family Contact and Engagement — Who is the primary contact, and what is the best way to reach them? What should the receiving teacher know about engaging this family — communication style, preferences, history, and what has worked well?
Student Voice: In Their Own Words — More on this in Strategy #2 below.
Tip: Aim to deliver completed forms before the school year begins — giving receiving teachers time to read and absorb the information before Day 1.
Strategy #2: Let the Students Introduce Themselves
The tool includes a dedicated Student Voice section. Where possible, invite the student to contribute to this section using accommodations as needed.
Using simple sentence starters, students can share:
- My favorite class is… / My hardest subject is…
- The best thing a teacher did for me was… / My goal for next year is…
- I live with… / My family speaks ___ at home. / Something important to our family is…
- When I’m at home, I like to… / My closest friends are… / Next year, I’d like to…
Tools like Microsoft Teams or Seesaw make video introductions easy and student-friendly if you want to go beyond the written form. Either way, when students have a hand in their own transition, they arrive at the new school year feeling empowered and confident.
A Few Bonus Transition Strategies
The tool also includes a bonus transition strategies checklist to round out your end-of-year plan. Don’t stop at paperwork! The most effective transitions involve people, not just documents:
- Invite next year’s case manager to this year’s IEP meeting so they’re not starting cold
- Hold a virtual handoff between current and incoming teams before summer
- Host a school tour or transition meeting for students and families
- Plan for a designated safe person in the new environment — someone the student can find, recognize, and go to during those first unsettling weeks
- Send families a summer skills packet at the end-of-year exit conference
- Schedule a check-in with targeted students in the first week of school
The Bottom Line
The work you do in these final weeks of school opens the door for your students next fall. A thoughtful transition is one of the highest-leverage things a case manager can do for the students on their caseload.
Download the tool for immediate use here.
At DLC, we’re committed to translating ideas into tools educators can actually use, because when teachers are equipped, students thrive.
Want more resources like this? Visit diverselearnerscoop.com to explore our tools, trainings, and professional learning opportunities for special educators and school leaders.