Transition Assessment: Tools, Examples and a Grade-by-Grade Plan

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes

Transition assessment is the information an IEP team gathers about a student’s strengths, preferences, interests and needs for adult life, so that the postsecondary goals in the IEP rest on data rather than guesses. IDEA requires those goals to be based on “age appropriate transition assessments” beginning not later than the first IEP in effect when the student turns 16. This guide covers the federal requirement, formal and informal transition assessments, assessments by domain with a table of named tools and their cost, a sequence by grade, how results feed the postsecondary goals and the course of study, students with significant disabilities, vocational rehabilitation and the summary of performance.

Executive Summary

In the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012, carried out for the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, youth with an IEP ages 13 to 21 were less likely than their peers to have had paid work in the past year (40% versus 50%). Between 2003 and 2012, the share of 17- and 18-year-olds with an IEP who reported meeting school staff about transition plans fell from 79% to 70%, and among their parents from 79% to 60%.

Transition assessment is where that planning starts. In 2024, the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: the Collaborative (NTACT:C) replaced the 2016 Age Appropriate Transition Assessment Toolkit with a Collaborative Assessment Guide for Transition Planning, built around coordination between schools, families and vocational rehabilitation.

What Is Transition Assessment?

Transition assessment is the ongoing collection of information about a student’s strengths, preferences, interests and needs in relation to future education or training, work and adult living, used to write the postsecondary goals and transition services in the IEP.

NTACT:C’s Collaborative Assessment Guide for Transition Planning (2024), which states that it “builds upon and replaces” the 2016 toolkit, frames every assessment around three questions: where is the individual presently, where is the individual going, and how does the individual get there? It describes six connected steps: deciding what to assess, identifying who is involved, selecting assessments, conducting them, reviewing results and using the data.

What IDEA Requires

IDEA does not name any instrument. Whether a given transition assessment needs parental consent depends on how it is used: consent is required for a reevaluation, but not for a test given to all children unless all parents must consent (34 CFR 300.300(c) and (d)(1)). Check your state’s guidance before adding individual standardized tools; how evaluations and reevaluations work is covered in our special education evaluation guide.

Formal and Informal Transition Assessments

NTACT:C describes formal assessments as published or normed tools whose scores compare a student with others, and informal assessments as methods that observe the student in academic and work situations without comparative scores; curriculum-based assessments and tools designed by a teacher or VR counselor count as informal.

NTACT:C defines a situational assessment as a hands-on assessment in an actual work or training setting to learn about the student’s interests, abilities and needs. Its guide recommends multiple people, multiple days and multiple assessments, in environments that resemble real training, work or living situations.

What to Assess: Domains and Skills

IDEA names the goal areas: education or training, employment and, where appropriate, independent living. NTACT:C suggests gathering information in four categories: academic, self-determination, vocational interest and exploration, and adaptive behavior or independent living. Its list of skills to assess also includes work behaviors such as attendance, communication including augmentative communication, career development and adult responsibilities such as cooking, financial literacy, health and transportation.

• Education and training: academic achievement, study skills, learning preferences, accommodations the student will need after high school.
• Employment: career interests, aptitudes, work behaviors, performance at a real job site.
• Independent living: self-care, money, home living, transportation, safety, health and community participation.
• Self-determination, across all three: goal setting, problem solving, self-advocacy.

Transition Assessment Tools by Domain

The tools below appear in the Tools and Resources supplement to NTACT:C’s 2024 guide, which sorts them into free tools and tools with a fee; publisher details come from NTACT:C and, where linked, the publishers’ pages. Prices change, so confirm before purchasing.

For a wider search, NTACT:C points to state collections, including Indiana University’s Transition Assessment Tools, Ohio’s Age-Appropriate Transition Assessment Library and North Dakota’s Transition Assessment Matrix.

TAGG Transition Assessment

The Transition Assessment and Goal Generator (TAGG) is an online transition assessment for secondary-aged students with mild to moderate disabilities, hosted by the Zarrow Institute at the University of Oklahoma, whose development was supported by an Institute of Education Sciences grant. Its items come from research on student behaviors associated with employment and education after high school. A professional, a family member and the student each complete a version; TAGG then produces a norm-based graphic profile, a present level of performance statement, lists of strengths and needs, and suggested annual transition goals for the IEP (TAGG at a Glance). A paper version can be printed.

A Transition Assessment Sequence by Grade

NTACT:C recommends documenting transition assessment results before the IEP for the age your state requires, 16 or younger, and continuing each year until graduation. Its guide includes a sample school assessment map from grade 7 to beyond grade 12. The sequence below is an example adapted from that map; adjust it to your state’s start age and your students.

From Results to Postsecondary Goals and the Course of Study

NTACT:C’s process for reviewing results is short: gather and organize, review, summarize, interpret in everyday functional language, and translate into recommendations. Results from one assessment should be read alongside everything else known about the student. Its model for using the data then moves from interests and preferences to preliminary goals, further assessment of abilities and aptitudes, final postsecondary goals, the course of study and the IEP itself.

The example below is original, about a fictional student; use it as a pattern to adapt.

Write the results into the present levels (see PLAAFP examples), then into the goals. Indicator 13 looks for evidence that each postsecondary goal was based on at least one age-appropriate transition assessment; the full checklist and goal examples are in our guide to transition IEP goals.

Transition Assessment for Students With Significant Disabilities

NTACT:C notes that students with more complex disabilities are best served by a person-centered planning approach, and that many standardized assessments may not be relevant to them. Exceptions include interest inventories that do not require reading, such as Becker’s Reading-Free Vocational Interest Inventory, now in its third edition (RFVII-3, PRO-ED, 2020), and the TPI-3 includes a modified form for students with autism or other significant support needs.

• Observe in real settings: direct observation with a task analysis at a job site, in the cafeteria or on a community trip.
• Use the student’s preferred mode of communication, which NTACT:C says the assessor must do.
• Consider a functional vocational evaluation, which IDEA lists among transition services when appropriate (34 CFR 300.43(a)(2)(v)).
• Turn results into functional goals and daily practice; see functional IEP goals and life skills activities.

Note that the “Transition Assessment” in the VB-MAPP is something else: one of that tool’s five components, used to judge whether a child is ready for a less restrictive educational setting, according to its author’s site. It is not a postsecondary transition assessment.

VB-MAPP Transition Assessment

The VB-MAPP Transition Assessment is a set of 18 assessment areas that, according to its author, helps an IEP team judge whether a child is making meaningful progress and has the skills to learn in a less restrictive educational setting. It is part of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program by Mark L. Sundberg, designed for children with autism and others with language delays, and usable at any age when language skills are below those of a typically developing 4-year-old. The areas combine the overall Milestones and Barriers scores with measures such as classroom routines and group skills, academic independence, generalization, rate of skill acquisition, adaptability to change, toileting and eating. Its scoring forms are in the VB-MAPP Protocol and its instructions and scoring criteria in the separate VB-MAPP Guide, both from AVB Press, the official publisher.

TEACCH Transition Assessment Profile

The TEACCH Transition Assessment Profile, Second Edition (TTAP), is a criterion-referenced transition assessment developed for adolescents and older children on the autism spectrum with transition needs, published by PRO-ED in 2007 and still the current edition (PRO-ED). It rates six functional areas (vocational skills, vocational behavior, independent functioning, leisure skills, functional communication and interpersonal behavior) in three contexts: a direct observation scale, a home scale completed with a caregiver, and a school or work scale completed with a teacher or supervisor. Tasks are scored pass, emerge or fail, and a Cumulative Record of Skills tracks progress during community-based instruction. The Texas Education Agency’s autism network lists it for grades 3 through 12 and adults and notes that little research has used it outside TEACCH programs (TSLAT).

Working With Vocational Rehabilitation

NTACT:C encourages schools and vocational rehabilitation (VR) to share and coordinate assessments. VR may use school records, including psychological and academic testing, to decide eligibility and needs, and may purchase additional formal or informal assessments. Pre-employment transition services are not meant to be assessments for VR eligibility, but participation can inform a vocational goal. The guide also notes that nothing in the statute or regulations lets a VR agency deny an application based on a minimum age. Pre-employment transition services themselves are described in our transition IEP goals guide.

Pre-Employment Transition Services

Pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS) are five career preparation activities that the state VR agency, in collaboration with school districts, must provide or arrange for students with disabilities who need them and are eligible or potentially eligible for VR (29 U.S.C. 733). They feed transition assessment: according to NTACT:C, Pre-ETS such as job exploration counseling help students identify career interests, and early work-based learning may help define an employment goal and the supports or accommodations it requires.

Summary of Performance: What IDEA Requires and an Example

When eligibility ends through graduation with a regular diploma or aging out, the district must give the student a summary of academic achievement and functional performance, with recommendations on how to meet the postsecondary goals (34 CFR 300.305(e)(3)). NTACT:C recommends basing it on the assessments, activities and services the student received during the transition years, which is far easier when results were recorded each year.

IDEA requires nothing more in the summary of performance (SOP). In its 2006 commentary on the regulations, the Department of Education declined to list required contents, leaving them to “State and local officials” based on each student’s needs and goals. It added that districts need not evaluate a student to establish eligibility for VR or college disability services, or provide the postsecondary services the summary recommends (71 FR 46644-46645, August 14, 2006). Use your state’s form if it has one.

The example below is original, written for a fictional student exiting with a regular diploma; adapt the headings to your state’s form.

Funding and Staffing

Transition services can be special education, if provided as specially designed instruction, or a related service (34 CFR 300.43(b)), so transition assessment staff time falls within IDEA Part B. Free tools such as the O*NET Interest Profiler, Casey Life Skills and the AIR scale keep costs low; paid inventories such as the TPI-3 are sold as kits and forms. Staff time is the real limit: 45 states reported special education teacher shortages in 2024-25 (Learning Policy Institute, 2026), and situational assessments take staff time on site.

Common Mistakes District Leaders Make

1. One interest inventory as the whole assessment. NTACT:C recommends multiple methods, people and days.
2. Assessing after writing the goals. Results should come before the IEP that needs them.
3. Nothing in the file. Indicator 13 reviewers look for evidence of assessment in the IEP or the student’s file.
4. Skipping independent living by default. IDEA says “where appropriate,” which the team decides from data.
5. Testing in the office only. Work and living skills show best in real settings.
6. Not sharing with VR, which can lead to duplicated testing.
7. Starting at 16 in a state that requires an earlier age.

Questions District Leaders Should Ask

• Which transition assessments does each campus use at each grade, and who gives them?
• What share of transition IEPs show an assessment for every postsecondary goal area?
• How many students had a situational assessment in a real work setting last year?
• Do students with significant disabilities have person-centered and reading-free options?
• Are summaries of performance built from assessment data collected over several years?

Frequently Asked Questions

What are transition services and why are they important in an IEP?

IDEA defines transition services as a coordinated set of activities, based on the student’s needs, strengths, preferences and interests, that moves the student from school to post-school activities such as postsecondary education, employment and independent living. They include instruction, related services, community experiences and employment objectives. They matter because they turn the postsecondary goals written from transition assessment into action each year.

Can you give me some examples of transition skills?

Common examples are self-advocacy, such as explaining one’s disability and asking for an accommodation; employment skills such as following directions, arriving on time and asking for help; and independent living skills such as cooking, budgeting, using public transportation and managing health appointments. NTACT:C’s list of skills to assess also includes communication, prosocial behavior and career development.

What is a transition assessment in special education?

It is the process of collecting information about a student’s strengths, needs, preferences and interests for life after high school, using formal tools such as inventories and rating scales and informal methods such as interviews, observation and situational assessment. IDEA requires the postsecondary goals in the IEP to be based on age-appropriate transition assessments by the first IEP in effect at 16.

When must transition assessments be completed?

Before the IEP that must contain postsecondary goals: under IDEA, the first IEP in effect when the student turns 16, or earlier if the team or state law requires it. Because the goals must be updated annually, NTACT:C treats assessment as an ongoing process repeated each year until graduation, with results documented in the IEP or the student’s file.

Why are transition assessments important?

They give the student and the team evidence for postsecondary goals, course choices and transition services, instead of guesses. NTACT:C adds that results help students understand the link between their academic program and their post-school ambitions, which can motivate them to stay engaged in school. They also feed the summary of performance a student receives at exit.

Can AI help with transition assessment?

An AI tool can help a case manager turn interview notes into a plain-language summary for the student, or brainstorm job shadowing ideas for an interest area. It cannot replace an assessment, and student names, scores and records should stay out of any tool the district has not approved. The ChatGPT for teachers guide covers safe use.

Related Resources

• Transition IEP Goals
• Functional IEP Goals
• Life Skills Activities
• PLAAFP Examples
• Questions to Ask in an IEP Meeting
• Special Education Evaluation

Conclusion

Good transition assessment is plural and ongoing: several methods, several people, real settings, repeated each year from middle school to exit. Teams that record what each assessment showed and how they used it write postsecondary goals students recognize as their own, and give them a summary of performance that carries into adult life.

Sources: 34 CFR 300.320, Definition of individualized education program; 34 CFR 300.43, Transition services; 34 CFR 300.305, Additional requirements for evaluations and reevaluations; NTACT:C, Collaborative Assessment Guide for Transition Planning (2024); NTACT:C, Tools and Resources supplement to the Collaborative Assessment Guide; NTACT:C, Definitions supplement to the Collaborative Assessment Guide (2024); NTACT:C, Indicator 13 Checklist: Form B; Institute of Education Sciences, Preparing for Life After High School: A Summary of Key Findings from NLTS 2012 (NCEE 2018-4011, May 2018); Zarrow Institute, Transition Assessment and Goal Generator at a Glance; Zarrow Institute, Assessments; Learning Policy Institute, An Overview of Teacher Shortages: 2026 (July 2026). Other sections of 34 CFR Part 300 and publisher pages are linked where they are cited.

Join the 2027 Special Education Pilot

Transition assessment shows which adult skills a student still needs; building them, from a job interview to a phone call to a daily routine, takes many rehearsals, and few students get enough of them with an adult. Telo AI is being adapted for students with IEPs: patient, 1-on-1 practice aligned to each student’s IEP goals, including daily living skills and speaking practice. We are inviting districts to shape it with us in a 2027 pilot.

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