Finishing High School

If you are graduating from high school you may be doing a social graduation or finishing up Individualized Education Program (IEP) programming. By age 22 you must leave high school. It can be the exact date of your birthday or shortly before or after based on the school’s choice.

Before graduation, you should invite to your IEP meeting representatives of any adult services you will receive. This includes your Service and Support Administrator (SSA) which is the name for your case worker with your state or county board of disability services. Your IEP team should be reflective of your goals. For example if you have speech therapy goals, your speech therapist should be invited to the IEP meeting. After you leave high school your IEP ends.

Finishing College or Technical School

If you are finishing college at the undergraduate level or a technical school, or thinking about graduate school, you may find the Milestones Postsecondary/College Tool Kit helpful. You’ll find tips for working with the school disability services department, a list of potential disability accommodations and various resources.

Graduate School

Most graduate schools have a disabilities services office and provide accommodations to help students be successful, but these may vary a lot. So ask questions based on your needs and think about what your goals are for your graduate education and what kind of job you hope to have when you graduate. You can ask if there are graduate students you could connect with.

Lifelong Learning Whether for Fun or Your Career

Even after you graduate, you may want to occasionally take a class online or in person on a topic that interests you personally or that you think could be helpful for your job. The same strategies you used in school can be useful like thinking about your sensory needs, and talking to the teacher about accommodations if it’s a more formal class that will have assignments.

There are many fun classes you can take to learn and meet people on anything from art to nature at your library, community center, park system, museums, religious organizations.