How some students with disabilities avoid the 'transition cliff' after high school

For the past 10 months, Toronto student Danial Young rose at 6 a.m. on weekdays to attend a program vastly different from what he'd known, leaving friends and familiar teachers behind as he ventured into new spaces and was challenged to develop new skills. 

Yet on a sweltering day in late June, as the 20-year-old turned the page on high school, you couldn't wipe the smile off his face. 

"It's been very important to learn here, because you're moving into the real world. You're now evolving into this whole different person," he said ahead of graduating from Project Search, a program that transitions young people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to the working world. 

"It's been a really great experience."

As they move through secondary school, most teens are busy learning, training for and planning their futures. Yet students with disabilities have vastly fewer opportunities. A patchwork of programs helps some transition into adulthood, but experts want more of these offerings to be accessible to everyone who needs them. 

Leaving high school is "a time of big change and big decisions, but also it's potentially a time of crisis," said Eddie Bartnik, an international consultant advising the Nova Scotia government on disability services. 

Without a strong, dedicated program planning for life after graduation, youths with disabilities can lose the valuable relationships and social connections they've built during their schooling, he says.

It can also leave families feeling adrift as, after school-related supports end, some young people languish at home.

Sometimes "one parent has to give up work," Bartnik said, an option that is "very anxiety-provoking."  

Transition programs are generally considered a responsibility of schools, according to Rachelle Hole, a UBC Okanagan professor of social work and co-director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship.

However, since they're not mandated by every province or territory's Ministry of Education, such efforts are often "left up to the individual school districts or perhaps inclusive education teachers," she said.

Limited funding means some programs can only take on so many participants and, given what she calls "a patchwork approach" across regions, many families can face a "transition cliff" if they're unable to access aid to bridge the gap.

Still, Hole praises the "pockets of excellence" across Canada, where different organizations, community groups and champions are successfully helping youth with disabilities tackle this milestone.

Come September, eight new Project Search locations in Ontario will join the existing 22 across the province plus P.E.I. and Manitoba.