Building Resilient Individuals Developing Growth, Empowerment, and Self-Determination
Program Profile/Purpose:
18+ services in Lake Travis ISD focus on four life domains: Education/Training, Employment, Independent Living, and Community Involvement.
Activities, training, and community connections are designed to enable students to learn to live as independently as possible once they leave LTISD and to ensure the young adults can continue to access support through local agencies and their family after exiting BRIDGES.
Students that have completed all of the high school state requirements for graduation are able to participate in the regular high school graduation event and all other senior events during their 12th grade year.
Student participating in BRIDGES will receive a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the 12th grade year and will receive the official high school diploma upon completion of the IEP requirements upon exiting BRIDGES.
Under the IDEA, students continuing to qualify for special education services are eligible for services through the completion of the academic school year in which they turn 22. Students must be 21 as of September 1 of a school year to begin and complete their final school year and services will conclude at the end of regular school year in May.
No, BRIDGES focuses on transitioning students from LTISD to the community, building independence in individuals from ages 18 through 22.
BRIDGES follows the LTISD calendar for start dates, end dates, and student holidays but the hours differ depending on student needs. Typically, students spend less time with 18+ staff and more time with community agency support or working in competitive employment as they get closer to exiting the program; BRIDGES students’ attendance expectations are determined at their annual ARD and may consist of only a few hours a day or a few days each week.
LTISD Special Education transportation is still available for the BRIDGES program participants, but this is a time to start building skills to use other kinds of transportation such as ride-share and public transportation.
Yes, all students in BRIDGES will continue to have a case manager who collects data on goals, updates transition assessments, and completes the IEP for annual ARD meetings each year a student is in BRIDGES.
Goals shift from focusing on academic content to independent living skills and transition to adulthood with functional use of skills in the home and community; all academic goals will be completed by the end of 12th grade year.
As the Transfer of Rights takes place upon a person’s 18th birthday, parents/guardians should consider whether or not supported decision making or guardianship is appropriate for their adult student.
Case managers are in close communication with the adult student and their family/guardians; they seek life domain needs assessment feedback, collect data, and administer skills inventories to propose a plan of action at each annual ARD meeting.
BRIDGES students will be learning to live independently, so it is important that parents/guardians mirror the BRIDGES expectations at home; these expectations will be developed at the annual ARD with input from the parents/guardians.
Parents/guardians should actively reach out to community agencies that may be able to offer support to their adult student as early as possible; there are many waiting lists, so waiting until a person exits BRIDGES will likely lead to a gap in support/services.
Parents/guardians should investigate community involvement outside of LTISD.
If a parent/guardian expects their adult student to work in competitive employment after exiting BRIDGES, they should take an active role in seeking out locations that would be open to job coaching; 18+ staff does try to match student interest to local job opportunities, but it is a team effort to make those connections in the community.
Parents/guardians should begin planning for how and to whom supports for their adult student will transfer once access to LTISD ends; early planning is important due to limited community resources.
Students meet throughout the week at various community sites, individually and/or in small groups to work on skills in adult living, employment, post-secondary education options and community access.
Students work on transition and functional goals that could include social skills, safe use of technology, employability skills, etc. These lessons range from direct- teach time to generalization of skills in the community, based on student need and experience.
Students may attend Austin Community College (ACC) classes while enrolled in BRIDGES with support from Student Accessibility Services at ACC.
Job training while in BRIDGES may include job sampling, volunteer activities in the community, unpaid internships, and paid employment, all of which are dependent on the IEP and family/agency resources available
BRIDGES does not offer a guarantee of competitive employment, but staff will work to match skills and interests to local employment opportunities.
Parents/guardians are encouraged to find opportunities and share that information with BRIDGES staff, who will then support the student at that location with job coaching.
