From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: 2017 Youth with Autism Transitioning to Adulthood Description: Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder are less likely than youth with other disabilities to transition successfully from high school to work or college. What kinds of challenges do these youth face as they transition to adulthood? And what services do schools offer to help with this transition? Related GAO Work: GAO-17-352: Youth with Autism: Federal Agencies Should Take Addtional Action to Support Transition-Age Youth Released: May 2017 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's May 2017. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a group of developmental disorders that include difficulties with social interactions, communication, and repetitive behaviors. Studies have found that youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder are less likely than youth with other disabilities to transition successfully from high school to work or college. Therefore, they may face a lifetime of reliance on public assistance. A team led by Jackie Nowicki, a director in GAO's Education Workforce and Income Security team, recently looked at the kinds of services school districts provide to youth with autism in transitioning to adulthood. Sarah Kaczmarek sat down with Jackie to talk about what they found. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] What kind of challenges do youth with autism face as they transition to adulthood? [ Jackie Nowicki: ] A lot of them faced challenges around transition planning that starts too late, frankly, and a lack of employment opportunities. And a lot of that can be because employers aren't always sure how to provide appropriate supports for kids with ASD and what that might look like. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And your report looked at the services that schools are offering these kids. You mentioned age, how old are the students when they start to get these services? [ Jackie Nowicki: ] So the law requires that transition planning start at age 16. And we found that most districts are starting their transition planning at age 16, but many of them reported that it would be most beneficial for students if they started at age 14. And our survey also found that, all that said, about one-third of districts are not starting earlier than age 16. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Okay. So tell me more about this nationwide survey that you did. Tell me about some of the services that are being offered to students. [ Jackie Nowicki: ] So in our survey, we found that most districts said that they're providing services like life skills and behavioral kinds of coaching. So that could be things like going to a food court and practicing how to order and pay for your food. Or another example would be role-playing in social situations to help kids practice those kinds of social interactions that we all need to engage in on the job or sort of in our daily lives. It depends a little bit on the nature of the school district, so whether it's an urban or a rural district or how big the district is in terms of what specifically they're offering. But, in general, those are the kinds of skills that school districts think about. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And do you find most of this is taking place inside the classroom or sometimes the students also get outside of the classroom and more just into the community or interacting with actual potential employers, for example? [ Jackie Nowicki: ] It's a combination of both. So one of the really beneficial things for kids with ASD is getting out in the community because it can be a little hard for them to transfer skills from one -- you know, if they're practicing in sort of a classroom environment, it can be harder for them to transfer those skills to sort of a real-life setting out in their community. So that kind of experience is really important for them. One of the things that we found in our survey, though, is that things like transportation can be really challenging and an impediment for school districts to be providing those services in the kind of setting that's most beneficial for these kids. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] So what more needs to be done then to better meet the needs of these students? [ Jackie Nowicki: ] That's a great question. And I think it's sort of a -- I think about it in kind of two different buckets. So at the federal level, there's a lot of collaboration going around to identify gaps in research and services. But the agencies that are collaborating in this space have missed some opportunities to work better together. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Okay. So then tell me about the recommendations your team is making in this report. [ Jackie Nowicki: ] So we've made a couple. And they're generally around improving that collaboration piece at the federal level, getting the right folks at the table. But also we think it's really important that the Department of Education consider the implications and the merits of requiring earlier transition planning for all students with disabilities. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And finally, what do you see as the bottom line of this report? [ Jackie Nowicki: ] You know, I think that the fact that transition planning is required at age 16 but is so widely recognized as being beneficial, more beneficial if we start earlier, I think there's really something to be considered there to help federal policymakers think about this issue and how we can better serve kids. 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