This Insight Brief discusses how students with intellectual disability can utilize federal financial aid to help pay for college. This publication is updated annually to reflect current legislation and policy related to federal financial aid for students with intellectual disabilities. The information provided is current as of January 2023.

This publication shares findings from a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) 2012 dataset, looking specifically at parent expectations for students with intellectual disability and autism and compared them to those of students in other disability groups. Specifically, parent expectations around living and…

Employment is one of the most significant markers of independence and success for a person. One's ability to secure and maintain employment in a paid position can have a significant impact on their overall quality of life, community participation, financial self-sufficiency, and pathway to a long-lasting career. Unfortunately, the paid employment…

College is an opportunity for enormous growth in the lives of all students. Setting and working toward meaningful personal goals is one way to maximize those opportunities for growth. College programs for students with intellectual disability may struggle to address the independent living skills component of their comprehensive transition program…

A college education is an investment in the future of every student who pursues one, but it does not come cheap. College expenses include tuition, fees, books, equipment, and room and board, if a student chooses to live on campus. These all add up, and every student must determine where the funding for college will come from. Students with…

College-based transition services provide opportunities for transition-age students with intellectual disability and autism (ID/A) between the ages of 18 and 22 to receive their final years of secondary transition services in a college or university setting. We compared the extent to which youth with ID/A experience in-school predictors of…

Reviews of the transition literature have identified 23 in-school predictors of post-school success for students with disabilities. We sought to identify available variables in the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012) Phase I dataset that correspond with the 23 in-school predictors of post-school success to better understand…

Next Steps at Vanderbilt, an inclusive postsecondary education program at Vanderbilt University, aims to equip students with skills and experiences to gain competitive employment. Next Steps has two primary goals: (1) Increase opportunities for students to gain targeted skills in career fields of interest; and (2) Create new career development…

Postsecondary education opportunities for students with intellectual disability (ID) steadily increased between 2015 and 2020, in part due to a federal model demonstration program called the Transition and Postsecondary Program for Students with Intellectual Disability (TPSID). This program, implemented by the Office of Postsecondary Education,…

All inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs are "housed" in a particular department, school, institute, or other administrative center on a college or university campus. This decision is unique to each institution and IPSE program. This publication shares the locations of current programs based on a survey and data from…

Think College Reports present descriptive data in narrative and tabular form to provide timely information to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for review and use. This report provides program- and student-level data reported by TPSIDs (Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities) during the…

This Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the entire Annual Report of the Cohort 3 TPSID Model Demonstration Projects (Year 1, 2020-2021). Information is provided about the TPSID projects about program characteristics, students characteristics, academics, academic supports, employment, vocational rehabilitation, residential services, and…

Students use Veterans Affairs educational benefits infrequently, but they may be of interest to college programs as well as to students who are dependents of veterans. This brief provides basic information and resources that students and programs can use to take advantage of VA funding opportunities. VA funding opportunities vary from state to…

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a tool that postsecondary education (PSE) programs for students with intellectual disability (ID) can use to develop and define productive working partnerships with school districts, community agencies, or other external entities. In this Insight Brief, the authors explain MOU: their core components, their…

Inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs for students with intellectual disability (ID) have grown tremendously over the last two decades. What started as a movement to make higher education accessible to young adults with ID has shifted into a concern for access and demonstrable improvements to the postschool lives of the IPSE students…