What is Person Centered Planning?

To understand the process one must see person-centered planning as a means to help the individual set long-range goals.  It is similar to a road map to the future.   The focus person and support group determines where the journey will take them and they develop a map to get there.  As they begin the journey the team may head out in one direction and then decide to take a detour, or they may even change their mind based on information they gathered throughout their travels.  This road map guides the family and individual to decide on individual goals and objectives to be incorporated into the Individual Education Plan.  It provides guidance in determining what classes a student should take in school, where to recreate, where to be employed, where to volunteer, how to best self-manage behavior and all other areas of planning.  The process of person-centered planning works when it directs all planning with the individual.  It must be done in collaboration with schools, agencies, employers, family and friends.  It must not be used separately from the Individual Education Plan, or any other individual plan.

·        Planning process that utilizes an ongoing team approach

·        For students it:

·        Provides a means to develop personal goals. 

·        helps an individual take a positive role in community

·        Increase control over his or her life

·        Develops skills necessary to achieve specific goals.

·        It is a way to look at an individual as a total person, recognize hers/his desires, interests and dreams.

Why should a family participate in this planning process?

·        The approach involves an interactive planning process, which has several distinctive characteristics.

·        First, it helps people discover the strengths and gifts that a person has. 

·        Secondly, it helps to explore and clarify a variety of goals.

·        Third, it brings together all of the people who interact with the individual so the goals can effectively be attained. 

·        Fourth, it helps people to become creative in their course of action. 

·        Fifth, it inspires initiative.

Who should be invited?

The team of support will be developed based on who is invited to attend the planning meetings.  Families, schools, agencies and community participants may change the way they are involved in supporting the student. The family’s decision to participate in this process provides the framework for success.

All people must be willing to give a commitment of time and a commitment to try things in new ways. Members of the team include:

·        The student

·        Family (parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins etc.)

·        Friends

·        Neighbors

·        Church members

·        Employers

·        Professional staff

When should the process be started?

When the process works, teams come together on a regular basis to evaluate where they are in the planning process.  This may mean meeting two times a year or even more.  It is good to start the process whenever you or your student is preparing for a transition.  This transition can include:

·        Primary grades to intermediate grades

·        Elementary to Junior High School

·        Junior High School to High School

·        High School to adulthood

Where should the team meet?

·        Wherever the student is most comfortable

·        Preferably at the home

·        Not at the school because this is a planning process that needs to belong to the student and not to the school or agency.

Positive outcomes from Person Centered Planning:

·        A person labeled with severe Mental Retardation and Autism has a driver’s license, purchased a truck and is now a member of the Teamsters Union.

·        A person labeled with Autism who had previously been in segregated classes, is included in high school, passed the TAAS and TASP test, and got a 4.0 at a community college.

·        A person labeled with a significant learning disability directed her own ARD meeting insisting that she take the TAAS tests and passed the writing and reading parts of the test.  She is now enrolled in a private college in Texas.

·        This year thirty students with disabilities including Mental Retardation, Emotional Disturbance, Speech Handicapped, Autism and Other Health Impaired are writing their own goals and objectives for their IEP.

·        Three families are writing a PASS Plan for their child so that they can work and continue receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and Medicaid.

·        Two employers have made the accommodations necessary so that a person with significant disabilities can have a job with a future.

·        Two high school students decided that they wanted to become teachers so that they could assure that all students could be included in their class and in their schools.

Person Centered Planning is an excellent tool for transition.  When asked the best time to start the process.  The reply is that it is never too early and it is never too late.

Thursday May 14, 2003 Debbie Wilkes