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Finishing high school and successfully moving on to the workplace, higher education and other aspects of adulthood can be challenging for anyone, but young people with physical or cognitive disabilities face even higher hurdles. One of them could be transition services, which can become ensnared in incompatible information technology systems across various agencies.

A University of �˻�ֱ�� team has been awarded $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education to tackle the issue. The funding will support education and computing researchers who are developing a data analytic tool to tie together masses of confidential data—from medical test results to school performance records—administered by �˻�ֱ��’s 24 school districts and other agencies involved in the school-to-adulthood transition.

The goal: to create a single, easy-to-use source of information that practitioners, counselors and others can use to help their clients build fulfilling lives.

Kelli Thuli Crane and Christy H. Stuart, both assistant research professors in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education as well as co-directors of the College of Education’s �˻�ֱ�� , are leading the project.

Derek Yarnell, the director of computing facilities for the (UMIACS) is working with them and overseeing software development for the Transition Linkage Tool (TLT).

The �˻�ֱ�� team envisions TLT as a web-based data management system that will collect and share data on students with disabilities from across the state of �˻�ֱ��, helping to connect them to state and county agencies.

By law, students with cognitive or physical disabilities—from emotional and learning disabilities to those with hearing, vision or mobility impairments—are entitled to support services in high school that include individualized education programs and specialized accessibility options.

But when these same students leave high school, they often lose the support structure provided by these programs, said Crane. While adult programs are available, they are often fragmented, and families must wade through a complex web of state agencies, all with different eligibility requirements and criteria.

“It’s important to us that there's not a sudden drop off a cliff when they exit school, but that they stay connected with resources and are introduced to new opportunities,” Crane said.

Officials working across systems also struggle to collaborate since there is no existing framework for sharing data on youth with disabilities across government agencies, the researchers said.

The TLT project aims to untangle this “chaos and complexity,” as Crane puts it, streamlining services and integrating data from multiple sources, like local education agencies and the state’s Division of Rehabilitation Services.

The researchers hope that insights from this data can help policymakers evaluate what works and what doesn’t.

“The state of �˻�ֱ�� does not have a good handle, from a data science standpoint, on how these students are faring post-graduation,” said Yarnell. “And if you can't measure it, you can't change it.”

The researchers aim to launch a pilot test of the system across all of �˻�ֱ��’s school districts in late 2025—a challenging goal.

“As different agencies use their own student information systems, aligning these disparate datasets can be quite complex,” acknowledged Yarnell. “And establishing data-sharing agreements between agencies is challenging—there is a lot of friction against that.”

With much of the foundational work on the software already done, Yarnell and the others are confident that the project is on track to make a difference.

“If the project is successful in �˻�ֱ��, we believe it will have significant national reach,” said Crane. “We’re excited to get this off the ground and see the impact it can have across the state of �˻�ֱ�� and beyond.”

CTCI has also received $1.6 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Disability Innovation Fund to support its work on the Promoting Retention in Meaningful Employment (PRIME) program, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This five-year initiative aims to address common barriers to job retention and build the capacity of individuals with disabilities to self-advocate and advance in their careers. CTCI will lead efforts to evaluate the program’s impact and will also facilitate the steering committee and provide ongoing training and technical assistance to local implementation sites and key stakeholders.

Illustration by Adobe Stock/Saie Wable