Systems and methods for the automated generation of individual transition plans

#The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for measuring educational performance levels, and more particularly to methods and systems for determining students' post school goals, present levels of performance, transition service needs, needed transition services and for automatically generating an individual transition plan while maintaining a knowledge base which is used by all participating individuals as the plan is executed and managed.

#Old methods have the Transition Planning process carried out entirely manually or by using the computer only as a data repository and printer. As such the process is random and idiosyncratic. No parsable data is gathered which allows the process to be analyzed and improved over time either manually or automatically. Records are kept in variable and often slipshod forms and methods. There are no standard links to services able to be provided within the educational environment or from the community. Every individual involved in the process takes his or her own approach. When Individuals move to a different school system, the process begins anew.

#Prior art methods of performing Transition Planning, Execution and Management are inherently unreliable, slow and fraught with human error that is often not discovered until years later in the Individuals' lives. Further, they are difficult to replicate because they are manual. This results in the inability to find out what went wrong, and therefore the opportunity and likelihood of repeating past mistakes is increased. From the point of view of compliance with local, state and Federal laws and regulations, prior art methods maintain no accepted standards of Performance or the ability for their uniform application if these standards did exist. It can be asserted that these old methods cannot be performed in a manner that complies with applicable laws and regulations.

#The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention, together with the further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in the several Figures in which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:

#FIG. 1 is a high level flow chart illustrating the planning, execution and management of an individual educational plan in the context of a computer database system that also integrates resources, schedules, assets and risks in accordance with the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the notional concept of Transition Planning, Process and Knowledge Management integration;

#While the present invention is susceptible of embodiment in various forms, there is shown in the drawings a number of presently preferred embodiments that are discussed in greater detail hereafter. It should be understood that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments illustrated. It should be further understood that the title of this section of this application (“Detailed Description of the Invention”) relates to a requirement of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and should not be found to be limiting to the subject matter disclosed and claimed herein.

#This invention integrates three bodies of thought, Risk, Process and Knowledge Management, heretofore considered to be independent, into a practical Method and System, which is generally illustrated in FIG. 1, and which collectively interact in a way that synergistically multiplies the effects of each upon the other, while at the same time enabling the benefits of any or each of the three to be independently realized at the choice of the user.

#Referring to the drawings, including FIGS. 1 through 9R, there is shown in detail the novel and unobvious elements of the invention. The next 11 paragraphs describe the operation of the automated individual transition planning, execution and management block diagram, generally designated 20, in FIG. 1. Many of the elements of the methods and system presented in FIG. 1 are discussed in greater depth below and with reference to the other drawing FIGS. 1A-9R.