Planning a Transition Night
Grant Wood Area Education Agency
Transition Services
Plan far in advance of the event
Be sure that the venue for the event is available.
Give yourself time to:
 plan
 review progress
 revise plan
 update progress
 final thorough review of event
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There are always last minute issues that arise, so be sure to have a plan on how those will be addressed.
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Is there one person that should be in charge of those issues?
The first one notified of the issue will be in charge of the issue?
Is there a plan in place in case someone, speaker or booth presenter, does not show up?
Committee
One person cannot do it all. A committee is a great way to divide the duties involved in a Student/Parent Transition
Night. Depending upon how comprehensive your night will be, you should delegate at least one committee
member to each area (i.e publicity, speakers, booths, etc.).
Establish goal/theme
What is the goal that you have for your event?
 Is it the number of people present?
 Involvement with the presenters/booths?
 Attendees make so many contacts during the night with support agencies?
Will there be a theme?
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Overall transition for students?
Middle school transition to high school?
High school transition to college/work?
Assistive technology needed for the transitioning student?
Whatever goal and or theme that you might choose, be sure to have some measurement device in
place so that you can determine whether or not you met your intended goal.
Publicity
Publicity is key to a successful Student/Parent Night. If no one knows about it, how can you expect anyone to attend? You
can rely on your students to invite their parents, but that usually is not the most reliable method. Some publicity opportunities
could include:
 Local Newspaper
 Local Radio Station
 Printed flyers posted in restaurants, gas stations, recreational facilities (Be sure to ask permission first.)
 Teachers
 Service providers such as IVRS, Goodwill, REC
 Penny Savers or free community periodical
 TV
 Social media (Facebook, Twitter)
Personal contact is a simple way to publicize your Student/Parent Transition Night.
You can set create a calling tree where one person calls 3-5 people to personally invite them
to the event and, in turn, they invite 3-5 people, etc. Personal hand or electronic written
invitations can be done in the same manner. Doing this an few months prior to the event,
with a follow up just before, will increase your chances for a good attendance. Remember, people
still like that personal contact. Finally, IEP meeting is a perfect time to personally invite parents,
teachers, administrators and others to your event.
You might want to consider if you would like someone to take pictures or video tape during the
Event. If you decide to do this, check with your district policies about video and film
releases. Remember to check for spelling and grammar before publishing anything.
Also, you need to decide how you want the night
to start. Do you want to have a key note speaker
to start the evening off? If so, they should be told
what you want them to include in their
presentation as well as how long it should be.
Another thing to think about concerning speakers,
will they need to stay for the entire evening or can
they leave after their presentation? What
arrangements have you made for any handouts
that they might have – do they need to print them
off and bring them with them, or will you print them
off and have them available for all attendees, or
will they be available electronically and how will
participants get to them.
Presenters should be selected with your goal and theme in mind.
Given what you want attendees to take away from your night, who
would be a good match in delivering this information? If you want to
focus on assistive technology, you might want to include your
school district’s AT person. There are also AT resources through
the University of Iowa as well as from Grant Wood AEA. If you
want participants to leave with information on post-secondary
service providers, it would be best to have the actual providers
there to speak to attendees.
Finally, will your speakers be compensated for
their agreement to participate? Generally, a key
note speaker is compensated in some way.
Depending on how far a speaker travels for your
event, you might want to think of some way to
show your thanks. Whatever you decide, please
be sure to check with your school district’s
business office to find out what is compensation
method is acceptable. Many times there are
restrictions for monetary gifts.
Technology
Technology is another critical area to consider when planning for Student/Parent Transition Night. It is always a good idea to
ask each of your speakers what type of technology they might need for their presentation such as computer, white board, or
ELMO and then have that available to them that night. Some speakers do not require any while some request a variety.
If you are having booths, be sure that you include them on any technology requests. Many exhibitors have computers that are
used to accentuate their information, such as those displaying assistive technology, and power cords are a necessity.
Will participants need to have access to technology for the evening or only for certain
presentations? If they do, will they need to bring their own or will it be provided to them? If they are to bring their own, how will
this be conveyed to them? Be sure that you talk with the IT person at your venue to insure that there is enough band width
available to accommodate everyone.
Booths are effective methods to get information out to more people in a short period of time so it
would be good to include them, if at all possible. Once again, keep your goal, theme, and audience
in mind when deciding what booths to include.
Printing
Printing costs can add up, so you might want to get creative on your signage.
You can either print flyers for your event or you can have one made up and send it out electronically to your audience and they can print
it off. The electronic version also allows for it to be sent by recipients to others that they feel might benefit from this event. You can
easily make postcards with information on it to hand out.
Program: You will want to print a program. It is suggested that this program include:
 Time schedule
 Room assignments
 Summary of sessions
 Booth participants
 Biographies of guest speakers (if part of your event)
 Acknowledgements
Some items you might also want to include, but are not necessary:
 Intended audience for speaker sessions
 Booths that correspond to speakers
 Speaker strands
Special considerations (disability, language, baby sitting)
Many times, someone might make a special
request such as babysitting, interpreter due to
second language or special consideration due to a
disability. You need to have a plan for these
requests. Perhaps addressing them in the publicity
information or having interpreters, babysitters, etc.
available in the event that needs arise.
Food/Door Prizes
Let’s face it, we all like food and presents.
Food can be simple or complex. It should also match any theme, audience, and time of day. Cookies, cupcakes, muffins, and
brownies are easiest to eat while standing, walking, or sitting with a small plate or napkin on your lap. They are also easiest
for attendees to ‘grab and go’ Pies and cakes can be served, but they will need to be cut placed on plates, which means that
someone might need to be at the refreshment table during the entire event. This can cause congestion at a refreshment table
as well as taking time from networking. For cookies, cupcakes, muffins and brownies you would only need napkins for serving
whereas with cake and pies, you would need to budget for plates, forks and napkins.
Even if you do not choose to serve refreshments, it would be a good idea to have bottled water for presenters and attendees,
if possible. It can be placed in a central location at the event for participants to take as needed. Coffee is a popular beverage
at events. You can have a one cup coffee maker available with K cups or you can make large amounts of coffee and then put
them in carafes or other
coffee dispenser. Just as with pies
and cakes, if you choose to
serve punch and/or coffee, you will
need to plan for preparation
time as well as how it will be refilled
on a regular basis. Water
will only require displaying or, finding
a way put the water in some
container with ice. Punch and coffee
will require cups, serving
utensils, as well as ingredients. Soda
can be served, as well, with
minimal oversight, but can be costly.
Cups would also be
necessary. It might be possible that a
local store or bakery in your
community might donate food for
your night. Always consider
this option. You never know unless
you ask.
Door prizes are a nice
feature, but not a necessity. If you
have a budget, you might
want to consider purchasing some
door prizes. Otherwise, you
might ask some of your local
businesses of they would be willing to donate something from their business to be used as a door prize. Gift cards, a
certificate for a service, tote with the store’s logo, book, candle, and shirts are usual door prize donations from businesses.
Businesses might request that you complete a Request for Donation form that will need to be submitted to an owner or
manager of the business. Also, consider asking presenters or booth participants if there is anything that they might like to
donate for a door prize. They might have a product or book that they can donate. Where ever or whatever you get door prizes
or other donations from, be sure that you recognize them in some way, either including their names in the program,
announcing it during the presentations, or list them somewhere during the night so that all attendees can view.
It’s more than I expected
Do it more!
Evaluation
After the Student/Parent Transition Night is over, you will need to evaluate it in some manner to determine what did and did
not work, what participants liked the most, what suggestions were given, and what attendees would like to see in the future.
This can be done through a simple questionnaire included in the program or having participants complete a paper or
electronic (computer) questionnaire before they leave. If you decide to use the electronic questionnaire, be sure to have a
location equipped with either computers or iPads where participants can complete them.
You might also want to gather information on the demographics of participants. Items to consider include:
 Parent, teacher, student, administrator, service provider, other
 School district
 Teacher
 IEP/504
 How did you hear about the event (teacher, social media, publicity, other)?
Wish we could make
this mandatory for
parents – so important
Finally
Whether your Student/Parent Transition Night is a huge or simple event, take time to look around and
watch it unfold. Look for the connections that are taking place. Watch the interactions between
participants and attendees. See that look on a parents face when they get some new information. Find
that one special moment that makes it all worthwhile.