Welcome, Parents!

We wish to thank the more than 9,000 parents and guardians who have taken the time to be interviewed or to fill out a survey. We appreciate your efforts greatly.

We have now completed data collection activities for the 2001-2002 school year. We sent out thousands of survey questionnaires to teachers to fill out. We also contacted parents about our face-to-face assessments that covered academics and social activities. We completed over 3,000 assessments.

We will begin our second round of parent interviews in the spring of 2003. In this round, we also will contact youth who are able to complete a telephone interview or mail questionnaire about their experiences.

Your family's unique experiences, along with those of other families nationwide, will provide a rich picture of youths' educations and experiences, and their long-term impacts. Approximately 12,000 students were selected randomly from students served by more than 500 school districts across the country. Altogether, these students represent young people with all kinds of backgrounds, abilities, and school programs.

We appreciate the involvement of so many families across the country.

NLTS2 can help to improve schools

Information from NLTS2 will help to improve schools and other service systems by informing the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Congress, state policy-makers, parents, advocates, researchers, and educators about ways to improve educational and transition services to better meet the in-school and postschool needs of students.

We need to learn

• The characteristics of students who are receiving (or who have received) special education
• The characteristics of schools and classrooms serving these students
• Services these students receive
• Placement options
• Transition planning
• Family involvement
• Postschool experiences in education and employment
• Self-determination
• Expectations for the future

How can you help?

To obtain a picture of youths' educational and transition experiences, we need to hear from parents, youth, and students' schools.

Parents

Family interviews. We will call you by phone every 2 years to ask questions about students and their experiences. If we do not reach you by phone, you will receive a questionnaire from us in the mail.

Students

Student interviews. Youth able to answer for themselves will be interviewed by phone about their experiences or receive a questionnaire in the mail.

Assessments. A one-time direct assessment will be conducted to measure student progress in reading, math, science, social studies, self-concept, and self-determination. If the form or content of this assessment is not appropriate for the student, accommodations will be made, or an alternate assessment will be given. An alternate assessment is a rating scale that will be completed by a familiar person. Students ages 16 to 18 participate in these kinds of assessments.

Students' schools

School staff surveys. For each student, NLTS2 plans to survey one or two teachers who know the student well about classroom practices, student goals, services provided, and performance. We also will collect information on the general characteristics of the school.

Current Activities

Although information collected at one point in time is valuable, the longitudinal nature of the study allows us to gather information from many resources over several years. We have completed our data collection activities for the 2001-2002 school year. Students have participated in an assessment of their academic achievement and social skills. Teachers are completing written survey questionnaires.

Thank-you opportunities

As part of our ongoing effort to thank all participants for their time and commitment, several randomly selected parents who are participating in the study were chosen to receive thank-you gifts in July 2002, including a personal computer and ten $100 gift certificates.

Recipients came from the following cities: Tabernacle, NJ; Bossier, LA; Madison, WI; Cleveland, OH; Joliet, IL; Marietta, GA; Peoria, IL; Baltimore, MD; Lancaster, CA; Pensacola, FL; Covert, MI.

Similar drawings for teachers will be done later this year.

Please inform us of any changes in your home address or contact information. You also can update your contact information on-line.

We now have TTY capabilities. Our TTY number is 1-800-664-3875 (message only).