What is important for autistic students’ transition to post-school life? A Q-Sort study with school staff

Transition to post-school life is known to be a time when autistic students encounter additional barriers that may impact their successful movement into adulthood. Preparation for the transition may help autistic students to make this change, but little is known about what school staff believe to be important to include in these preparations. Therefore, using the Q-Sort method, this study sought the views of 42 school staff by asking them to sort and discuss the important activities and supports for autistic students transitioning to post-school life. Descriptive statistics and deductive content analysis revealed that school staff identify the importance of support of family and friends during this transition. They also acknowledge the importance of autistic students developing the skills needed to be independent in post-school life. School staff consistently discussed the need to focus on personalisation of transition support, and that the formation of supportive relationships is key to transition success. Notably, the importance of empowering autistic students to make decisions about their post-school lives was not highly endorsed across all participants. This highlights the need for further work to identify and address the reasons for this limited endorsement, as this may help increase autistic student involvement in transition preparations.