Person Centered Planning
An important tool when your son or daughter is preparing for college is a person-centered planning process. Person Centered Planning helps to identify the dreams and goals that your son or daughter has, and what supports they may need to reach their dreams. By starting with a person centered plan, and using that plan to guide and structure what the student does next, you can assure that everyone is focusing on strengths and capacities, and planning supports based on what the person wants, rather than on what is available or what seems reasonable. Here you can find several resources related to person centered planning and how it fits in to college planning for your son or daughter.
How is Person Centered Planning Different from Traditional Planning?: View a comparison table.
| TRADITIONAL PLANNING | PERSON-CENTERED PLANNING |
|---|---|
| PERSON | |
| Focus on deficits | Focus on strengths, capacities |
| Top-down planning | Person and their family are the key informants |
| Professionals opinions matter most | Balance of formal and informal viewpoints |
| Reliance on standardized assessments and disability labels | Focus is on the dreams and desires of the person |
| GOAL | |
| Working through a segregated system of support | Equality |
| Ameliorization of deficits | Quality of life in the community |
| FOCUS | |
| Needs of the service delivery system or support structure | Individual needs, preferences, strengths and capacities of the person |
| TEAMS | |
| Person and family in a passive role | Person and family at the center |
| All support provided by paid professionals, what is available is dictated by professionals | Cooperative efforts among family, friends, community groups and support agencies to provide support for an inclusive life. |
| NATURE OF SUPPORTS | |
| Highly prescriptive education, support and work options based on disability label and "readiness for community living" | Highly individualized education, support and work options based on individual dreams, preferences and capacities. |
Links:
Parent Centered Planning Parent Brief
Cornell University: Person Centered Planning Education Site
PACER Center: Person Centered Planning
