Table 5.

Parent Self-Reported Learning from Program (from the Open-Ended Exit Interview)

Area of New Learning	% of Parents	Example Quotes
Guardianship/ Powers of Attorney	56.3%	“The legal pieces were very helpful to our family, like learning about guardianship.”
		“Powers of attorney and when to do them and if they’re applicable for our child.”
Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR)	50.0%	“We learned it was appropriate for us to get hooked up with DVR and how to do that.”
		“We didn’t know that DVR existed so we went from having no idea that he would quality for something like that to going through the whole process.”
		“It gave me hope for DVR because when I talked to somebody [at school] it was almost like ‘don’t bother to apply.’”
Planning and Advocacy	43.8%	“It gave me a wealth of information as far as what should have been going on in the school as far as transitioning.”
		“How transition is supposed to be working when you’re in school. We had no idea and we still would have had no idea if we’d only had our school to rely on.”
		“How to plan and how to figure out what to do for him … It was an excellent opportunity for me as a parent to figure out how to transverse all the transition stuff and to become a better advocate for my kid.”
Resources on Services and Community Involvement	43.8%	“Learning about getting him involved in community stuff and keeping him involved and who to contact for what, like volunteer opportunity stuff.”
		“All the information was geared towards kids like mine. It was so very helpful, the resources, the things that we knew nothing about or didn’t know.”
		“The resources they gave, what I can do to broaden her horizons, especially community stuff.”
Validation	25.0%	“It was very validating to hear other families talking about these same things.”
		“We got that validation that his struggles are very much similar to other families who have high-functioning kids with autism. … That validation was really huge.”
Specific Strategies for Addressing Concerns with Teen	18.8%	“Strategies for some of the things we have been struggling with, like organization.”
		“Ideas for handling issues and also looking at issues in a different way.”
College Planning	18.8%	“Knowing what questions to ask when considering postsecondary education was really useful.”
		“The information about college and what to expect and ideas to try.”