The TPI-3 Transition Planning Inventory is a structured assessment that measures 57 adult-life competencies in a student with a disability by collecting ratings from three people who see the student differently: the student, a parent or guardian, and a school staff member who knows the student’s classroom work. The three sets of ratings land on one profile sheet, and that profile drives the measurable postsecondary goals and transition services that federal law requires in the IEP no later than the first IEP in effect when the student turns 16.1IDEA Official Website. Section 1414 – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
What the 57 Competencies Cover
The items map to the major domains of adult life: employment readiness, further education and training, daily living, leisure, community participation, health management, self-determination, communication, and interpersonal relationships. Employment items ask whether the student can identify vocational interests, follow workplace routines, and hold a job with or without support. Education items gauge readiness for college, trade programs, or certificate courses. Daily living items cover budgeting, cooking, and running a household. Health items ask whether the student can schedule medical appointments and manage medications. Self-determination items measure goal-setting, informed choice, and the ability to advocate for accommodations.
The point across all 57 items is to pin down the distance between where the student is now and what independent adult life will demand.
The Forms and Who Completes Them
Each of the three Core Rating Forms asks the same 57 questions, but in a format tailored to its rater. The Student and Home forms are written at a lower readability level so students and families can work through them independently; the School form is pitched for a special education teacher, transition coordinator, or specialist.2PRO-ED. TPI-3: Transition Planning Inventory–Third Edition, Complete Kit Each form takes roughly 15 to 30 minutes.3Therapro. Transition Planning Inventory-Third Edition (TPI-3)
The three raters fill out the forms separately, without consulting each other. That independence is the whole point. It surfaces disagreements about what the student can actually do that would otherwise stay buried. A parent sees the student handle money, chores, and social situations teachers never watch; a teacher has access to test scores, classroom behavior records, and vocational assessment data that parents do not; the student’s own ratings reveal how ready they feel, which sometimes diverges sharply from what the adults observe.
For a student who cannot respond to the standard written or oral items, the kit includes a Modified Form for Students With Autism or Other Significant Support Needs, which is new in this edition.2PRO-ED. TPI-3: Transition Planning Inventory–Third Edition, Complete Kit Two Preferences and Interests Forms sit alongside the core ratings: a Basic version for the start of transition planning and an Advanced version for use closer to exit. A parallel Home Preferences and Interests Form lets parents record their own hopes for the student’s post-school life. These forms carry weight because IDEA requires postsecondary goals to be based on the student’s strengths, preferences, and interests, not just deficit data.
How the Ratings Work
Every competency is scored on a 0-to-5 scale, where 0 is “strongly disagree” and 5 is “strongly agree” that the student can perform the skill.4PRO-ED. Transition Planning Inventory – Profile and Further Assessment Recommendations Form A low score flags a need for instruction or support; a high score points to relative independence. If a rater genuinely cannot judge a competency because the student has never been in a situation that calls for it, the form lets them mark the item for further assessment rather than guess.
Pulling the Results Together
Once the three Core Rating Forms come back, their scores feed into the Profile and Further Assessment Recommendations Form. The three sets of ratings sit side by side on that sheet, which makes it immediately visible where perceptions diverge.5Therapro Blog. Transition Planning Inventory-3 Overview and Review
Those gaps are where further assessment goes. If the school rated budgeting at 1 but the parent rated it at 4, that disagreement is the signal to look closer, perhaps through a situational observation or a formal financial literacy measure. The Profile form has columns for both informal techniques (observations, interviews, checklists) and formal standardized instruments, with space to record results after that additional work is done.4PRO-ED. Transition Planning Inventory – Profile and Further Assessment Recommendations Form
Taking Results Into the IEP Meeting
The Profile travels directly into the IEP meeting. Federal regulations require that postsecondary goals be based on age-appropriate transition assessments and cover training, education, employment, and, where appropriate, independent living skills. The IEP must also lay out the transition services needed to reach those goals, including a course of study.6eCFR. 34 CFR 300.320 – Definition of Individualized Education Program
The TPI-3 numbers give the team something concrete. If all three raters scored a student low on public-transportation competencies, the team can write a goal targeting independent bus travel and assign community-based instruction to get there. If self-determination scores are high, the team can redirect resources toward employment readiness. The documented evidence also matters later: if the plan is ever challenged, “we based the goals on the Profile” holds up better than “we talked it over.”
When Transition Planning Has to Start
The federal floor is the first IEP in effect when the student turns 16.1IDEA Official Website. Section 1414 – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act The regulation also lets the IEP team start earlier if it decides that is appropriate.6eCFR. 34 CFR 300.320 – Definition of Individualized Education Program More than half of U.S. states have set their own mandatory start age somewhere between 12 and 16. If your state begins earlier, the TPI-3 can be given at that younger age; the Basic Preferences and Interests Form was built for exactly this early-stage use.
The Summary of Performance at Exit
When a student graduates with a regular diploma or ages out of eligibility, the school must give them a Summary of Performance covering academic achievement, functional performance, and recommendations for meeting postsecondary goals.7eCFR. 34 CFR 300.305 – Additional Requirements for Evaluations and Reevaluations The kit includes a dedicated Summary of Performance Exit Document for this purpose. Because the Profile already compiles the competency data, transferring it into the exit document is straightforward.
The exit document matters beyond graduation day. College disability offices, vocational rehabilitation agencies, and employers offering supported employment look at it when deciding what accommodations or services to provide. A thorough summary built on solid TPI-3 data gives the student a far stronger starting position than a vague narrative written the week before commencement.
If You Disagree With the School’s Results
If you are a parent and believe the school’s TPI-3 ratings do not reflect your child’s abilities, you can request an independent educational evaluation at public expense.8eCFR. 34 CFR 300.502 – Independent Educational Evaluation Once you ask, the district must either pay for the outside evaluation or file a due process complaint to show that its own evaluation was adequate. You do not have to explain why you disagree, and the regulation says the district must respond “without unnecessary delay.”
You get one independent evaluation at public expense for each school evaluation you dispute. The outside evaluator has to meet the same qualification criteria the district applies to its own staff, but the district cannot pile on extra conditions or timelines.8eCFR. 34 CFR 300.502 – Independent Educational Evaluation If a hearing officer ultimately decides the school’s evaluation was appropriate, you can still get an independent one; you just pay for it. Either way, the school has to consider the results of any independent evaluation that meets its criteria when it makes decisions about services and placement.
Parents can also file a due process complaint over any aspect of identification, evaluation, placement, or the provision of a free appropriate public education. If the school wrote transition goals without any age-appropriate assessment, or if it ignored TPI-3 results when drafting the IEP, those failures go to whether the student received appropriate transition services, and they are grounds for a complaint.
Cost and Where to Get the Kit
Pro-Ed Inc. publishes the TPI-3 and sells the complete kit for $408.00. The kit includes 25 copies of each form (Student, Home, and School Core Rating Forms; Basic and Advanced Preferences and Interests Forms; the Modified Form; the Profile; and the Summary of Performance Exit Document), plus an Administration and Resource Guide, a Transition Instruction Guide, and online access to reproducible PDFs.2PRO-ED. TPI-3: Transition Planning Inventory–Third Edition, Complete Kit Most districts buy the kit through their special education department and distribute the individual forms to the people on the IEP team who need them.