Your child turns 18: the four requirements that come due, and who owns each one
Four institutions have obligations that come due around your child's eighteenth birthday. The school district carries three of them. The Social Security Administration carries the fourth. Each has its own trigger date, and none of the four coordinate with the others.
There is no master document. No office produces one, and no office is responsible for checking whether the others met their obligations. That is a gap in how these systems were built, not something you failed to request.
What follows is each requirement, its deadline, and the regulation it comes from.
The four requirements
| Requirement | Who owns it | When it comes due | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transition services in the IEP | School district | The first IEP in effect when your child turns 16 | 34 CFR 300.320(b) |
| A statement that your child has been informed of the rights that will transfer | School district | Not later than one year before the age of majority | 34 CFR 300.320(c) |
| Transfer of parental rights, with notice to both child and parents | School district | The age of majority under your state's law | 34 CFR 300.520 |
| Disability redetermination under the adult standard | Social Security Administration | Within one year of the eighteenth birthday | 20 CFR 416.987 |
Three of the four are already past due for most families reading this. That is the practical value of the table: two of these obligations have deadlines that fall before the birthday, which means you can verify right now whether they were met.
Requirement 1: transition services in the IEP
Beginning not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the child turns 16, and updated annually thereafter, the IEP must include measurable postsecondary goals based upon age appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment, and where appropriate independent living skills, together with the transition services needed to assist the child in reaching those goals (34 CFR 300.320(b)).
Three phrases in that requirement carry weight.
- Based upon age appropriate transition assessments. The goals must rest on an assessment. If no transition assessment appears in the file, the goals are not built on the required foundation.
- Updated annually. This is not a one-time addition at 16. Each subsequent IEP carries it.
- Where appropriate independent living skills. Independent living is one of three named areas, alongside education and employment. It is the one most often absent.
Several states require this work to begin before 16. Nothing in the federal rule prevents an earlier start, and the IEP Team may determine a younger age is appropriate.
Where this goes wrong: goals are written without an underlying assessment, or the annual update copies forward the prior year's language without revisiting it.
Requirement 2: the age of majority statement
Beginning not later than one year before the child reaches the age of majority under state law, the IEP must include a statement that the child has been informed of the rights under Part B that will transfer on reaching that age (34 CFR 300.320(c)).
The requirement is not that the district intends to inform your child. It is that the child has been informed, and that the IEP records it.
Age of majority is set by state law. It is 18 in most states and not in all, so the deadline is one year before whatever that age is where you live.
Where this goes wrong: the statement is absent entirely. It is a single line in a long document and it is the most frequently missing item on this list.
Requirement 3: transfer of parental rights
When a child with a disability reaches the age of majority under state law, all rights accorded to parents under Part B transfer to the child, and the public agency must provide any required notice to both the child and the parents (34 CFR 300.520).
After that date, your child consents to evaluations and agrees to the IEP.
The same section requires each state to establish a procedure for appointing a parent, or another appropriate individual, to represent the educational interests of a young adult who cannot be determined to have the ability to provide informed consent regarding their educational program. This procedure is set by your state and is legally distinct from guardianship, which is a court process with far broader effect. Both warrant attention well before the birthday.
The IDEA procedure covers educational decisions and nothing else. Decisions about medical care, money, and daily life sit outside it, and families use a range of arrangements for those, including power of attorney, supported decision-making agreements, and guardianship or conservatorship. They differ from each other substantially in how much authority they move and how hard they are to undo, and which ones exist depends on your state. This is legal territory rather than educational or clinical, so the useful step is knowing the category exists in time to get advice on it, rather than meeting it for the first time after the birthday.
Where this goes wrong: families learn about the transfer at the meeting where it takes effect, which leaves no time to use the state procedure if it applies, or to look at anything beyond it.
Requirement 4: the SSI age-18 redetermination
If your child receives SSI based on disability, became eligible before turning 18, and was eligible in the month before turning 18, the Social Security Administration is required to redetermine eligibility. It is not optional and it is not triggered by anything you do (20 CFR 416.987).
Four provisions in that section matter operationally.
- The standard changes. The redetermination applies the rules used for adults filing new applications, not the childhood standard.
- The timing is a window. Eligibility is redetermined during the one-year period beginning on the eighteenth birthday. It can arrive at any point in those twelve months.
- Written notice comes first. The regulation requires SSA to tell you that the review is happening, why, which disability rules will apply, that it could result in payments ending, and that you have the right to submit medical and other evidence for consideration during the redetermination.
- Benefits can be continued during an appeal. If the determination is that payments should stop, the notice must inform you of the right to request that benefits continue while you appeal. The deadlines are short.
One provision runs against expectation. The substantial gainful activity step, which screens out adult applicants earning above a threshold, is not applied at the age-18 redetermination. A young adult who is working is not disqualified at that step.
One more thing worth knowing before the birthday, because it surprises people who thought they had it handled. Power of attorney does not carry authority over Social Security or SSI payments. SSA states that having power of attorney is not the same as being a payee, that these arrangements do not give legal authority to manage a beneficiary's benefits, and that if you hold power of attorney for someone who cannot manage their own benefits you must still apply to serve as their representative payee (SSA, Representative Payee FAQs). Applying is a separate process with its own form.
Where this goes wrong: the notice arrives, the right to submit evidence is not exercised, and the review proceeds on whatever records already exist.
What your child's clinical team can supply
None of the four requirements belongs to your ABA provider. But two of them ask for evidence a clinical team already holds.
Transition goals must rest on age appropriate transition assessment. A disability redetermination invites medical and other evidence. Both are asking, in different vocabulary, what your child can do across settings and with what level of support.
A BCBA documents exactly that. Progress on daily living skills, prompting level, and whether skills hold outside a session. The information usually exists. It is requested late or not at all.
What to check
- The current IEP contains a statement that your child has been informed of the rights transferring at the age of majority. Confirm the sentence is present.
- The date of the most recent transition assessment. Not the goals. The assessment underneath them.
- Which of the three areas the postsecondary goals cover: training and education, employment, independent living skills.
- The age of majority in your state, and the date one year before it.
- Whether your state's procedure for representing educational interests after majority applies to your child, and what invoking it requires.
- If your child receives SSI, the date of the eighteenth birthday, marked as the opening of the redetermination window, and whether anyone in your family has applied to be representative payee. Power of attorney does not cover this.
- Which decision-making arrangements your state offers outside of education, and one name to ask about them. This is a legal question and it takes time to get an answer.
- A written request to your child's BCBA for current independence levels, prompting levels, and generalization across settings.
Each item on this list is a document or a date. If any of them cannot be produced, that is the specific thing to raise in writing, and the regulation it comes from is in the table above.
Want a clinical team that documents what the next system will ask for?
Forta's BCBAs track skills and independence across settings, which is the same evidence schools and agencies request at transition.
Forta provides Online ABA therapy in 43 states, and In-Home ABA therapy in select cities including Houston, TX.
Sources
- 34 CFR §300.320, Definition of individualized education program. Paragraph (b), transition services. Paragraph (c), transfer of rights at age of majority. U.S. Department of Education. Link
- 34 CFR §300.520, Transfer of parental rights at age of majority. U.S. Department of Education. Link
- 20 CFR §416.987, Disability redeterminations for individuals who attain age 18. Social Security Administration, via eCFR. Link
- Frequently Asked Questions for Representative Payees. On what power of attorney does and does not authorize with respect to Social Security and SSI payments. Social Security Administration. Link
About this article
Written by Megan Butler, VP of Clinical Operations · Clinically reviewed by Janelle Deveau, MA, BCBA · 2026-09-02
What this is. A summary of what federal regulations and published agency guidance say, with links to each. It is not legal advice, and districts and agencies vary in how they apply these rules, so if your school or your local Social Security office responds differently than this describes, that is worth raising at your next ARD or IEP meeting. Decisions about guardianship, power of attorney, or any other decision-making arrangement are legal decisions, and this article names that those options exist rather than advising on them.
