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For special education and transition teams

Your students learn by doing. PAES assesses them the same way. In a hands-on lab, students work real jobs while you score what you see. You leave with evidence you can stand behind in any Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting, placement decision, or transition plan.

Built around the work your team already does

PAES doesn't add a new process. It generates evidence that plugs into the frameworks your team already uses.

IEP integration

The PAES report gives you performance data and observed work behaviors, ready to translate into IEP goals and provisions. The numbers and behaviors are there. You turn them into the documentation.

Indicator 13

PAES aligns to IDEA Indicator 13 benchmarks for secondary transition within the IEP.

Pre-ETS alignment

PAES maps to three of the five required Pre-ETS categories: job exploration counseling, work-based learning experiences, and workplace readiness training. Districts commonly co-fund with their state VR agency under this alignment.

Part B & the annual SPED cycle

PAES fits the annual special education budget cycle. Districts typically purchase it with federal IDEA Part B funds, with no special procurement process and no exception requests.

What PAES does for Special Education teams

Traditional assessment tells you what a student can do on a test. PAES tells you what they can do at work. Students complete structured tasks across five vocational areas in a real lab environment. Supervisors score what they see.

 

The data accumulates. By the end of a PAES cycle, you have a written record of strengths, areas for growth, work behaviors, and pathway indicators that reads like evidence, not opinion.

86%

of educators report students

show increased transition readiness

after PAES

2026 PAES Customer Impact Survey, 307 educators

74%

trust PAES data for high-stakes

decisions

2026 PAES Customer Impact Survey, 307 educators

What grade levels use PAES?

PAES runs from middle school through post-secondary and adult programs, and it works for everyone around the student, not just the classroom teacher.

Transition coordinators

The core assessment for secondary transition: structured data that feeds directly into every pathway decision.

Special education teachers

IEP evidence and goal-setting data: performance observations translated into defensible documentation.

SPED directors & supervisors

Program-level defensibility and compliance: data you can stand behind when placements or programs are reviewed.

School psychologists

The vocational component of comprehensive evaluations: performance-based evidence alongside cognitive assessments.

Job coaches & VR partners

Baseline and progress data that bridges school-based assessment to vocational rehabilitation planning.

Paraeducators & aides

Day-to-day scoring in the lab, supported by the PAES Scan Lab Management System and training that takes a single day to complete.

What families see

Families come to transition meetings hoping to identify what independence for their child will look like. PAES gives teams data to anchor that conversation. Because the report leads with what the student can do, not what they cannot, the discussion shifts.

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Parents see their child's strengths evidenced. Students see themselves described as workers, not as cases.

Student threading components at a PAES lab station.

Funding a PAES Lab

Districts fund PAES Labs in several ways, from federal IDEA Part B dollars to state transition grants. For the full state-by-state breakdown, download the funding guide.

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