Illinois Statewide Transition Conference Celebrates 20 Years of Empowering Youth on the Journey to Adulthood

About 400 youth, family members and professionals gained valuable information, resources and connections to help prepare for adulthood at the 2025 conference in Springfield 

The 2025 Illinois Statewide Transition Conference was more than just an informative event for 17-year-old attendee Aliyah.

The conference helped reframe how she thinks about her disability, her sense of self and what’s possible for her future.

 “I think the most important takeaway from this whole thing is just finding the courage to say, ‘Hey, this is me, and I’m not ashamed of it anymore,’” Aliyah said.

Aliyah has cerebral palsy and is a Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) participant. She loves art and being creative. She is also a Special Olympics athlete with three gold medals in track and two in bowling. Her dream is to be a daycare worker or babysitter.

Aliyah and her parents, Dawn and Steve, traveled from Carbondale to attend the 20th annual Illinois Statewide Transition Conference in Springfield. It took place Oct. 30-31, 2025, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Convention Center.

More than 400 people from across the state attended, including youth with disabilities, parents, caregivers, vocational professionals, healthcare professionals and more.

“The transition conference is really a way for professionals and families to get together to learn about all the areas of the transition to adulthood,” said Claire Cook, DSCC’s Title V Transition Specialist and co-chair of the transition conference’s steering committee.

“You learn from self-advocates and learn about independence, healthcare transition, guardianship and alternatives, education — all the different areas that you need to learn about as you become an adult.”

DSCC helps sponsor the conference and serves on its steering committee. We also provide financial support to help our participant families attend the conference.

“Don’t let your limits hold you back”

Aliyah and her parents were among 21 DSCC participant families who attended the 2025 conference. They took part in a busy schedule of presentations and workshops.

“Today’s been exhausting, but also exciting because it’s like my future and what the future holds for me,” Aliyah shared after the conference’s first day.

Before coming to the conference, Aliyah didn’t enjoy planning for the future.

“I was scared about it. I was scared of my future, and also, I didn’t want anything to change. I’m not good with change at all,” she said.

“The first speaker we saw, (keynote presenter) Taylor (Sweeting), he relates a lot to me because he felt like he was an outsider and didn’t belong here, and he hated his disability, and I hated my disability for a long time. I didn’t want anything to do with it or even talk about it.”

By attending sessions with self-advocates and connecting with a strong community of other individuals with disabilities, Aliyah began to view her future in a new way.

“Honestly, I like to see people that are going through things I’m going (through), that people are just like me,” she said.

Now, Aliyah offers powerful advice to other teens and young adults with disabilities.

“Don’t let your limits hold you back. If you have a dream, don’t let your disability or whatever you have hold you back from your dream,” she said.

TaLeah is another DSCC participant with big dreams.

The 18-year-old from Kankakee, Ill., first attended the transition conference in 2024. Since then, TaLeah has achieved her goal of attending college and playing basketball. She’s now working hard to eventually play basketball professionally.

As a returning conference attendee, TaLeah recommends the conference to other young adults with disabilities.

“Any type of disability, you should come here because they give you a lot, a lot of information,” she said.

“I was a little nervous at first. But I’m like, OK, you know what, I’m going to go ahead and check it out, see what’s going on. And then I felt like, OK, this conference can kind of help with information about disability. I feel good right now.”

TaLeah and her mom, Tamara, found out about the Transition Conference through DSCC.

TaLeah first enrolled with DSCC 16 years ago when she was diagnosed with hearing loss.

“We’ve been there since she was 2 or 3. I can’t believe all this time has gone by already. Throughout the years, they’ve been very supportive. They’ve been very helpful with medical expenses, equipment, appointments, resources. They can refer you here, refer you there. It’s very helpful,” said Tamara.

“Independent in her own space”

DSCC parent Todd attended the conference alone in 2023 and 2024. He and his wife, Michelle, said they were grateful they could both attend the 2025 event with their daughter, Taylor.

Taylor, 18, has Down syndrome and mild to moderate hearing loss. She loves art, taking care of animals, and most of all, her dog, Lulu.

“I would say that the past two years attending this conference, I gained so much information, I could have even benefited by going a year prior to that,” said Todd.

“It was a lot building up to her turning 18 that we felt like we had to get done, and I think we were able to get a lot of information. We set up an ABLE account. We obtained guardianship, applied for Social Security, and I think all of that we were able to do from the information and the knowledge that we got from this conference.”

Participating in the conference as a family helped them attend more sessions and gather twice as much information for Taylor. Now that Taylor has reached the age of adulthood, they have many hopes for what her next chapter will look like.

“The way that I see her future is Taylor independent in her own space with her own friends. Her days are meaningful, filled with doing what she loves, work or if that’s continued education. That’s the way that I see her future – happy, safe and living her best life,” said Michelle.

Michelle said she recommends the conference not only to other families but also to educators who teach youth with disabilities.

Conference Co-Chair Claire agreed that the transition conference offers a wealth of information for professionals that can have a powerful ripple effect.

“I really love the fact that these professionals can take it back to their communities and really spread it out to where they may have been the only one that attended, but hundreds of families learn from it,” Claire said 

DSCC Care Coordinator Gabrielle Paskevicz attended the 2025 conference for the first time. She said she wanted to strengthen her knowledge and gain resources to help her participant families better navigate the challenges involved with moving to adult systems.

“It’s always a learning experience. I don’t care if you’ve been a professional for one year or 25 years. There’s new information, and it’s always evolving, and it’s important for us as professionals to be up to date with everything that’s going on,” she said.

 “I am very thankful that I was able to talk with some doctors that are actually some of my current participants’ doctors and be able to talk as professionals and just let them know the barriers that I’m hearing from my families and how to communicate with them… and how can we work towards their goals and make their transition process easier.”

The 2026 Illinois Statewide Transition Conference will take place on Nov. 5-6, 2026, at the Sheraton Lisle Naperville Hotel in Lisle, Ill.

To learn more about how to support youth with special healthcare needs during the transition to adulthood, contact DSCC at (800) 322-3722 or dscc@uic.edu.

For more information about the transition conference, visit www.illinoistransitionconference.org/.

Learn more about the annual conference, including highlights from DSCC participants, families and team members, in the video below.

You can also check out our Facebook page to see a photo album with more photos from the 2025 transition conference.