Summary of Services
- Provides statewide transition support for youth and young adults with disabilities
- Offers education and resources to support successful transitions in health care, education, and employment
- Promotes youth-centered and family-guided transition planning, emphasizing self-advocacy
- Shares information on health insurance options and financing to help youth maintain coverage
- Provides tools and guidance related to decision-making and guardianship
Guaranteeing Access to Healthcare for Individuals with Disabilities
Originally established in 2009, Florida Youth to Adult Transition (FLY2AT), formerly known as Florida Health and Transition Services (FloridaHATS), supports youth and young adults with di, disabilities and special health care needs. The initiative focuses on strengthening transition planning across multiple life domains, including health care, education, employment, independent living, social participation, and self-advocacy.
Promoting Youth-Centered and Family-Guided Approaches To Care
The work of FLY2AT is grounded in a clear set of core values that guide programs, services, and resources. Central to these values is the belief that youth and young adults should be meaningfully involved in decisions that affect their lives. FLY2AT promotes youth-centered and family-guided approaches that respect individual strengths, goals, and preferences, while also emphasizing satisfaction with services and supports as a key measure of success.
Encouraging Preventive Care
FLY2AT also prioritizes access to coordinated, comprehensive care, ideally delivered through a medical home model that ensures continuity across providers and systems. Adequate public or private health insurance coverage is considered essential to maintaining health and stability during the transition to adulthood.
The initiative encourages routine screening and preventive care to identify emerging health concerns early and reduce the risk of secondary disabilities. In addition, FLY2AT emphasizes the importance of community-based, integrated systems of care that are accessible, easy to navigate, and responsive to the physical, social, and developmental needs of youth and young adults.
To support these goals, FLY2AT offers an extensive educational toolbox that brings together state and national resources. These resources include materials for health care practitioners, tools and guidance related to independent living, and supports designed specifically for youth and families.
The toolbox also addresses transition topics, such as decision-making and guardianship, education and training for professionals, service delivery models and systems of care, health insurance and financing, advocacy, secondary and post-secondary education, and juvenile justice involvement. Together, these resources help ensure that youth, families, and professionals have the knowledge and support to promote well-coordinated transitions into adulthood.