This is a photo of a table I created for a former 7th grade student of mine. It laid out his academic future leading up to college. The arrows were a visual part of my explanation of how college applications are largely based on the 9th, 10th and 11th grade high school years.
This is significant because many students struggle their freshman year of high school. If they have a bad year academically one third of their courses used to compute their gpa for the application is a drag on the gpa. There are other negative consequences for a bad start to high school such as a diminished confidence, poor study skills, shifting into a lower level academic track and self-fulfilling prophecy.
Preparing for college (or post-secondary education in general) really does start in middle school. This is magnified for students with special needs. Training them to be self-sufficient and to self-advocate can take a long time. The longer it takes to start this training the longer it takes for them to become fluent at these self-help skills.
As a long time adjunct instructor at various colleges and universities I have repeatedly been witness to the same poor study skills in college as I see in high school and middle school.