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VESID’s Strategic Plan:
Opportunities for Improvement

• A wide gap exists in State assessment results between the performance of students receiving special education services and their nondisabled peers. For example, on the grade 4 English Language Arts examination, 25.6 percent of students with disabilities scored at or above Level 3, compared to 65.2 percent of nondisabled students.

• A greater percentage of minority students are identified as students with disabilities and, once identified, a greater percentage are placed in more restrictive special educational settings.

• While the rate of placing students with disabilities in separate educational settings has decreased from 10.2 percent in 1996-97 to 7.7 percent in 2000-01, New York State's rate remains significantly above the 1999-00 national average of 4.1 percent.

• Even though more individuals with disabilities are attaining employment after receiving vocational rehabilitation services from VESID, we are still working to realize our goal of helping 20,000 individuals achieve employment annually.

• The service rate for minority individuals with disabilities receiving vocational rehabilitation services as a ratio to the service rate for all non-minority individuals with disabilities is slightly below the latest available national average in 1999-00, even though it is above the national standard.