Coordination with Education Officials: Attachment 4.8(b)(2)
Coordinating services to in-school youth with disabilities is a continuing priority for VESID, which administers both the special education and vocational rehabilitation programs. It is VESID’s policy for vocational rehabilitation counselors to seek school referrals within two years prior to school exit, coordinate vocational rehabilitation with school service planning and use school records to the maximum extent in determining eligibility. This policy reflects the relationship defined in the Joint Agreement Between the Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities and the Office Of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education to Improve Transition Planning and Services for Students with Disabilities (1992). The vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselor's role with in-school youth is primarily one of planning for the continuity of career preparation for the student’s years after leaving school. However, if the student needs vocational rehabilitation services to make a smooth transition to permanent employment directly upon the student's exiting from school, the counselor can fund these services. VESID works with schools to ensure that, to the maximum extent possible, the Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) is completed before vocational rehabilitation-eligible students receiving special education leave school.
Caseload statistics are monitored to determine the progress of VESID in serving and placing youth, defined as individuals with disabilities who are less than 22 years of age at the point of referral to the vocational rehabilitation program. Trend data indicate that there has been a steady increase statewide in the proportion of youth served. In FFY 2005, VESID served almost 30,000 youth (individuals who applied for services before age 22), an increase from the previous year, and 30 percent of all served. Over the past five years, the number of youth on the VESID caseload has increased significantly.
VESID will collaborate in the following activities to improve the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary education to post-school employment outcomes.
Policy Improvement
VESID will update its policy and procedures to more effectively guide VR counselors in their work with school districts, parents and transition-age youth. Policy and procedures will cover the following topics:
- Make VR services more readily accessible to students with disabilities through consistent VR policy, procedures and practices. Eliminate practice of prohibiting purchase of any VR service until the last semester of high school.
- Allow flexibility for VR Counselors to work with students to determine if certain VR services are required to enable the individual to achieve post-school employment.
- Clarify when VR can use case services dollars to provide services while still in school.
- List those services that VR may provide (work-study, summer work, work experiences, part-time after school job placement) and those that are clearly the responsibility of a school district (e.g., career and technical education or “oc - ed” programs).
- Emphasize the primary responsibility of school districts for transition, but allow VR services when it is clearly not a service that the school is mandated to provide.
- Encourage students (and families) to stay in school and maximize educational achievement.
- Clarify eligibility requirement of other adult service agencies (Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health) to ensure that students and families have access to the full array of adult support services that are necessary to succeed in employment and address other post-school challenges.
- Measure referral numbers from schools to VR, establish baseline, and set goals.
Designing Our Future Transition Partnership Team
VESID’s vocational rehabilitation (VR) and special education managers will work to better coordinate activities between special education and vocational rehabilitation services. The State Rehabilitation Council will also be consulted as this process proceeds. The Transition Partnership Team will:
- Increase communication opportunities to allow outreach to parents and students about the VR program and services while ensuring confidentiality of personally identifiable information.
- Improve mechanisms for data exchange between special education and vocational rehabilitation.
- Reassess the “transition” VR counselor strategy and other strategies being implemented within VR to improve transition. Improve coordination of statewide efforts through a central team coordinating VESID VR overall transition efforts.
- Implement joint training initiatives for regional VR staff and special education, transition and school district staff to continuously improve transition services.
- Use provision for services to groups in the federal regulations (361.49(a)(7)) for the transition coordination sites or local school district consortiums to provide consultation and technical assistance for the transition of students with disabilities to post-school employment.
State Plan Priorities and Goals
VESID will include youth as part of its priority in achieving an increase in high quality employment outcomes and will establish separate goals for youth in its annual goals and priorities.
Services to Groups for Consultative and Technical Assistance to Educational Agencies
VESID will provide VR services to groups under 34 CFR 361.49 (a)(7) for consultative and technical assistance services for planning the transition of students to post-school employment activities. Federal regulations require us to develop written parameters as described in 34 CFR 361.49 (b) for these services. VESID is planning to use services to group funds for contracts with the regional transition coordination sites, transition projects with school districts as a result of a pending request for proposals (RFP) procurement process and for projects through selected Boards of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) in several regions. Contracts will contain clearly defined services and measures for ensuring that the services to groups are actually carried out. VESID intends to implement the following processes to comply with the regulations:
- Describe the nature and scope of the services provided and the criteria under which each service is provided in a written policy. The written policy will align with the service parameters and standards delineated in the contracts. It will define what services are to be provided, who is intended to receive them, the conditions for when to provide and what the expected outcomes are.
- Maintain information to ensure the proper and efficient administration of those services, including the types of services provided, the costs of the services and estimates of the numbers of individuals benefiting from those services. Data collection will allow VESID to determine how many individuals received the services and the amount of funds used. This information will be spelled out clearly in the policy and in the performance measures and reporting requirements of the contracts.
- VESID will develop policy and procure services to groups for students in transition to employment.
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