The parties to this agreement are the:
In recognition of the need for a coordinated and integrated statewide approach toward supported employment, the parties to this agreement are pursuing a cooperative process whereby services to New York State consumers with the most significant disabilities are ensured. Mutually agreed upon principles for the provision of vocational rehabilitation services and employment for persons with disabilities have been incorporated in this agreement and govern New York State’s interagency supported employment programs in realizing the following broadly based objectives:
This document, its appendices and subsequent revisions shall be referenced by the parties to this agreement to guide their understanding of the connections and expected roles which are being developed with regard to supported employment. While the document describes policies and procedures of each agency regarding collaboration on supported employment, it does not attempt to describe all the policies and procedures of each agency. The document is not designed to limit the involvement of each agency, but to emphasize how the participating agencies may work together on critical issues necessary for the coordinated implementation of supported employment across the State.
To accomplish the purposes previously described, the parties to the Memorandum of Understanding will abide by the agreed upon components of supported employment within the primary areas of: interagency planning and coordination, eligibility, service delivery to consumers, program development and coordination, and fiscal responsibilities.
All participating agencies will review and update service definitions and procedures and share such information as may be required to enable the agencies to mutually develop and review policies, coordinate and prioritize activities, and plan budgets and appropriate fiscal support. Among these mutual development activities will be a coordinated statewide request for proposal (RFP) or an alternative resource allocation process for supported employment services and the ongoing exchange of information necessary for program coordination.
Any RFP or other resource allocation process by any of the State agencies for the development of supported employment programs will reflect the input and planning of the involved State agencies. Regional and local meetings shall be conducted by the State agencies in order to define and develop strategies to promote and increase supported employment initiatives in local communities. These meetings should involve regional and district State agency staff, county or municipal government officials, local education agencies who are in a position to speak about operational concerns, providers, and consumers or their representatives.
As the State agencies delivering supported employment services, VESID, CBVH, OMRDD and OMH have entered into this agreement to coordinate and integrate supported employment programs statewide for all individuals with disabilities. Consumers served by other public agencies that are not part of this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will have access to supported employment services for which they are otherwise eligible through VESID and CBVH.
The terms of this MOU relate to providing services to people who are mutually eligible for supported employment services from any of the participating agencies. Each of the parties to this agreement will facilitate the involvement of eligible individuals in supported employment. Access to these services may occur through self-referral or referral by state or community agencies.
Supported employment services consist of intensive time-limited vocational rehabilitation services (the responsibility of VESID, CBVH and as appropriate, OMRDD) and extended services, including vocational supports, for the duration of the supported employment placement (the role of OMRDD, OMH, and VESID for those individuals with disabilities who are not eligible for services through OMRDD and OMH). The State agencies will work cooperatively to ensure that services and funding are provided appropriate to the needs of consumers and in keeping with Federal and State regulations and policy.
The objective of the intensive vocational service segment is to obtain and stabilize the supported employment placement to the individual’s and employer’s satisfaction and to transition the individual to a comprehensive plan of extended services. The purpose of extended services provided by OMRDD/OMH/VESID is to maintain the individual in supported employment. The nature of services provided during the intensive and extended services components of supported employment may be basically the same with the primary difference in the level of service provided.
Allowances would be made for persons who, while receiving extended services, require reintervention of intensive services through VESID, CBVH and as appropriate OMRDD and OMH, because they have destabilized on the job. When appropriate, VESID, CBVH, OMRDD and OMH shall again assume the responsibility and cost of providing intensive vocational services, including necessary job related support services such as travel training or transportation.
Program development and coordination activities will be collaboratively carried out to ensure consumer satisfaction and achieve the most effective use of State and Federal funds. Such coordination will also be done in a manner to avoid duplication of effort and to ensure services which are mutually acceptable to the participating agencies. VESID, CBVH, OMH, and OMRDD staff will work with local government, providers, education agencies, and the business community as appropriate to develop supported employment services that meet consumer needs. All MOU agencies will link supported employment program development and delivery of services.
Interagency cooperation and program development will involve the mutual development of regional and district work plans by State agency staff. This should include specific attention to: (a) developing local conflict-resolution mechanisms when questions concerning consumer eligibility or service provision arise; (b) assisting each State agency’s supported employment program providers to achieve status as vendors of services to the other parties to the MOU; obtaining input on program development from local consumer and advocacy groups; and (d) cooperating in job developing and marketing, providing program technical assistance and the cross-training of State agency field staff.
Technical assistance and training will be available to projects established by any of the four MOU agencies. Collaborative planning of additional in-service training initiatives will also occur on an interagency basis, in order to make training opportunities as widely available as possible for provider and State agency staffs responsible for delivering supported employment services.
Other cooperative activities will include collaboration in collecting and analyzing data which document programmatic and individual outcomes in different types of supported/special employment programs.
Consistent with the provisions of Chapter 515, the Laws of 1992, the State Education Department has the primary responsibility for contracting for intensive supported employment services. Using both Federal Rehabilitation Act funds and State appropriations, SED through VESID, will develop contracts and assume administrative, monitoring and programmatic responsibility for funds appropriated for supported employment intensive services and/or other integrated employment options related to supported employment for individuals with the most significant disabilities served by OMRDD, OMH and CBVH, including those who are legally blind. CBVH is responsible for individual specific case management for all individuals who are legally blind and in supported employment, regardless of which vocational agency is the contractor.
All MOU participants are responsible for arranging, with respective parties to this agreement, the vocational and other support services and the resumption of intensive vocational rehabilitation services as may be required to preserve employment of mutual constituents. Interagency planning will emphasize collaboration on using existing resources to the maximum extent possible for the provision of extended services to individuals with severe disabilities.
For individuals whose disabilities are not within the province of OMH or OMRDD, VESID/CBVH will make every effort to secure funding for extended services, including services through the State Education Department’s supported employment appropriation. No individual otherwise eligible will be denied supported employment services on the basis of disability alone.
OMRDD, within available resources, will be responsible for establishing fees and for contracting for supported employment services using Title XIX, the Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waiver, and State funds for individuals with developmental disabilities who are unable to receive intensive supported employment services through VESID at the time of need. Extended services for people with developmental disabilities will be the responsibility of OMRDD. For these individuals, OMRDD, within available resources, will establish fees and develop contracts for supported employment services using Title XIX, HCBS waiver, and State funds. OMRDD will assume administrative monitoring responsibilities for all OMRDD appropriated funds for intensive and extended supported employment.
Provision of funding for extended services of mutually eligible VESID/CBVH and OMRDD/OMH consumers is contingent upon available resources and interagency planning activities which make service delivery needs known during the Request for Proposal process and other points during the year. Within these constraints, OMRDD/OMH will provide funding to people with developmental/psychiatric disabilities who enter supported employment after receiving VESID/CBVH intensive services.
Supported employment funding for OMH eligible individuals is currently available through two avenues. OMH provides funding for both supported employment intensive and extended care services through its existing special employment programs. In addition, VESID sponsors supported employment programs in which VESID provides intensive service dollars while OMH dollars are used to support the extended care phase of service.
As OMH Special Employment Programs become VESID vendors and VESID assumes funding responsibility for the intensive phase of supported employment services, OMH funding will be targeted primarily for the extended care phase of supported employment services. This is in accordance with Chapter 515 of the Laws of New York State of 1992 which specifies that OMH and VESID must develop an annual plan for coordinating Supported Employment services and funding.
This agreement replaces all prior Memoranda of Understanding on Supported Employment but does not replace other State agency agreements which are in effect. It simply clarifies and extends collaborative efforts among the agencies specifically in regard to supported employment initiatives.
This agreement is subject to modification at the request of any of the MOU participants. Such modifications will be reviewed and mutually agreed upon at interagency meetings and become effective immediately upon the signatures of all of the participating agency chief executives.
| _________________________________________________ | _________ |
Richard E. Mills |
Date |
| _________________________________________________ | _________ |
Thomas A. Robertson, Associate Commissioner Office of Children and Family Services Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped |
Date |
| _________________________________________________ | _________ |
Thomas A. Maul, Commissioner |
Date |
| _________________________________________________ | _________ |
James L. Stone, Commissioner |
Date |
For purposes of this Memorandum of Understanding, the following definitions of operational terms apply to state interagency uses and have been primarily derived from either Chapter 515, the Laws of 1992* or the Federal Regulations** for supported employment.
"Supported employment" means paid competitive work performed by individuals with the most significant disabilities who require intensive support services to obtain such employment and extended support to sustain such employment, and which is performed in an integrated setting which provides regular interactions with individuals who do not have disabilities, other than paid care givers. *
"Supported employment services" means support services needed by individuals with the most significant disabilities to obtain and sustain supported employment. Such term shall also include transitional employment services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness, as defined by the Commissioner of Education in consultation with the Commissioner of the Office of Mental Health. *
"Paid competitive work", as used in the definition of supported employment, means work that is performed on a full-time or part-time basis with a minimum expectation of averaging at least twenty hours per week as an employment goal, except that such requirement may be waived for good cause by the Commissioner of Education, and for which an individual is compensated in accordance with the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the State Department of Labor Wage and Hour Regulations.*
"Individuals with the most significant disabilities" means individuals who have a severe physical or mental impairment that seriously limits three or more functional capacities (such as mobility, communication, self-care, self-direction, interpersonal skills, cognition, work tolerance, or work skills) in terms of an employment outcome, and whose vocational rehabilitation will require multiple services over an extended period of time.
An "integrated" work setting is a job site where:
I) Individuals with disabilities interact with non-disabled individuals other than those individuals providing services; or
ii) A work setting in the community in which individuals with disabilities interact with non-disabled individuals, to the same extent that non-disabled persons in comparable positions interact with other persons.
"Extended services" refers to planned interventions of ongoing support services and other appropriate services needed to support and maintain an individual with a most significant disability in supported employment after that individual has made the transition from intensive services.
"Ongoing Support Services" refers to services that are:
A) Needed to support and maintain an individual with a most significant disability in supported employment;
B) Based on a determination of the individual's needs as specified in an individualized plan for employment, or other approved program of services, and
C) Provided throughout the term of employment, including multiple placements in a program of transitional employment. Ongoing support services must include, at a minimum, twice-monthly monitoring at the work site of each individual to assess employment stability, and based upon that assessment, the coordination or provision of specific services needed to maintain employment stability. Under special circumstances, especially at the request of the individual, on-going services may be provided off-site and must consist of twice monthly meetings with the individual.**
"Job coaching" refers to the training of a supported employee by an approved specialist, who uses structured intervention techniques to help the supported employee learn to perform job tasks to the employer's specifications and to learn the interpersonal skills necessary to be accepted as a worker at the job site and in related community contacts. In addition to job-site training, job coaching includes related assessment, job development, counseling, advocacy, travel training, and other services needed to maintain the employment of a supported employee. Examples of applied job coaching techniques include:
"Intensive Vocational Rehabilitation Services" refers to case services required by an individual to become employable within a supported employment placement. These case services are provided by VESID or CBVH either directly or through purchasing from designated community agencies. The services may include but are not limited to:
These intensive vocational rehabilitation services lead to a level of employment stabilization, when it is anticipated that the individual will be able to sustain employment with less frequent interventions from the agencies providing extended services.
"Stabilization" occurs when the individual's work performance plateaus, and the job coaching and related interventions have faded to the lowest level necessary to maintain the individual in employment. A general rule of thumb is that stabilization occurs when the intervention level fades to less than twenty percent of the work week for at least three consecutive weeks. When stabilization occurs, the worker is ready to transition from VESID/CBVH intervention to the appropriate source of long-term support. This transition should not occur unless all aspects of the consumer's placement indicate that the employment situation is secure. The VESID/CBVH counselor will determine the need for reintervention of intensive services on the basis of indicators of destabilization that do not focus solely on the elapse of time for persons who, while receiving extended services, become destabilized on the job.
"Situational Assessment" refers to a comprehensive community based assessment of the individual's overall functioning in relation to the specific environment of the supported job, including the job site, the community through which the person must travel to and from the job, and the people at the job site such as the job coach, co-workers, and supervisor.