Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan* must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by WIOA:
__________
* Sec. 102(b)(D)(iii) of WIOA
d. 2. F. Arrangements and Cooperative Agreements for the Provision of Supported Employment Services
Current Narrative:
The Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) currently has cooperative agreements with the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD), Department of Children and Families Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program and the Department of Education.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires VR to enter into an additional cooperative agreement with the state agency responsible for administering the State Medicaid Plan and the agency primarily responsible for providing services to persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. To meet this requirement VR will be updating the cooperative agreement with APD as well as including the Agency for Healthcare Administration in an agreement specifically focused on Supported Employment services.
VR is working closely with APD to develop competitive integrated employment alternatives for individuals receiving services in a segregated setting. VR will provide technical assistance and support as APD expands these program options. Under WIOA requirements, VR will provide or coordinate information and education for individuals receiving services in sheltered workshops receiving sub-minimum wages. VR is working with APD to refine the referral process so that youth and adults have the opportunity to experience competitive integrated employment prior to entering a sheltered workshop that may pay sub- minimum wages.
VR is currently a partner with other state agencies and organizations in implementing Employment First, a national effort to assure individuals with disabilities are offered employment on a preferred basis in planning their lives. Employment First is consistent with VR’s belief that individuals with disabilities, even the most significant disabilities, can achieve meaningful employment when provided with appropriate supports.
Executive Order 13-284 (Reaffirming Commitment to Employment for Floridians with Disabilities) was signed by the Governor of Florida in October 2013. The order mandates that an Interagency Cooperative Agreement be developed and requires agencies and organizations to participate in the agreement. VR is one of the mandated partners and played a significant role in drafting the order. The following agencies were named as mandatory partners and have signed this agreement formalizing efforts to improve and increase opportunities for people with disabilities.
• The Department of Education-Division of Blind Services
• The Department of Education-Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
• The Department of Education-Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services
• The Agency for Persons with Disabilities
• The Department of Children and Families-Mental Health and Substance Abuse
• The Department of Economic Opportunity
• CareerSource Florida
• The Florida Developmental Disabilities Council
• RESPECT of Florida
VR collaborates and contracts with approximately 190 private, non-profit Community Rehabilitation Programs across the state of Florida. Contracts were recently revised to allow any qualified program to provide supported employment services, which is anticipated to increase the capacity for these programs to provide SE services.
In addition to these collaborations, VR works in partnership with education officials and partners to offer youth with the most significant disabilities opportunities to gain work experiences that help them prepare for successful employment.
Collaborations such as High School/ High Tech (HSHT), Project SEARCH, and Postsecondary Education programs engage youth in experiences that blend academics with career and technical education. They also provide hands-on career exploration and preparation activities where learned skills, attitudes, and behaviors can be applied. These evidence-based applications of learning, which includes internships and On-the-Job Training (OJT), often lead to successful employment.
For some students, these programs include earning postsecondary credentials which allow them to explore professional jobs that may lead to higher-wage careers. VR involvement in these collaborations provides funding for participants to receive needed services and other supports. This shared support helps partner programs serve more youth. VR partnerships deliver career development and employment options through direct services to youth who would not otherwise have access to these services.
Six broad-based objectives govern Florida’s interagency supported employment programs.
1. Continue to develop and enhance supported employment for persons with the most significant disabilities. The state system for the provision of supported employment reflects: (a) mutually agreeable definitions of the services to be provided; (b) administrative responsibility of the intensive component of supported employment services to eligible individuals as the primary responsibility of VR for individuals with the most significant disabilities; and (c) administrative responsibility of the extended services component as the primary responsibility of other stakeholders, including APD and the Department of Children and Families, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program.
2. Continue to improve the statewide management of supported employment programs by avoiding duplication of effort and funding while ensuring accountability. This process will provide a coordinated system of program development for supported employment services.
3. Maximize the quality of service delivery ensuring a comprehensive, continuous, efficient, and effective referral process, individual program planning, coordination of intensive vocational services with extended services, information collection and dissemination, confidentiality, and technical assistance.
4. Identify issues, policies, and practices that present systemic barriers to effective participation of individuals with the most significant disabilities, and develop appropriate resolutions to remove such barriers.
5. Continue to implement an interagency planning process for budget coordination, which defines and projects the number of people in need of intensive and extended services for each fiscal year and facilitates program and fiscal planning.
6. Support the belief that all individuals with disabilities can work if provided appropriate services and supports and that a team approach is needed to facilitate quality and appropriate services.
Supported Employment Services
VR is responsible for Phase 1 of Supported Employment services. In Phase 1, VR provides intensive vocational services until the individual and employer are satisfied with the supported employment placement, and then the individual phases to a plan for extended services. Supported employment services consist of intensive, time-limited vocational rehabilitation services (the responsibility of VR) and extended services, also known as Phase 2. Funding for Phase 2 services is provided by other sources that may be, but are not limited to, APD, the Department of Children and Families Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program, natural supports or other identified funding sources.
Extended Services
The purpose of extended services is to maintain the individual in supported competitive employment, enhance the individual’s involvement in the workplace culture, and provide supports for career advancement. The nature of services provided during the intensive and extended services of supported employment may be similar to the initial services but may differ in intensity.
VR and its partners continuously seek alternative methods to provide extended services (e.g. social security incentives, natural supports, etc.). VR has encouraged supported employment providers to focus on developing natural supports and to focus efforts on encouraging employers to accept the support role since this is the most natural arrangement for employers and VR customers.
Implementation of WIOA will provide the opportunity to fund Extended Services for youth with the most significant disabilities for a time period of up to four years, if necessary, and funding permits. Allowances would be made for individuals who, while receiving extended services, require re-intervention of intensive services through VR because they have destabilized on the job. When appropriate, VR will again assume the responsibility and cost of providing intensive vocational services, including necessary job-related support services.