Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation (Combined or General)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan [13] must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA:
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[13] Sec. 102(b)(2)(D)(iii) of WIOA
- l. State Goals and Priorities
The designated State unit must:
- l. State Goals and Priorities
l. 3. B. The State’s performance under the performance accountability measures of section 116 of WIOA; and
Current Narrative:
Title IV Vocational Rehabilitation programs are required to set estimated levels of performance for all primary performance indicators under this Combined State Plan with the exception of the Employer Satisfaction indicator. RSA-TAC-20-02 provides guidance on setting expected levels of performance for these indicators. While preliminary data now exists for all required indicators per TAC-20-02, historical data for many of these elements must still be collected before accurate forecasting can occur. IDVR anticipates being able to employ forecasting for projections across all indicators in the next plan, and anticipates the subsequent two-year revision will provide far more reliable estimates:
- Employment in the 2nd quarter
- Employment in the 4th quarter
- Median earnings
- Credential attainment
- Measurable skill gains
- Effectiveness in serving employers.
Reliability and Validity Activities:
The Division has an established data sharing agreement, providing access to in-state wage data along with the State Wage Interchange System (SWIS) data as a non-access PACIA. IDVR has access to Idaho’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System and is utilizing some elements where timely imputation is possible. The Division is working closely with other core WIOA partners on a Workforce Development Quality Initiative (WDQI) grant which seeks to remove barriers through automation and reduce the time required to access this data. Work continues on the WDQI initiative, and additionally the Division has dedicated staff to the DataLabs project alongside other core WIOA programs in Idaho which further seeks to advance co-enrollment.
The Division continues to improve our data validation and accuracy efforts by:
- Systematic utilization of RSA provided tools (Quarterly Dashboards/Other Measures that Matter/RehabData Workgroup products) to validate data and identify errors and areas for improvement.
- Dialogue with our case management system vendor, and affiliated community of practice for technical assistance, adaptation, and improvement of the system under WIOA
- Regularly conducted data validation activities, working with the field to resolve identified errors and advancing strategies which provide strong automatic internal control where possible
The Division’s Information and Communication strategy promotes continuous improvement by informing staff each quarter of errors and anomalies detected by this strategy and working with staff to fix errors and fix or certify anomalies. The expectation is that errors and anomalies for staff working through these corrections will diminish over time, and annual case file reviews and quarterly data anomaly checks indicate this is occurring: overall IDVR has experienced reduced errors and increased compliance across elements gauged by these activities
The Division will continue to collect and analyze data to inform expected levels of performance to use for future negotiations with RSA. Currently, projecting performance improvements accurately can be difficult due to lack of historical data surrounding some of these indicators. Dissemination and utilization of 116 primary performance data is reinforced at IDVR through various activities including quarterly reviews of PPIs and Other Measures by executive leadership, and changes to agency priorities, goals, and objectives are driven, in part, through an understanding of Division performance across these items. Goal 2, Priority 1 specifically addresses continuous quality improvement as gauged by section 116 primary performance indicators.
Emerging national data from CSAVR on these elements (PY 2020) suggest Idaho Title IV programs are performing well as a whole. (RSA, 2021):
- Employment in the 2nd quarter: 59.9 percent, 1st quartile (4th overall of 52)
- Employment in the 4th quarter: 57.3 percent, 1st quartile (4th overall)
- Median earnings: $4,259, 2nd quartile performance well outpaces Idaho’s expected median earning performance as a historically 4th quartile median wage state for overall wages.
- Credential attainment: 40.3 percent, 1st quartile performance, (7th overall)
- Measurable skill gains: 52.6 percent, 2nd quartile performance, (15th overall)