Vocational Rehabilitation Program (Combined or General)

Arrangements and Cooperative Agreements for the Provision of Supported Employment Services.

The CDOR identifies and makes arrangements with private non–profit organizations, as identified in the response for Description (e) – Cooperative Agreements with Private Nonprofit Organizations, to provide Supported Employment services for individuals with the most significant disabilities, including youth with the most significant disabilities.

The CDOR collaborates with entities including the DDS, Regional Centers, CDE, LEAs, the California workforce development system, local county mental health agencies, CRPs, including Independent Living Centers, business partners, and other community partners to provide competitive integrated Supported Employment services to eligible individuals. The CDOR works with over 100 Supported Employment providers statewide with associated locations and satellite offices.

The CDOR, DDS, and CDE additionally are establishing Local Partnership Agreements (LPAs) consistent with the Competitive Integrated Employment: Blueprint for Change. The LPAs are intended to encourage the sharing of resources to support person centered planning and pre-vocational services that may be provided prior to an individual’s referral to CDOR for Supported Employment. As of October 2019, 38 LPAs have been submitted. Examples of LPA activities include, but are not limited to:

• The Tri Counties LPA created a universal referral process in which the core partners contact the individual and family to determine needs for work training, employment-related services and supports, secure “release of information” permission, determine which agencies/institutions should be included based on individual’s needs, and complete a “Universal Referral Sheet”, send Universal Referral Sheet to agencies, institutions involved or potentially involved with the individual, contact potential staff members to identify a conference call or face-to-face meeting.
• The San Bernardino City LPA Collaborative is developing and implementing Career Technical Education (CTE) class offerings to enhance workplace skills for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD), i.e. foundational employment skills, self-determination, workplace technology etc. They are also participating in school district administrative meetings to collaborate about effective CTE class offerings for high school students.
• The Sonoma Napa LPA partners are further exploring the organizational structure within the LPA, to be functional within the local planning area, including development of subcommittees to focus on specific interests.

In California, CDOR and DDS utilize the hourly rates for Supported Employment job coaching, intake, placement, and retention services that are statutorily–defined. The current rates were set in 2015 (Assembly Bill X2-1) and increased again by DDS after surveying providers in 2016.  The CDOR Supported Employment services begin after job placement and are for the purpose of maintaining and supporting an individual with a most significant disability in competitive integrated employment. 

Sources of extended services vary depending on the individual’s eligibility for other programs or availability of other resources and CDOR partners with other agencies, and employers for natural supports, to ensure supported employment consumers have a source of extended services. The CDOR will provide extended services to youth with the most significant disabilities when other extended services are unavailable, as appropriate. The following are examples of sources of extended services that are not provided by CDOR and are provided to eligible individuals regardless of age:

• Individuals with mental illness may be provided extended services by county mental health agencies, which may allocate Medi–Cal, Mental Health Services Act, or Short–Doyle funds as determined by each county. Short-Doyle funds are provided to local governments to establish and develop locally administered and controlled community mental health programs.
• Social Security Administration Work Incentives, such as Impairment Related Work Expense or an approved Plan for Achieving Self Support.
• Supported employment services provided under Veteran’s Health Administration Compensated Work Therapy Program.

California state regulations do not allow Traumatic Brain Injury state match funds to be used for extended services. Consumers with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that require extended services such as ongoing support needed to maintain Supported Employment, such as job coaching, can be served through additional resources at local Independent Living Centers and other TBI service providers support through state general funds.

Whenever possible, building natural supports at the workplace for consumers with Supported Employment needs is encouraged. Natural supports allow the strengthening of the relationship between employer and consumer, supporting long-term successful outcomes and to develop opportunities for competitive integrated employment, to the greatest extent practicable.

California Initiatives

California has enacted legislation and implemented statewide initiatives that have made an impact on the provision of Supported Employment services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities:

• The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act (Welfare. & Institutions Code, section 4500, et. seq.) provides Californians with ID/DD the right to obtain services and supports to enable them to live a more independent life; this includes the funding for Supported Employment extended services. This Act is unique to California.
• Assembly Bill (AB) 287 (2009) established the Employment First Policy, which led to a standing Employment First Committee formed by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. The bill expands employment opportunities for people with ID/DD and identifies best practices and incentives for increasing integrated employment and gainful employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The CDOR is an active participant in the State Council on Developmental Disabilities’ Employment First Committee to help with transition planning.
• AB 1041(2013) established in statute California’s Employment First policy. The policy was established to make services and supports available to enable persons with developmental disabilities to have similar everyday living to those persons without disabilities and to support the integration of persons with developmental disabilities into their community.
• California Competitive Integrated Employment: Blueprint for Change Employing Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Developmental Disabilities in California. In December 2014, CDOR, the California Department of Education, and the California Department of Developmental Services entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to further advance the state’s “Employment First” Policy and other federal and state laws to address employment in integrated settings, at competitive wages, for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In March 2017, the Competitive Integrated Employment: Blueprint for Change was completed, and outlines plans for the following goals:
  • Improving collaboration and coordination between the three departments to prepare and support all individuals with ID/DD who choose competitive integrated employment;
  • Building capacity to increase opportunities for individuals with ID/DD who choose competitive integrated employment to prepare for and participate in the California workforce development system; and,
  • Increasing the ability of individuals with ID/DD to make informed choices, adequately prepare for, transition to, and engage in competitive integrated employment.

• Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (CaPROMISE) is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Education, Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Labor and was awarded to California in October 2013. The CDOR is the lead coordinator for the grant in California. CaPROMISE worked to improve the coordination of services and supports for child Supplemental Security Income recipients and their families in order to achieve improved education and employment outcomes and reduce reliance on Supplemental Security Income. Services provided under the grant ended on June 30, 2019, while data collection and analysis will continue through September 2020. The following are lessons learned from CaPROMISE that provide the framework for continued system change to benefit youth and students with disabilities and their families:
  • Utilization of person-driven planning is essential to identify an individual’s employment goals, and service and resource needs to ensure success.
  • Family engagement is vital as family support is critical to the long-term success of the youth or student.
  • Providing work-based learning opportunities promote future career development.
  • Interagency collaboration is essential for increasing a student’s self-sufficiency.
  • Providing benefits planning to the individual and family is critical to short and long-term success in competitive integrated employment.

• CA Career Innovations (CCi): Work-Based Learning Model Demonstration. The CDOR has partnered with San Diego State University, Interwork Institute to evaluate the effects and benefits of work-based learning experiences to prepare students with disabilities to enter post-secondary education and competitive integrated employment. CCi has enrolled 824 students with disabilities to participate in the project, including students with the most significant disabilities, who are ages 16 through 21, and have Individualized Education Program or 504 plans.

• In July 2016, CDOR established the Achieving Community Employment (ACE) Team to provide career counseling and information and referral (CC&IR) services. ACE Counselors located in eight regions statewide provide CC&IR services to inform individuals working at subminimum wage (SMW) about and encourage the exploration and achievement of competitive integrated employment.  The participants also receive information about available employment resources and supportive services.  As of July 2019, the CDOR ACE Team coordinates with 88 California employers holding 14(c) SMW certificates, including 79 CRPs, five businesses, three Patient Worker programs, and one School Work Experience Program, with approximately 12,255 reported workers. The number of employers with 14(c) certificates has decreased from 150 to 79, and correspondingly the reported number of workers receiving CC&IR services decreased from 19,669 in 2016 to12,255 in 2019.  The CDOR expects this downward trend to continue between 2020 and 2024.