Transition Resources and Opportunities: RSA and Rehabilitation Services

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Transition Resources and Opportunities RSA and
Rehabilitation Services

• Rehabilitation Services Administration
• Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative
  Services
• U.S. Department of Education
• January 2009

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PTIs, RSA, Transition-age Youths, and the
Federal-State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)
Program Overview

• 4 Key Things to Know
• Transition-age youths make up approximately 25
  of all persons served and rehabilitated by the VR
  program.
• PTIs through their membership on the State
  Rehabilitation Council (SRC) can play an
  influential role with state VR agencies to
  improve VR services to transition-age youths.
• RSA is placing an increasingly greater emphasis
  on VR services to transition-age youths.
• RSA has resources to help PTI be more effective
  advocates for transition-age youths in the VR
  program.

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Transition-age Youths and the Federal-State
Vocational Rehabilitation Program

• Topics
  
• Transition-age Youths Population Parameters
• FY 2007 VR Program Participation Data
• FY 2007 Employment Outcome Data
• SRC and VR State Plan Requirements
• RSA Transition-age Youth Initiatives
• RSA Resources

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Transition-age Youths Population Parameters

• Transition-age youths include students and young
  people who have dropped out of or not completed
  high school.
• Ages 14-24

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FY 2007 VR Program Participation Data
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FY 2007 VR Program Data, cont.

• Percentage of all closures that are
  transition-age youth closures ranges from 6.5 to
  57.7 across the 80 VR agencies
• Percentage of all persons being served who were
  transition-age youths increased slightly from
  25.56 in FY 2002 to 26.84 in FY 2007

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FY 2007 Transition-age Youths Data of the 53,781
Closed with a Competitive Employment Outcome

• 98.03 with competitive employment
• 95.09 with a significant disability
• 54.37 at 35 or more hours per week
• 52.68 at SGA at 35 or more hours per week
• 26.61 with employer-provided medical insurance

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State Plan Transition Requirements

• Section 101(a)(11)(D)
• The State plan shall contain plans, policies, and
  procedures for coordination between the
  designated State agency and education officials
  responsible for the public education of students
  with disabilities, that are designed to
  facilitate the transition of the students with
  disabilities from the receipt of educational
  services in school to the receipt of vocational
  rehabilitation services.

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State Rehabilitation Council Requirements

• Sec. 105. State Rehabilitation Council
• (b) (1) (A) the Council shall be composed of--at
  least one representative of a parent training and
  information center established pursuant to
  section 671 of the Individuals with Disabilities
  Education Act

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RSAs Transition-Age Youths Initiatives

• RSAs VR Program Strategic Performance Plan
• Special Demonstration Projects
• Promising Practices for Basic VR Agencies Helping
  Transition-Age Youths
• RSA TA Network and TACE Centers

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RSAs VR Program Strategic Performance Plan

• Performance Plan has 3 goals, and one of them is
  focused on transition.
• Goal 3 Provide transition-age youths with
  services to prepare for and obtain employment.

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RSAs VR Program Strategic Performance Plan Goal
3 Objectives
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FY 2007 RSA Special Demonstration Projects to
Assist with Transition Services for Young People
with Disabilities

• Maryland Seamless Transition Collaborative
• Massachusetts Transition Works
• South Carolina Youth Employment Services
• Oregon Project ACCESS Accelerated Career
  Counseling and Employment Support Services
• Ohio Promoting Rehabilitation and Education
  Results through State, Regional, and Local
  Collaboration
• Pennsylvania Community on Transition

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Promising Practices of VR Agencies Helping
Transition-age Youths

• Alabama - College Preparation Programs
• Alabama - Career Preparation and Training
  Initiative (CPTI)
• Maryland - Transitioning Youth
• Nebraska - Transition Scholarships
• Pennsylvania - Participation in the Pennsylvania
  Community on Transition.
• Rhode Island - Shared Youth Vision Federal
  Collaborative Partnership
• Rhode Island - Statewide Partnerships Leveraging
  Resources and Maximizing Access to Services for
  Transitioning Youths
• South Dakota - Leveraging Resources and
  Maximizing Access to Services for Transition
  Youths Through Statewide Partnerships
• Vermont - Jump on Board for Success (JOBS)
• Vermont - Learn, Earn and Prosper (LEAP)
• See handout

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RSA TA Network

• Technical Assistance and Continuing Education
  (TACE) Centers
• NTAC coordinating contractor
• NIDRR employment-related RRTCs and projects
• RSA Parent Training Centers
• RSA and VR agency staff
• RSA Independent Living TA grantees

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RSA TA Network, cont.

• TA Network will work collaboratively to
• provide timely technical expertise
• address the needs of state VR agencies and
  their partners
• improve state VR agency performance.

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RSA TA Network

• Annually each TACE Center conducts a needs
  assessment and develops a work plan.
• Center advisory committee (CAC) provides TACE
  Center with input on the annual needs
  assessments.

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TACE Centers

• Region 1 CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT - University of
  Massachusetts, Boston Institute for
  Community Inclusion
• Region 2 NJ, NY, PR, VI - State University of
  New York, Buffalo
• Region 3 DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV - George
  Washington University
• Region 4 AL, FL, GA,KY, NC, SC, MS, TN - TACE
  Southeast
• Region 5 IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI - Southern
  Illinois University
• Region 6 AR, LA, NM, OK, TX - University of
  Arkansas
• Region 7 IA, KS, MO, NE - University of
  Missouri-Columbia
• Region 8 CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY - University of
  Northern Colorado
• Region 9 AZ, CA, HI, NV, Pacific Basin - San
  Diego State University
• Region 10 AK, ID, OR, WA - University of
  Washington
• See handout

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Resources

• RSA MIS
• SRC Online Training Series
• Department of Education Website

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RSA MIS

• http//rsamis.ed.gov/
• without a user ID you can
• view grant information and published data about
  any state
• view the Annual Review Report for any state
• view performance measure tables
• interactively query the database
• generate custom tables and graphs from RSA data
• view Publications and general information
• download databases of published data

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View Information About Your State
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View Information About Your State
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Annual Review Report
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Annual Review Report
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MIS Reports

• Reports can be
• formatted for printing
• saved as an MS Word document
• saved as tables on MS Excel spreadsheet

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Ad Hoc Query
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Ad Hoc Query
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SRC Online Training Series

• http//www.erehab.org/
• select National Training Series
• select SRC Online Training Series.

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SRC Online Training Series

• Series One Overview and Philosophy
• History of V.R.
• Overview of the Rehabilitation Act
• V.R. principles policies
• The role of the SRC
• Series Two State Plan
• Development of new training module(s) relating to
  the State Plan
• The Statutory Basis of the State Plan
• Purpose of the State Plan
• Development of the State Plan
• Series Three Operationalizing the State Plan
• Creation of new training modules
• Assessment
• Development of VR Goals
• Program Evaluation and Reporting
• SRC Infrastructure

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Department of Education Website

• http//www.ed.gov/
• Monitoring Reports
• Promising Transition Practices
• RSA State Liaisons