Narrative: d. 2. A.

ARS maintains interagency agreements with the Arkansas Department of Education, Special Education Unit (ADE SEU) and provides transition services to students in public schools. ARS maintains an interagency agreement with the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) with the objective of seamless provision of vocational rehabilitation services and access to higher education. The parties agree to participate in technical assistance and in–service training to assist educational agencies in planning, and to coordinate services to ensure timely and appropriate supports and services are provided to eligible individuals. ARS Transition policy requires ARS counselors to engage school personnel to generate referrals of students to ARS and to develop an IPE for each student determined eligible. ADE is financially responsible for secondary education and ARS is responsible for taking applications, determining eligibility, and providing VR services to those determined eligible for transition services. ARS participates in the state level Arkansas Interagency Transition Partnership (AITP). AITP is a task–force made up of representatives of state agencies, including ARS, Department of Human Services (DHS)–Division of Services for the Blind (DSB), Arkansas Department of Education, Special Education–Transition, Arkansas Workforce Development Board, DHS–Division of Behavioral Health Services, and parent advocates. ARS will develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs) and WIOA partners to provide pre–employment transition services. ARS will expand and increase utilization of pre–employment transition training services at ACTI.

ARS has initiated contact with the appropriate parties and progress is underway to re–negotiate its interagency agreements with ADE, ADHE, DHS agencies, and Workforce Services during FY 2016.