Narrative: d. 1.

Since 1985, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) has partnered with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), and with local school districts and Boards of Cooperative Education (BOCES), in supporting a comprehensive transition planning and service delivery process for youth with disabilities. DVR has organized a Youth Services and Transition Unit within Administration. The Unit is responsible for assuring the provision of high quality vocational rehabilitation services to Colorado’s youth with disabilities.

Colorado is exploring with education partners how to best provide students with pre–employment transition services and skills training when appropriate, in order to make a positive contribution to the IEP outcome. DVR will update our interagency agreement to include: the provision of services under the new direction identified within WIOA; the redefinition of the transition responsibilities of DVR and of education; assurance of access to services for youth; and ongoing support of effective and efficient working relationships between partners.

School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP)

DVR currently has 36 School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP) sites. These sites involve approximately 130 of Colorado’s 178 school districts. SWAP serves over 2,500 youth annually, and is a collaborative initiative between DVR and local school districts, supported by CDE. The purpose of SWAP is to provide new patterns of service, increased community linkages and successful employment outcomes for youth with disabilities who are applicants and eligible VR clients. Ways to collaboratively involve SWAP in the provision of pre–employment transition services to students with disabilities will be explored in the near future.

At the local level, DVR counselors participate in resource fairs, back–to–school nights, and parent teacher conference nights. They present information about DVR at residential treatment centers, residential childcare facilities and at teacher in–service events. DVR will continue these types of outreach, education and consultation activities with our school partners for the purpose of providing consultation and technical assistance to support transition planning from school to post–school services. Counselors contribute to the classroom by identifying gaps relevant to pre–employment and transition services which they can assist education partners with. This contributes to an effective and consistent referral process for youth between agencies at the local level.

In collaboration with the State Rehabilitation Council (SRC), the Youth Services and Transition Unit is working to identify ways in which DVR can improve services to transitioning youth and ensure that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of DVR’s role, the referral process and when and how to make referrals. DVR will re–examine policies around collaborating with the districts/BOCES and workforce centers to provide pre–employment transition services to younger students prior to their referral to vocational rehabilitation.

Between August and October of 2015, more than 200 DVR stakeholders including clients, vendors, staff and advocates attended a total of 10 in–person meetings across Colorado. These meetings were held by DVR and CDLE to solicit input about how DVR can better serve Colorado’s individuals with disabilities, in preparation for the move of DVR into the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Several transition–related themes were identified during these public forums. As a result, DVR is committed to identifying a better way to align DVR resources to ensure delivery of transition services that are more focused, provide the best leverage of DVR and Colorado Department of Education (CDE) resources associated with the School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP) and are fully compliant with the 15% set–aside mandated in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). We expect this alignment to include a restructuring of the Youth Services and Transition Unit, which will report to the DVR Director.

Colorado was chosen to participate in Transition Grant awarded by the United States Department of Labor and Employment’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), entitled Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program (EFSLMP). This grant will provide mentoring, intensive technical assistance and training from a national pool of subject matter experts and peer mentors to core states as they transform existing policies, service delivery systems, and reimbursement structures to reflect an Employment First approach; facilitate virtual training and knowledge translation on effective practices; facilitate dialogue on shared experiences related to effectuating Employment First policies and practice; link participating states with current Federal initiatives that are focused on promoting state–level systems–change conducive to Employment First objectives; and evaluate the impacts of the investments in state Employment First systems change efforts over time to identify common challenges faced by State governments and validate innovative strategies and effective practices that lead to the successful implementation of Employment First objectives.

Colorado’s transition goals under EFSLMP include:

• SWOT analysis of Colorado’s current School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP)
• Develop policy implementation components related to implementing improvements indicated by the SWOT analysis
• Implement transition improvements indicated in the SWOT analysis including strengthening capacity of existing SWAP contracts by providing direct TA to CDE/DVR contractual partners in the implementation of effective practices that lead to sustained competitive integrated employment options for youth with disabilities
• Assessment Report to State with comprehensive analysis of SWAP program and recommendations for improvements.
• Policy outputs agreed upon between facilitator and the state.