Narrative: d. 1.

Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS), State Services for the Blind (SSB), and the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) have an agreement to achieve better coordination between schools and VR services and creating a bridge from the school to VRS or SSB prior to school exit. Following is a discussion of the current agreement. It is anticipated that the agreement will be updated when the final WIOA regulations are published: • Provide guidance to students with disabilities transitioning from school to employment. • Offer consultation and technical assistance to educators in planning for the transition of students with disabilities from school to VR services. • Define roles and responsibilities, including the financial responsibilities of each agency, and determine state lead agencies and qualified staff responsible for transition services. • Design methods of identification and outreach to students with disabilities who are in need of transition services. • Guide the development of policies and procedures that help students with disabilities make the transition from school to employment. • Promote flexible, coordinated, and collaborative planning and service delivery among MDE, VRS, and SSB for eligible youth transitioning from school to employment.

Coordinated Services for Youth in Special Education Minnesota law mandates a coordinated system of services for youth, birth to 21, who are involved in special education. The Minnesota System for Interagency Collaboration (MnSIC) was formed to develop and implement this system. VRS is represented on MnSIC and VRS staff participate on subcommittees that develop service strategies for students and recommendations for governance and coordination of state and local collaborative efforts. Community Transition Interagency Committee (CTIC) Approximately 70 local CTICs promote statewide interagency coordination to remove system barriers and expand community services. CTICs include parents, students, advocacy groups, local businesses, county government, post–secondary education, vocational education, community education, corrections, SSA health care, and other local service providers. VRS staff serve on all CTICs, thereby helping to improve and expand vocational services that result in employment outcomes. Rehabilitation Counselors Assigned to High Schools VR counselors are assigned to all public, private, and charter high schools in Minnesota. Outreach efforts include working with school nurses, guidance counselors, case managers, principals, social workers, 504 personnel, community agencies and work experience coordinators to identify students with disabilities who are not in special education programs. About 11 percent of students referred to VRS are not enrolled in special education programs. A referral of all potentially eligible students is sought as soon as possible so that employment services can begin well before the student leaves school. An interagency agreement between VRS/SSB and the Minnesota Department of Education is currently being revised to define qualified personnel responsible for pre-employment transition services and transition services. The agreement has not yet been finalized, pending publication of the WIOA final regulations. But the relevant portion of the draft language of the interagency agreement reads as follows: III: ROLES and RESPONSIBILITIES • MDE’s Division of Special Education and Division of Career and College Success is responsible for ensuring that local education agencies provide special education and related services as documented in students’ Individualized Education Program. • DEED’s VRS/SSB assists students with disabilities in making informed choices to prepare for, obtain and maintain competitive, integrated employment. Services include the provision of pre-employment transition services for students who are eligible or potentially eligible for VR services. They also include assessing an individual’s VR needs, developing and implementing an individualized plan for employment (IPE), and assisting in the achievement of the employment goals for the individuals that have applied for VR services, have been found eligible and are in an open priority category. • MDE’s Division of Special Education and Division of Career and College Success and DEED’s VRS/SSB are responsible for coordination necessary to satisfy documentation requirements set forth in WIOA with regard to students and youth with disabilities who are considering subminimum wage employment. • MDE’s Division of Special Education and Division of Career and College Success is responsible to assure that neither the State educational agency nor LEAs will enter into a contract or other arrangement with an entity, as defined in WIOA for the purpose of operating a program under which a youth with a disability is engaged in subminimum wage employment. • MDE’s Division of Special Education and Division of Career and College Success and DEED’s VRS/SSB are financially responsible for the services they provide under its own laws and rules. Nothing will be construed to reduce the obligation under IDEA of a local educational agency or any other agency to provide or pay for any transition services that are also considered special education or related services and that are necessary for ensuring a free appropriate public education to children with disabilities within Minnesota. • MDE’s Division of Special Education and Division of Career and College Success and DEED’s VRS/SSB are responsible to ensure that neither the local educational agency nor VR agencies may shift the burden for providing a service, for which it otherwise would be responsible, to the other entity. Decisions related to which entity will be responsible for providing transition or pre-employment transition services that can be considered both a special education and a VR service will be made at the State and local level as part of the collaboration between the VR agencies, State educational agencies, and local educational agencies. Criteria that can assist in making these decisions include: o The purpose of the service—Is it related more to an employment outcome or education (i.e., is it considered a special education or related service (e.g., rehabilitation counseling that is necessary for the provision of a free appropriate public education))? o Customary Services—Is the service one that the school customarily provides under IDEA part B? For example, if the school ordinarily provides job exploration counseling to its eligible students with disabilities, the mere fact that such a service is now authorized under the Rehabilitation Act as a pre-employment transition service does not mean the school should cease providing that service and refer those students to VR programs. o Eligibility—Is the student with a disability eligible for transition services under IDEA? The definition of a “student with a disability,” for purposes of VR programs, is broader than that under IDEA because the definition in WIOA includes those students who are individuals with a disability under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. It is possible that these students do not have an individualized education program under IDEA and, therefore, would not be eligible for or receiving special education and related services under IDEA. As a result, VR programs are authorized to provide transition services to a broader population than local educational agencies are authorized to provide under IDEA. There is also a separate Interagency Agreement to Purchase used Assistive Technology Devices When a child with a disability transitions into a work environment or postsecondary program, VRS or SSB may purchase any assistive technology device that the child’s former school district purchased on the child’s behalf.