Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan* must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by WIOA:
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* Sec. 102(b)(D)(iii) of WIOA
d. 2. M. i. II. The Justification for the Order.
Current Narrative:
The agency, after receiving input from the CAP and the SRC, determined the best course of action would be to close OS Category 2 and implement changes to its training fee schedule. As you will find in the attached State Plan Descriptions, the agency anticipates a savings of $1,620,741 from closing OS Category 2 in FY 2018 and a savings of approximately $2 million from the changes made to the training fee schedule. We estimate that the combination of these two actions will allow the agency to continue to provide services to 5,635 individuals with the most significant disabilities, 4,107 individuals with significant disabilities, and 36 individuals with non-significant disabilities, as described in Description k. Based on the revision to Description k, the average cost per consumer is estimated to slightly decrease from FY 2017. These revisions also show a reduction in the projected number of individuals placed on the waitlist (1,835) and fewer individuals in OS Categories 3 and 4 (15 and 21, respectively) receiving services in FY 2018.
The savings from the closure of OS Category 2 and the changes to the training fee schedule will continue to grow in FYs 2019 and 2020 as fewer individuals will be served by the agency and training costs will be greatly reduced. This savings will allow the agency to meet its estimated target of $12.6 million in total purchased case services in FY 2019. These estimates will be in Description k of the two-year modification of the Unified State Plan for PYs 2018 and 2019.
In FY 2018, DRS will be operating under an order of selection (OS), as there will not be adequate resources to provide services to all eligible consumers. The closure of OS Category 2 in conjunction with changes to the agency’s training fee schedule and remaining carryover funds from FY 2017 will ensure that the agency has adequate funding for FY 2018. Carryover funds are not expected to be available for FY 2019. However, the reduction in the number of consumers served and the reduction in training costs will be enough to offset this reduction in funding.