Narrative: d. 2. O. viii. I.

The West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) will continue to monitor the educational achievement of all of its consumers, especially those in the transition youth (TY) population. Youth have become a primary focus in vocational rehabilitation and DRS will work closely and diligently with State and Local Education Agencies to ensure that its TY population receives the services that it needs, including pre–employment transition services for high school students with disabilities. Each high school in WV has a DRS counselor assigned to it to guarantee the service provision of students with disabilities. A greater emphasis is now being placed for counselors to do outreach with these students and their parents/guardians during their sophomore year (rather than their junior year, as was formerly practiced) in order to maximize the counseling opportunities.

DRS counselors will continue to take part in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) development of students with disabilities when they are invited to do so. Counselors will also stay in contact with educators to discuss and resolve educational difficulties as they arise. DRS will also work closely with WV Adult Education, referring consumers as needed, to ensure that individuals with disabilities have an adequate opportunity to obtain a completed high school level education.

DRS Goal 2 – Provide Pre–Employment Transition Services (PETS) to students with disabilities.

The 2015 comprehensive statewide needs assessment (CSNA) indicated that job exploration counseling was the most frequently reported pre–employment transition service need. In accordance with this, and per the requirements of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), DRS has recently restructured its field services unit, creating a subdivision of counselors that focus solely on providing services, including Pre–employment Transition Services (PETS), to students with disabilities. DRS counselors in high schools will provide PETS to students with disabilities, especially job exploration counseling, in order to give students with disabilities and their parents/guardians a better understanding of labor market conditions, current and emerging career opportunities, and the necessary education and training requirements related to those opportunities.

In addition to ongoing program activities, DRS will host a one week summer workshop for transition students who are juniors entering into their senior year of high school. The workshop will be held in seven areas across the state. DRS staff participating include the PETS Counselor, Employment Specialist, and RSA assigned to the PETS territory. Class will start at 9:00am and end at 4:00pm. Class size for each of the seven workshops will be approximately 30 students. Students will earn minimum wage for the time that they attend. DRS is also requesting WorkForce WV and WV Adult Education to participate in the workshops to provide additional information to the students.

Topics to be covered:

–Career planning

–Career preparation

–SSI/SSDI Information

–Understanding the importance of necessary personal documents, e.g., social security card, driver’s license, birth certificate, pay stubs.

–Communication

–Conflict Management

–Employer Expectations

––Attendance and Punctuality

––Timeliness of task completion

––Be able to work without supervision

––Positive work ethic

––Manage multiple tasks

–High–growth Jobs

–Personal Brand

–Job Hunting Tools– resumes, cover letters, interviews, and digital profiles

In 2016, DRS will partner with Community Access, Incorporated to implement a program to support the design and implementation of programming and outreach while addressing the new direction mandated by WIOA. Specifically, the program will address the five mandated PETS for high school students with disabilities through an expansion of the Student Transition to Employment Program (STEP). The program will assist school districts by offering training and technical assistance in setting up community–based work experience programs for students with disabilities. The project will help level the playing field between resource–rich metropolitan areas and isolated rural settings that often have few services available. In addition, a strong statewide outreach to teachers, parents, students, and other VR stakeholders will be a component of the project. A concerted effort will be made to include historically under–served groups including students in the foster care system, those returning from out–of–state placements, and those students on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) track. The project has the following goals:

1. To assist school districts in setting up community–based Work Exploration programs.

2. To develop statewide parent training network utilizing the Parent Community Resource Centers.

3. To develop a network of specialists to work with DRS, WorkForce WV, and WV Department of Education (WVDOE) staff.

4. To develop a statewide cross–sector outreach program with a strong emphasis on traditionally underserved populations.

DRS Goal 3 – Provide integrated vocational rehabilitation services to West Virginians with disabilities to enable them to obtain competitive employment, especially in occupations and careers within emerging industries statewide.

Collaboration with WorkForce WV

DRS will maintain regular communication with WorkForce WV to stay abreast of trends in employment, including changes in education and training requirements. This will be accomplished through regular meetings of the workforce development system (WDS), written communications, teleconferences, and other media, as appropriate. DRS, particularly through its employment specialists, will also stay informed of emerging careers and occupations via WorkForce WV’s Labor Market Information website. DRS employment specialists continuously collect employment information from their business contacts. This information is shared within the WDS.

Use of DRS Employment Specialists

DRS will continue to use its employment specialists to gather information regarding employers at the local level, including information regarding job placements for individuals with disabilities and regarding current and expected employer needs.

DRS has an in–house Employer Services Section that specializes in providing employers with disability–related information, services, and pre–screened job seekers. The DRS Employer Services Section has 12 employment specialists that cover all 55 counties in West Virginia. DRS’ team of employment specialists provide business owners and employers with critical business options and assistance in staffing, employee retention strategies, education on disability–related issues, job accommodations, and information about financial incentives for employers who hire individuals with disabilities.

Direct contact with employers is a key strategy to identify competitive integrated employment and career exploration opportunities for vocational rehabilitation (VR) consumers, including students with disabilities. Employment specialists therefore contact employers directly to identify current and future job openings. To facilitate this, DRS utilizes labor market information provided by WorkForce WV to identify the top employers in each county; contact is always made with the top ten employers in each county. When meeting with employers, employment specialists provide valuable information, including the DRS Employer Resource Guide. The resource guide provides the following information:

–Staffing services

–Training programs and incentives for hiring people with disabilities

–Financial incentives

–Accessibility assessments

–Accommodating employees with disabilities

–Basic disability etiquette

–Attitudinal barriers

–Americans with Disabilities Act

–Locating a DRS office

–Where to find additional resources

The Employer Services Section maintains a database of each DRS–employer interaction with VR employment specialists. The information collected includes the business name, contact person, and current job openings by occupation. If needed, a referral to the DRS Rehabilitation Technology Unit is made to address workplace accommodations. This list is distributed to field staff to potentially match a job–ready VR consumer with a current job opening. Through positive working relationships, 19 employers, including some of the largest in the state, now send job postings directly to DRS’ Employer Services Section.

The Employer Services Section also works with employers to better serve transitioning youth with disabilities, including providing career exploration opportunities for students with disabilities. In 2015, DRS debuted the Positive Outcomes within Education and Rehabilitation (POWER) program. POWER is a job shadowing program that offers transitioning students, who may be having a difficult time choosing a career path, the opportunity to experience an occupation by spending time with a professional working in the students’ vocational goal/career field of interest. The POWER program allows the student the opportunity to experience an occupation prior to committing to training. It guides the student to take a serious, realistic look at the occupation, allowing the student to make a more informed choice.

Assistive Technology

DRS will continue to provide rehabilitation technology solutions to individuals with disabilities as needed so that those individuals can become employed or maintain employment. DRS has developed working relationships and agreements for the coordination of activities with the West Virginia Assistive Technology System (WVATS) of the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities. The WVATS’ role is to provide access to and help with the acquisition of assistive technology (AT) devices and services for individuals with disabilities. WVATS also provides device demonstrations, device loans, training, AT information, and technical assistance.

DRS has a rehabilitation technology unit, with two locations (in Nitro, covering the southern half of the state and in Morgantown, covering the North), which provides AT consultations and solutions to eligible VR consumers with AT needs statewide. With the coordination of services between DRS and WVATS, assurances are made that needed AT solutions can be provided to individuals with disabilities.

DRS Goal 4 – Improve access and availability of transportation options at the community level for DRS consumers who need transportation assistance to achieve or maintain competitive, integrated employment.

Transportation is an ongoing issue for West Virginians with disabilities, due to the rural nature of the state. A large proportion of the State’s inhabitants live far away from jobs, agency offices, and other resources. DRS continues its commitment to reduce transportation barriers for consumers with disabilities and focuses on individual transportation solutions (ITS) to satisfy immediate transportation needs. To help reduce these barriers, DRS counselors will encourage planning for transportation needs early in the development of a consumer’s rehabilitation program. At application, counselors will identify transportation issues and focus on finding solutions to include in the consumer’s Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE). This will ensure that the ability of consumers to reach their vocational goal is not impeded by preventable transportation barriers. Transportation issues also will be addressed by the standard instrument prescribed for routine use by supervisors and quality assurance staff in case reviews. Beyond ITS, DRS will continue to assign responsibility to a staff member in each branch office to maintain a list and working knowledge of local transportation options and will continue to participate in local and state initiatives to coordinate and expand transportation resources.

DRS Goal 5 – Continue to build collaborative relationships with community providers [including community rehabilitation programs (CRPs), Independent Living, and other community providers] to enhance the availability of services to DRS consumers.

A large amount of the success that DRS has in its mission to enable and empower individuals with disabilities to work and to live independently hinges on its relationships with CRPs. In general, DRS has good working relationships with the various CRPs throughout the State. However, CSNA results suggest that improvements can be made, particularly in specific geographic areas. To facilitate this improvement, DRS has established a number of strategies to put into action:

– Continue to educate field staff, especially the new counselors, about CRPs and their services. Use of the new ‘CRP Locator’ tool (a web–based, user–friendly vendor guide) and counselor CRP site visits will increase awareness of available service options, which will help to maintain collaborative relationships with CRPs and enhance the availability of services to DRS consumers.

– Continue to maintain regular communications between DRS and community providers in each district and at the state level. Each DRS district will continue to host joint meetings with DRS district and branch office staff and CRPs in those districts to provide opportunities for CRP representatives and DRS personnel to discuss local service needs of DRS consumers. Subsequent to each meeting, the local DRS office will be required to send a brief report to the CRP Program Manager. This process will allow all parties involved in the expansion of community–based services to be kept informed of progress and issues. The Division will continue to examine the information and recommendations collected from various meetings between CRP and DRS staff members.

Progress on communication will continue to be made as the Division acquires more understanding of the issues and barriers facing the CRP and DRS staff members in their service provision to persons with significant disabilities in WV. Ongoing communication activities with CRPs also will include:

a. An e–mail list–serv with all current vendors that will be updated periodically and utilized to send out training opportunities, policy changes, and general updates when needed.

b. DRS counselors in each district will continue to be assigned as liaisons to each CRP and will continue to be required to complete a monthly update regarding the CRP. They will collect this information by visits and/or phone calls. Having CRP liaisons that regularly discuss service–related issues specific to the local service area(s) will aid in maintaining collaborative working relationships and enhancing the availability of services to consumers.

c. Two rehabilitation specialists covering all districts in the state will provide technical assistance to CRPs and DRS staff. They will make site visits to CRP and DRS district and branch offices. During these visits, they will provide technical assistance and schedule training and other meetings that need to occur. They will serve as a communication link when issues arise and make themselves available to attend the communication meetings and transition team meetings.

– Conduct site visits to ensure that community providers continue to meet DRS standards and requirements.

– Increase the service provision of acknowledged vendors and work with community providers to expand their service areas to enhance the availability of community services within needed areas.

– Continue to conduct Transition Team meetings at the district level with DRS, WV Department of Education, and CRP staff members. The meetings will be held to promote interagency collaboration by allowing staff from each agency/CRP to become familiar with the different eligibility requirements and service definitions across agencies.

– Continue to conduct cross training and face–to–face meetings with community partners at the local level.

– Continue to assign liaison responsibilities to staff members and provide them guidance about the purpose of DRS participation in community events.

– Monitor the DRS counselors/supervisors/managers’ perception of the quality of CRP services through a survey instrument.

– Monitor and assess the impact of the Quality Assurance unit on the counselor’s case management practices by using data generated from the quality assurance specialists’ review of cases.