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 is finalizing updates to 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 35 School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP) sites. These sites involve approximately 60% Colorado’s 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. The provision of pre-employment transition services to students with disabilities has also been incorporated into SWAP, further supporting a collaborative and coordinating transition for students.

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 has developed policies and continues to refine practices to support collaboration 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). This work included restructuring the Youth Services and Transition Unit, which now reports to the DVR Director.

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

As part of this process, a SWOT analysis of Colorado’s current School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP) was completed with suggestions for service delivery to youth with disabilities served under this partnership. New policies were developed to incorporate WIOA transition requirements. Training is provided to both education and DVR staff on an ongoing basis. DVR and CDE continue to work in partnership with local education agencies to refine policies and practices by incorporating improvements indicated by the SWOT analysis. One such example is the creation of a state led Community of Practice comprised of representatives from stakeholders who hold a vested interest in transition age youth. This state level workgroup is currently reevaluating their objectives to ensure they are meeting the needs of local partnerships for greatest impact. DVR and CDE continue efforts to identify the most effective balance between pre-employment transition services and the more traditional transition and employment services within the SWAP contracts to meet the needs of students and youth with disabilities. The Youth Services and Transition Unit continues to monitor, the implementation of these changes and reports routinely to DVR’s Senior Leadership Team and Education Directors on progress.