Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation (Blind)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan [13] must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA:
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[13] Sec. 102(b)(2)(D)(iii) of WIOA
- l. State Goals and Priorities
The designated State unit must:
- l. State Goals and Priorities
l. 3. C. Other available information on the operation and effectiveness of the VR program, including any reports received from the State Rehabilitation Council and findings and recommendations from monitoring activities conducted under section 107.
Current Narrative:
Based on the needs identified in the most recent DBVI CSNA, Title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 (including the common performance measures of section 116 of WIOA), and input from the State Rehabilitation Council, the goals and priorities from the previous DBVI VR state plan were modified and updated to reflect new areas of focus for DBVI.
New procedures were implemented as a result of two program findings from the 2017 monitoring review. The findings included time to eligibility and time to plan. There are various levels of checks and balances to review how much time has passed prior to eligibility and then from eligibility to plan. In Aware, the VRCs can review their caseloads to see which cases are getting close to the 60 day requirement to eligibility and the 90 day requirement to plan from eligibility. The regional director also reviews the caseload as well as the Assistant Director(AD). If the AD discovers cases that are getting close to the required time, he seeks information to determine the reason that the client has not been found eligible or that an IPE has not been signed. If it is determined that there is an appropriate reason to extend the time, the proper documentation is completed. If the client is not responding to the VRC, the recommendation is (after the required protocol to reach out to the client is followed) to close the case. The process has proven to be effective in meeting both of these requirements.