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
e. Cooperative Agreements with Private Nonprofit Organizations
Describe the manner in which the designated State agency establishes cooperative agreements with private non-profit VR service providers.
Current Narrative:
Personal Vocational Adjustment Services
Rehabilitation Services for the Blind (RSB) uses the state contracting and procurement processes with private non-profit vocational rehabilitation service providers for the provision of comprehensive assessment of personal vocational adjustment skills, and training in those skills. This document also contains the fee for service price the provider will charge for services offered.
The center based vocational rehabilitation services provided by these vendors are specifically designed to meet the training needs of individuals who are blind and visually impaired and include instruction in braille, orientation and mobility, and the use of software for speech access or enlargement of visual outputs for computer systems.
Agreements for the provision of center based vocational rehabilitation services exist with the following vendors:
Alphapointe Association for the Blind, Kansas City, Missouri
Colorado Center for the Blind, Littleton, Colorado
Louisiana Center for the Blind, Inc., Ruston, Louisiana
World Services for the Blind, Little Rock, Arkansas
The state contracting and procurement processes have also been used to establish agreements between RSB and 12 individual and/or community resources such as centers for independent living to obtain rehabilitation engineering, braille instruction, orientation and mobility services, and transition training.
Employment and Supported Employment Services
RSB uses the state contracting procurement processes to establish agreements with vocational services providers delivering employment and supported employment services. Currently, RSB has contracts in place with eleven Community Rehabilitations Providers for the delivery of vocational services. These services focus on individualized, person-centered services and operate on a system of milestone attainment. The milestones are designed to smoothly transition the client through phases of planning, discovery and exploration, job development, job placement, and finally retention in their desired competitive integrated employment outcome. Additional information related directly to supported employment services is contained in State Plan section f “Arrangements and Cooperative Agreements for the Provision of Support Employment Services”.
Other Services
RSB utilizes the Expenditure Registration System ERS101 “authorization for services” process to provide other client specific rehabilitation services, such as vocational evaluation, employee development, vocational skill training, and job search skill training through non-profit rehabilitation service providers.