Narrative: p. 1. A.

The following description includes progress in the achievement of the goals for the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS).

DRS Goal 1 – Provide integrated vocational rehabilitation (VR) services to West Virginians with disabilities to enable them to attain a high school education or greater.

Since the writing of the previous State Plan, the percentage of West Virginians with disabilities having high school diplomas appears to have increased. As of 2017 (most recent data; posted in 2018 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium), high school graduates include 75.6% of individuals with disabilities aged 25 years and older, compared to 69.4% four years earlier.

DRS has worked hard to strengthen its relationship with State and Local Education Agencies and has sought to increase its service capacity to students with disabilities statewide. This includes formal agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), the provision of Pre-employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) in and outside of school settings, the continuation of DRS’ Student Transition to Employment Program (STEP), and coordinated training with Special Education teachers statewide.

DRS monitored the educational achievement of all of its consumers, especially those in the transition youth (TY) population. DRS worked 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. DRS assigned a counselor to each high school in WV to enhance 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 took part in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) development of students with disabilities when invited to do so. Counselors stayed in contact with educators to discuss and resolve educational difficulties as needed. DRS also worked 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 will continue to conduct these activities as part of its progress toward achievement of this goal.

DRS Goal 2 – Provide Pre-ETS to students with disabilities.

DRS has demonstrated considerable commitment to providing Pre-ETS to students with disabilities statewide since the implementation of WIOA. In collaboration with Community Access, Incorporated (CAI) and Terzetto Creative, LLC, DRS established the Pathways to the Future website (www.pathwayswv.org), designed to operate as a self-service one-stop for students, parents, and educators in the provision of Pre-ETS that can be accessed at any time. The site provides extensive information and resources regarding career planning, education planning, independent living skills, self-determination, and work-based learning.

Beyond this self-service portal, DRS has been active, both within and outside of school settings to ensure that students with disabilities statewide receive the Pre-ETS needed to promote a more well- informed student base regarding employment, career pathways, independent living and soft skills, and self-advocacy. Numerous initiatives and activities, provided by DRS staff, Education staff, and Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs), have been delivered to thousands of students across the state in all 55 counties. In doing so, DRS has consistently been able to successfully reserve and spend the WIOA-mandated 15% earmark of federal funds on Pre-ETS. Some of the activities conducted by the agency include:

• Career Exploration Opportunity (CEO) Summits – DRS, in conjunction with CRPs, hosts several Summits each year, during the summer, serving hundreds of high school students from across the state. The four-day summits provide tools and information to support students in obtaining long-term career success. The curriculum includes career planning and preparation, self-assessments, completing job applications, interviewing skills, how to dress for employment, work ethic, cell phone and internet safety, and self-advocacy.
• Positive Outcomes Within Education and Rehabilitation (POWER) program – DRS’ job shadowing program. POWER offers DRS transition students who are interested in professional careers an opportunity to spend a few hours or a day with a skilled worker in the student’s vocational field of interest, allowing the student to explore a specific career of interest by observing an employee perform his or her work duties at his or her place of employment. The experience should provide realistic career information that will aid the student in making career choices.
• Work-Based Learning Experiences – Provided in conjunction with CRPs to pair students with disabilities with local employers willing to provide a short-term employment opportunity. These experiences provide the student with real-world work experience, in an integrated job site. Students work up to 80 work hours, over 2 – 4 weeks, earning no less than minimum wage. The CRPs are paid to arrange and monitor the experience, as well as pay the students.

The 2018 comprehensive statewide needs assessment (CSNA) indicated that job exploration counseling was the most frequently reported pre-employment transition service need. DRS counselors provided Pre-ETS 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 program year (PY) 2018, DRS provided Pre- ETS to over 1,000 students with disabilities in WV.

In addition to ongoing program activities, DRS hosted summer workshops (CEO Summits) for transition students entering into their senior year of high school. In 2018, the CEO Summits were held in 11 areas across the state; in 2019, the Summits were held in 60 areas. In 2019, DRS worked with CRPs around the state to provide the Summits in as many local areas as possible. Attendance for the CEO Summits in the summer of 2019 was approximately 1,000 students, covering all six DRS districts. Students earned a stipend for the time that they attended. A concerted effort was made to introduce Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) to students in the CEO Summits.

Topics covered included career planning, career preparation, SSI/SSDI Information, understanding the importance of necessary personal documents, communication, conflict management, employer expectations, attendance and punctuality, timeliness of task completion, being able to work without supervision, positive work ethic, managing multiple tasks, high-growth jobs, personal brand, and job hunting tools such as resumes, cover letters, interviews, and digital profiles.

In collaboration with CRPs, the Statewide independent Living Council (SILC) and the WV Centers for Independent Living (CILs), DRS established programs in the summer of 2019 which provided Instruction in Self-Advocacy at 25 locations across the state, serving 294 students with disabilities. These programs provide students with disabilities with the skills necessary to be confident and self- directed self-advocates. Students participating in the programs learned about their legal rights and responsibilities, the history of the disability movement, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), IEPs, and participated in activities to develop their confidence and communication skills, as well as the ability to evaluate their future needs and plans.

In an effort to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, DRS sponsored a “Build It, Keep It, Share It” – BIKISI – program in the summer of 2019. In the program, through a one-week training, students receive the knowledge, tools, and components they need to build a computer. At the end of the training, they take the knowledge – and the computer – home with them. The program is designed to develop student interest in the sciences through computers, to subsequently promote interest in high-paying jobs within in-demand job sectors. In 2019, the program was held in 12 locations and served 363 students with disabilities.

Throughout the academic year, DRS Employment Specialists also provided Pre-ETS at the local high schools. The Employment Specialists conducted mock interviewing, career exploration, and other employment related topics. The POWER program provides students that ability to job shadow careers that they are interested in. The Employment Specialists have worked to identify a vast array of employers located throughout the State. There are currently 85 employers involved in the POWER Program.

In 2016 and 2017, DRS partnered with CAI to implement a program, entitled “Pathways to the Future,” to support the design and implementation of programming and outreach while addressing the new direction mandated by WIOA. Specifically, the program addressed the five required Pre-ETS for high school students with disabilities through an expansion of the STEP. The program assisted school districts by offering training and technical assistance in setting up community-based work experience programs for students with disabilities. The project helped 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 was a component of the project. The project had 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 (WVDE) staff.
4. To develop a statewide cross-sector outreach program with a strong emphasis on traditionally underserved populations.

DRS enlisted the services of Terzetto Creative to create/maintain a “Pathways to the Future” website (www.pathwayswv.org), which serves as a self-service resource for students with disabilities statewide to receive Pre-ETS. The website provides valuable information and tools regarding career planning, education planning, independent living, self-determination, and work-based learning. The website was bolstered by banners that were placed in high schools in all 55 counties of the state. Additionally, several pages of the College Foundation of West Virginia’s website (www.cfwv.com) have links to the Pathways website. These banners and links directed students with disabilities to the website and its resources.

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.

With the passage of WIOA, DRS has made several adjustments to its service provision model, including a greater emphasis toward youth and students with disabilities. Due to the legislative mandate of reserving and spending at least 15% of federal funds on the provision of Pre-ETS to students with disabilities, DRS has found it necessary to place VR-eligible individuals who do not have the most significant disabilities on a waitlist. However, if sufficient resources become available, individuals will be removed from the waitlist.  Despite this difficulty, DRS has found success in its long-standing mission of empowering and enabling individuals with disabilities to work and to live independently. In Program Year (PY) 2018, DRS served 7,016 participants, including 5,469 youth with disabilities, while enabling 930 job seekers with disabilities to obtain or retain employment. Collaboration with WorkForce WV and Local Workforce Development Boards

DRS has maintained regular communication with WorkForce WV to stay abreast of trends in employment, including changes in education and training requirements. This has been accomplished through regular meetings of the workforce development system (WDS), written communications, teleconferences, and other media. DRS, particularly through its Employment Specialists, stayed informed of emerging careers and occupations via WorkForce WV’s Labor Market Information website. DRS Employment Specialists have also continuously collected employment information from their business contacts. This information is shared within the WDS. DRS registers its job-ready consumers with WorkForce WV in order to better serve employers by providing them with a base of potential employees.

DRS maintained and continues to maintain a presence with each of West Virginia’s seven Local Workforce Development Boards (WDBs): Region 1 WDB; Region 2 – South Western WV WDB, Inc.; Region 3 – WDB of Kanawha County, Inc.; Region 4 Mid-Ohio Valley WDB; Region 5 – Northern Panhandle WDB; Region 6 WDB, and Region 7 WDB. DRS has signed MOUs and Infrastructure Funding Agreements (IFAs) with each board. Each Local WDB has a DRS representative who is active in the Board’s activities and decision-making process.

Use of DRS Employment Specialists

DRS used 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 nine Employment Specialists that cover all 55 counties in West Virginia. Each Employment Specialist has a unique understanding of local labor market information (LMI) including what jobs are available, what jobs are in demand or decline, and employer networks.

DRS’ team of Employment Specialists provided 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 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 information regarding staffing services, training programs and incentives for hiring people with disabilities, financial incentives, accessibility assessments, accommodating employees with disabilities, basic disability etiquette, attitudinal barriers, the Americans with Disabilities Act, locating a DRS office, and where to find additional resources. DRS Employment Specialists conducted over 800 employer visits with more than 500 employers in Program Year 2018.

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 Counselors to potentially match a job-ready VR consumer with a current job opening. Through positive working relationships, 47 employers, including some of the largest in the state, now send job postings directly to DRS’ Employer Services Section.

The Employer Services Section also worked with employers to better serve transitioning youth with disabilities, including providing career exploration opportunities for students with disabilities through the 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. Currently, there are 85 employers statewide that participate in the POWER program.

Assistive Technology

DRS provided rehabilitation technology solutions to individuals with disabilities as needed so that those individuals could 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 which provided 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.

DRS continues to work toward finding individualized transportation solutions for West Virginians with disabilities as needed for their employment goals. In Program Year (PY) 2017, DRS expended $122,115 on transportation services for 891 consumers and in PY 2018, DRS authorized $93,540 in transportation services for 746 consumers.

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 continued its commitment to reduce transportation barriers for consumers with disabilities and focused on individual transportation solutions (ITS) to satisfy immediate transportation needs. To help reduce these barriers, DRS counselors encouraged planning for transportation needs early in the development of a consumer’s rehabilitation program. At application, counselors identified transportation issues and focused on finding solutions to include in the consumer’s Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE). This ensured that the ability of consumers to reach their vocational goal was not impeded by preventable transportation barriers. Transportation issues were also addressed by the standard instrument prescribed for routine use by supervisors and quality assurance staff in case reviews. Beyond ITS, DRS continued to assign responsibility to a staff member in each branch office to maintain a list and working knowledge of local transportation options and continued to participate in local and state initiatives to coordinate and expand transportation resources. These activities will be ongoing as DRS strives to accomplish transportation access for all of its consumers in need.

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

A comparison of findings from the 2015 CSNA and the 2018 CSNA indicates that there is still a need to continue to improve collaborative relationships with community providers. While a greater percentage of CRP survey respondents acknowledged that a DRS liaison counselor was in contact on a regular basis (i.e., 68.1% in 2015 vs. 78.4% in 2018), a lower percentage of CRP survey respondents rated their communication with DRS to be Good or better (91.5% in 2015 vs. 87.2% in 2018).

2015 – Forty-seven out of 47 CRPs/community service providers (CSPs) provided a rating of their communication with DRS. Rating options included Excellent, Very Good, Good, Poor, and Very Poor. No CRPs/CSPs gave a rating of Very Poor and 43 of the 47 CRPs/CSPs (91.5%) gave a response of Good or better. Additionally, CRPs/CSPs were asked whether a DRS liaison counselor was in contact on a regular basis. Thirty–two (32) CRPs/CSPs responded yes, while 15 CRPs/CSPs responded no (68.1% and 31.9%, respectively).

2018 - Thirty-nine out of 40 CRPs provided a rating of their communication with DRS. Options ranged from Excellent to Very Poor. One CRP gave a rating of Very Poor and 34 of the 39 CRPs (87.2%) gave a response of Good or better. When asked whether a DRS liaison counselor was in contact on a regular basis, 29 of 37 CRPs responded yes, while 8 CRPs responded no (78.4% and 21.6%, respectively). Three CRPs did not respond to this question.

DRS continues to utilize CRPs to provide services to its consumers.  In PY 2017, DRS authorized $3,017,766 in CRP services to 1,417 consumers.  In PY 2018, DRS authorized $2,582,420 in CRP services to 1,043 consumers. DRS continued to educate field staff, especially 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 increased awareness of available service options, which helped to maintain collaborative relationships with CRPs and enhance the availability of services to DRS consumers. DRS continued to maintain regular communications with community providers in each district and at the state level. 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 includes:

1. An e-mail list-serv with all current vendors that is updated periodically and utilized to send out training opportunities, policy changes, and general updates when needed.
2. DRS counselors in each district continue to be assigned as liaisons to each CRP and continue to be required to complete a monthly update regarding the CRP. They 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) aids in maintaining collaborative working relationships and enhancing the availability of services to consumers.
3. Two Rehabilitation Specialists covering all districts in the state provide technical assistance to CRPs and DRS staff. They make site visits to CRP and DRS district and branch offices to ensure that community providers continue to meet DRS standards and requirements. During these visits, they provide technical assistance and schedule training and other meetings that need to occur. They serve as a communication link when issues arise and make themselves available to attend the communication meetings and transition team meetings.

Additionally, the agency works to:

• 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;
• Conduct Transition Team meetings at the district level with DRS, WV Department of Education, and CRP staff members. The meetings are 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;
• Conduct cross training and face-to-face meetings with community partners at the local level;
• Assign liaison responsibilities to staff members and provide 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; and
• 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.