Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for State Vocational Rehabilitation (Combined or General)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by sections 101(a) and 606 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA.
- i. Comprehensive System of Personnel Development.
In accordance with the requirements in Section 101(a)(7) of the Rehabilitation Act, the VR agency must develop and maintain annually a description (consistent with the purposes of the Rehabilitation Act) of the VR agency’s comprehensive system of personnel development, which shall include a description of the procedures and activities the State VR agency will undertake to ensure it has an adequate supply of qualified State rehabilitation professionals and paraprofessionals that provides the following:
- i. Comprehensive System of Personnel Development.
i. 1. E. Projected number of individuals to be served in 5 years:
Current Narrative:
Colorado saw a marked and steady decrease in the number of open VR cases beginning in early 2020. This trend continued until January of 2023, when the number of open VR cases each month began to increase from a low of just over 7170 cases to over 7700 cases in August and September 2023. DVR has also placed emphasis on increasing the number of students receiving pre-ETS, which has led to an increase in the number of potentially eligible students from just under 1600 cases at the end of September 2021 to over 2300 at the end of September 2023.
According to the 2023 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium (Table 1.3), 643,030 Coloradans had disabilities in 2021. Colorado experienced rapid growth from 2010 to 2020, with a population increase of 14.8% over that time, or roughly 1.4% annually. However, data available from the US Census Bureau indicates this growth is slowing over the last few years, with only 1.1% total growth from April 2020 to July 2022. If Colorado’s population continues to grow at current rates, a similar portion of Coloradans have disabilities, and DVR continues to serve a similar portion of the population with disabilities, it is possible that DVR would have approximately 12,650 cases open at any given time, with approximately 9,700 of those seeking the full scope of VR services and 4,175 potentially eligible students with disabilities.
Based on DVR’s historic data and forecasting tools, including recent increases in applications, an estimated 14,270 eligible individuals are expected to receive services in Program Year 2028.