Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for State Vocational Rehabilitation (Blind)
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.
a. 4. In accordance with the requirements in Section 101(a)(21)(A)(ii)(III) of the Rehabilitation Act, include a summary of the Council’s input (including how it was obtained) into the State Plan and any State Plan revisions, including recommendations from the Council's annual reports, the review and analysis of consumer satisfaction and other Council reports.
Current Narrative:
The State Rehabilitation Council reviewed and approved RSB's portion of the combined state plan for PY 2024-2024, including goals and priorities with no additional recommendations. RSB sought and continues to seek feedback in a variety of ways from the SRC on state plan and on ways to improve the client experience. This includes WebEX meetings with the Programs and Policy subcommittee to carefully review RSB's portion of the combined state plan and development of the goals and priorities. It further includes presentations and discussions seeking input from the entirety of the SRC at the quarterly business meetings. Additionally it includes feedback through e-mail dialogue.
Through these methods of communication, the state plan including goals and priorities for PY 2024-2027, PY 2020-2023 and the mid-plan modifications for PY 2022 and PY 2023 were jointly developed and agreed by RSB and the SRC.
The SRC receives the consumer satisfaction survey results at each of the quarterly meetings. RSB participates in a discussion of the survey results at each meeting. The SRC was pleased with the client satisfaction rate and positive client comments. The SRC expressed the need update the survey questions and improve the survey participation rate. The survey was jointly revised by RSB and the SRC Evaluations committee and the SRC approved changes implemented in PY 23.
The SRC continues to work cooperatively with RSB to improve the services offered to meet what we consider to be the unique rehabilitation needs of clients with visual disabilities. The following top five strategic priorities were developed by the SRC and included in the SRC annual report to ensure ongoing success for visually impaired Missourians:
- Promote the full inclusion, participation and integration of Missouri blind and severely visually impaired in the economic, social, cultural and educational mainstream of society.
- Through the SRC’s advisory capacity, assure that appropriate education and rehabilitation services increase the employment rate of blind and visually impaired individuals in Missouri.
- Promote and assure the continuation of specialized vocational rehabilitation services to consumers who are blind and severely visually impaired through specially trained professional staff with unique skills and knowledge of blindness.
- In partnership with RSB, develop, agree to, and review the annual state goals and priorities, including strategies to address the unprecedented turnover the agency has experienced in recent years to ensure Missourians who are blind receive high quality service from qualified personnel.
In partnership with RSB, the SRC will work to implement new procedures congruent with the expectations of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, in order to ensure coordination of all entities involved increasing access of blind Missourians to today’s job market.