Narrative: j. 2.

The parties will collaborate to provide the following consultation and technical assistance activities to promote students to move to transition and post-school outcomes:

1. Providing direct instruction to vocational rehabilitation counselors, school transition personnel, and other persons supporting students with disabilities through group conferences, providing instructional materials and guidelines, reporting forms, training through webinars, and fielding telephone/email communications;
2. Coordinating public speaking and training activities on transition services provided by local education agencies under IDEA;
3. Developing model transition demonstration projects and establishing or supporting partnerships involving the local education agencies to achieve the goals of improved transition outcomes.

The following are the responsibilities of the - Arkansas Division of Services for the Blind and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services regarding transition planning and vocational rehabilitation services for eligible youth:

1. Staff will attend Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings when invited by any method that is most appropriate for the student.
2. Staff will review Pre-Employment Transition activities, vocational interests, and progress and share at IEP planning meetings to facilitate discussions of student’s goals, needs, and objectives.
3. Staff will support student employment goals by providing supplemental services that work with the IEP to achieve student success.
4. Facilitate the identification of youth with disabilities who may benefit from vocational rehabilitation by the academic year in which the student is turning 16 or earlier if appropriate. 
5. Make relevant data available about eligibility for vocational rehabilitation services and track information about employment outcomes for youth with disabilities. ARS and DSB will data share yearly at the end of the state fiscal year those students served jointly that have achieved competitive integrated employment by extracting WIOA post exit information from each agencies case management system and providing that information to the Special Education Unit.
6. Make LEA personnel, students, and their families aware of the vocational rehabilitation program, including VR eligibility requirements (in accordance with 34 CFR 361.42), the application procedures and scope of services (in accordance with 34 CFR 361.48) that are provided to all eligible or potentially eligible individuals.

The Special Education Unit, Arkansas Division of Services for the Blind and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services jointly agree to the following:

1. The Special Education Unit is the agency responsible for ensuring that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is made available to eligible students pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1).
2. School districts have the primary planning, programmatic, and financial responsibilities for the provision of education transition services and related services for students as a component of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) and these services are provided to eligible students with disabilities, ages 14 to 21, and younger when determined appropriate through the implementation of the Individualized Education Program (IEP). The parties acknowledge that the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education-Special Education Unit, has general supervisory responsibility over the educational program of any public agency providing FAPE to individuals with disabilities, ages birth to 21, as defined in state and federal statutes.
3. The distinction between transition and related services that are the planning, programmatic and financial responsibility of the school district will be determined based on a delineation of the customary services that the school provides. These distinctions will be made in coordination with the individual school district through an engagement and agreement process to work with Arkansas Rehabilitation Services and/or the Division of Services for the Blind towards describing the activities, supports, and funding that ARS will partner with the school district on to provide pre-employment transition services in the school setting or during the school day.
4. Arkansas Division of Services for the Blind and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services are financially responsible for providing pre-employment transition services to students with disabilities.
5. Arkansas Division of Services for the Blind and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services are the agencies financially responsible for providing vocational rehabilitation, job training, and placement services pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 20 U.S.C. § 701, et seq.
6. Assistive Technology devices and services needed for individual students to operate in the classroom towards educational goals are the primary financial responsibility of the school system. However, vocational rehabilitation financial assistance may be used under an approved plan for services in instances where the assistive technology is required for work purposes outside of the school setting.
7. The parties acknowledge that the goals of Arkansas Division of Services for the Blind and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services are to ensure that all students with disabilities have access to pre-employment transition services, as well as traditional vocational rehabilitation transition services, while in secondary school.
   1.  LEAs will work cooperatively with ARS and DSB Pre-Employment Transition Counselors to allow access to students during the school day on days and times coordinated with the schools in order provide direct services.
   2. LEAs will notify ARS and DSB Pre-Employment Transition Counselors of upcoming Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) meetings in order to ensure there is adequate planning for all students with disabilities to achieve post-secondary success in training, post-secondary education, or employment.
   3. DSB and ARS will ensure that all students who have been found eligible for Vocational Rehabilitation Transition Services will receive a Plan for Employment that aligns with the student’s interests and informed choice per the Individualized Education Plan prior to exiting the secondary school setting.

Outreach efforts will include a description of the vocational rehabilitation program, including the pre-employment transition program and the transition program within vocational rehabilitation. The potentially eligible definition, the eligibility requirements, the application procedures, and the scope of services that may be provided to students with disabilities will be included in outreach efforts.

Outreach efforts include but are not limited to attendance at IEP and transition planning meetings, career fairs, back to school nights, group orientations, transition fairs, and presentations coordinated throughout the year. The process includes:

1. Transition counselors to identify and outreach to all students with disabilities to make available the five required pre-employment transition services.
2. Outreach to students with disabilities as defined under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with disabilities for purposes of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, students with disabilities receiving school psychological, health, nursing, or social work services; and students with disabilities enrolled in an educational program and not in receipt of disability-related services from the educational program. 
3. Coordination with the Department of Education, Special Education Unit to outreach to youth in Department of Youth Services settings, youth who have dropped out of an education program, and students who are at risk of dropping out of high school.

Documentation requirements under section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act for students with disabilities seeking subminimum wage employment. Under section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by WIOA, 14(c) businesses referred to as "employers" are prohibited from employing any individual with disabilities who is 24 years of age or younger at subminimum wage, unless the individual has received documentation from DSB or ARS upon completion of all the following activities:

1. Pre-employment transition services under the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by WIOA, or transition services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and
2. Apply for vocational rehabilitation services and the individual was determined
   1. Ineligible for vocational rehabilitation services.
   2. Eligible for vocational rehabilitation services, had an approved individualized plan for employment, and
   3. the individual was unable to achieve an employment outcome in competitive, integrated employment after a reasonable period of time, and his/her case was closed.
3. Career counseling and information and referral services to federal and state programs to help the individual discover, experience, and attain competitive integrated employment and the counseling and information was not for employment at sub-minimum wage.

These requirements will be shared by the SEA with LEAs, parents, guardians, teachers, and students. DSB and ARS will maintain the documentation and provide a copy to the individual within the timelines identified as specified under 34 CFR part 397. Any of the services identified above that the LEA provides must be documented by the LEA and provided to the student and DSB and ARS, as appropriate. DSB and ARS in consultation with the LEAS, will document the completion of this process at quarterly team meetings where the individual participant needs and next steps are discussed and documentation is shared, consistent with the confidentiality requirements of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (20 USC 11232g(b) and 34 CFR 99.30 and 99.31) and IDEA (20 USC 1417(c) and 34 CFR 300.622) pursuant to section 511(d) of the Act and §397.10. 

1. Neither the SEA nor the LEA will enter into an arrangement with an entity holding a special wage certificate under section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act for the purposes of operating a program in which students or youth with disabilities are paid subminimum wage;
2. Before a 14(c) entity may begin compensating a youth with a disability at subminimum wage, the youth must complete Pre-Employment Transition Services through VR or the youth must present documentation showing completion of transition services under IDEA from the school system. The section titled Documentation Requirements for Section 511 details the forms used for this process.
3. The LEA will refer a student with a disability known to be seeking subminimum wage employment to the VR programprior to referring that student to a subminimum wage program.