Narrative: m. 1. A.

Priority Categories & Order of Selection:   As part of every customer’s eligibility determination process, a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC) will evaluate:

1) disability-related functional limitations;

2) anticipated number of needed services; and

3) anticipated duration of services. The VRC will use these criteria to assign eligible customers to one of three priority categories.

Priority categories ensure that NHVR services are prioritized for individuals with the most significant disabilities.

Priority Category 1: Individuals with a most significant disability (MSD)

An eligible customer is assigned to Priority Category 1 if:

• The customer experiences serious functional limitations in three or more of the following areas in terms of an employment outcome: mobility, motor skills, communications, self-care, cognition and learning (self-direction), interpersonal, work tolerance, and work skills;

• The customer requires three or more primary vocational rehabilitation services;

• The customer requires multiple services over an extended period of time, defined as a period of six or more months; and

• The customer has one or more physical or mental disabilities resulting from amputation, arthritis, autism, blindness, burn injury, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, deafness, head injury, heart disease, hemiplegia, hemophilia, respiratory or pulmonary dysfunction, mental retardation, mental illness, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, musculo-skeletal disorders, neurological disorders (including stroke and epilepsy), spinal cord conditions (including paraplegia and quadriplegia), sickle cell anemia, specific learning disability, end-stage renal disease, or another disability or combination of disabilities determined on the basis of an assessment for determining eligibility and vocational rehabilitation needs to cause comparable substantial functional limitation.

 Priority Category 2: Individuals with a significant disability (SD)

An eligible customer is assigned to Priority Category 2 if:

• The customer experiences serious functional limitations in one or more of the following areas in terms of an employment outcome: mobility, communications, self-care, cognition and learning (self-direction), interpersonal, work tolerance, and work skills;

• The customer requires two or more primary vocational rehabilitation services;

• The customer requires multiple VR services over an extended period of time; and

• The customer has one or more physical or mental disabilities resulting from amputation, arthritis, autism, blindness, burn injury, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, deafness, head injury, heart disease, hemiplegia, hemophilia, respiratory or pulmonary dysfunction, mental retardation, mental illness, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, musculo-skeletal disorders, neurological disorders (including stroke and epilepsy), spinal cord conditions (including paraplegia and quadriplegia), sickle cell anemia, specific learning disability, end-stage renal disease, or another disability or combination of disabilities determined on the basis of an assessment for determining eligibility and vocational rehabilitation needs to cause comparable substantial functional limitation.

Priority Category 3: Individuals with Less Significant Disabilities (LSD)

An eligible customer is assigned to Priority Category 3 if:

• The customer is determined eligible for services but does not meet the criteria for Priority Category 1 or Priority Category 2.

Priority categories will be assigned consistently, objectively, and with customer rights to review and due process. Consistent with federal regulations, NHVR will not consider duration of residency in New Hampshire, type of disability, age, sex, race, color, national origin, type of expected employment outcome, source of referral, particular service needs or anticipated service costs, individual or family income level, employment history, or education history when assigning a priority of service category.

Selecting Eligible Customers for Services per federal regulations, NHVR will provide the full range of uninterrupted VR services to all existing customers with Individualized Plans for Employment, regardless of the priority category to which they are assigned, when the Order of Selection is implemented subject to available funding. Under an Order of Selection, when sufficient resources are not available to serve all new eligible customers, new customers may be placed on a wait list for services. This wait list will be statewide and based upon customers’ priority categories and application dates.

Should sufficient resources be available to provide the full range of VR services to both existing and new customers, NHVR will serve eligible individuals assigned to Priority Category 1 first. This ensures that services are prioritized for individuals with the most significant disabilities. Customers in Priority Category 1 who have been placed on a wait list will be released based on the date they applied, with the oldest application dates being released first.

If resources are available after all existing customers and all new Priority Category 1 customers are assured the full range of VR services, NHVR will serve eligible individuals assigned to Priority Category 2. Customers in Priority Category 2 who have been placed on a wait list will be released based on the date they applied, with the oldest application dates being released first.

If additional resources are available after all existing customers, new Priority Category 1 customers, and new Priority Category 2 customers are assured the full range of VR services, NHVR will serve eligible individuals assigned to Priority Category 3. Customers in Priority Category 3 who have been placed on a wait list will be released based on the date they applied, with the oldest application dates being released first.

Students with disabilities can continue to receive ongoing Pre-Employment Transition Services while placed on an Order of Selection wait list (closed Order of Selection priority category), as long as they have participated in a Pre-employment Transition Service before being determined eligible for VR services and assigned to a closed Order of Selection priority category.

Federal regulations allow for the continuation of pre-employment transition services only for those students who received such services prior to an eligibility determination and the assignment to a closed Order of Selection priority category (34 CFR §361.36(e)(3)(i)).  Therefore, students, families, advocates, and educators are advised to carefully consider the need to begin Pre- Employment Transition Services as early as possible in the transition process, and prior to eligibility determination.

Potentially eligible students with disabilities (i.e. students who may or may not have applied for VR services (non- applicants and applicants), and only receive Pre-Employment Transition Services) will not be affected by the Order of Selection, and will continue to receive Pre-Employment Transition Services.

Any individual, including a student, in need of an individualized VR service (34 CFR §361.48(b)) will need to apply and be determined eligible for VR services, in order to receive such services under an approved individualized plan for employment (IPE).