Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Transitioning to Employment: Understanding the Employment Outcomes of Transition Age Vocational Rehabilitation Customers

(Employment and Training Programs)

State vocational rehabilitation agencies (SVRAs) provide various services and supports to adults and transition age youth with disabilities who want to work. They are administered at the state level, but are funded primary by federal revenues and overseen by the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Education. Nationally, SVRAs serve about 1.4 million customers each year. Signed into law on July 22, 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) places new requirements on SVRAs regarding service provision to transition-age youth—whom it defines as youth 14 to 24 years old—with disabilities. For example, WIOA requires that at least 15 percent of SVRA expenditures be spent on pre-employment services and supports for transition-age youth. The intention of these requirements is to promote employment for people with childhood onset disabilities as they transition into adulthood. This panel will describe the employment outcomes of transition-age youth who receive services and supports from SVRAs. Two of the panel’s studies will describe the outcomes of transition-age SVRA customers under current program rules. The other two studies will explore the impacts of specific interventions that provide SVRA and other services to improve the employment outcomes of transition-age youth. Attendees should leave with an understanding of (1) the employment outcomes of transition-age SVRA customers, (2) youth outcomes compared to the outcomes of other SVRA customers, (3) the outcomes of transition-age Supplemental Security Income recipients who receive SVRA services, and (4) the potential of two SVRA-based interventions to improve employment outcomes for transition-age youth.