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Workforce Development for People with Disabilities: Career Readiness & Employability

By Elizabeth Whitehouse

This FREE CSG eCademy webcast focused on K-12 education and the transition to other education opportunities or employment for students with disabilities. The webcast includes discussion about individualized learning plans, experiential learning and career readiness opportunities such as higher education, certificate programs, vocational rehabilitation and workforce development. This is the first webcast in a four-part series presented by the National Task Force on Workforce Development for People with Disabilities, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy.

Workforce Development for People with Disabilities: Career Readiness & Employability
Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2 p.m. EDT
Part one of a four-part FREE CSG eCademy Webcast series

Download the slides in PDF. 

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US Department of Education Issues Guidance on Behavior Supports for Students with Disabilities

By Elizabeth Whitehouse

Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) issued guidance in the form of a Dear Colleague Letter emphasizing the requirement that schools provide positive behavioral supports to students with disabilities who need them.  The guidance also clarifies that repeated use of disciplinary actions may suggest that many children with disabilities are not receiving appropriate behavioral interventions and supports.  The Department voiced concern over the possibility of schools failing to consider and provide for needed behavioral supports through an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which could result in a child not receiving the free appropriate public education to which they are entitled under federal law.

Current law allows educators to remove students with disabilities from their classrooms if they violate a code of conduct.  Data indicates students with disabilities are disciplined at far higher rates than their non-disabled peers.  The letter includes two resource documents to assist teachers and school leaders: the Department is providing supports to assist teachers with classroom management strategies and assist schools in implementing school-wide behavioral efforts to create safe and effective environments where all students are given an opportunity to positively engage in their education.  

To better address school discipline and to shine a spotlight on inequities, the Department will update its #Rethink Discipline web page.  The page contains data, graphics, and other information on the prevalence, impact, and legal implications of suspensions and expulsions; resources on effective alternatives; and ways to effectively create positive school climates.  The page also highlights the disproportionate rate at which black students, particularly black males, receive out-of-school suspensions, and data on suspended preschool students, by race and gender.

In February 2016 The Council of State Governments (CSG) convened a National Task Force on Workforce Development for People with Disabilities in partnership with the National Conference of State Legislatures and in collaboration with the US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.  On December 8th, 2016 at the CSG National Conference a final report with suggested policy options for state leaders will be released as part of a full day Policy Academy to highlight the issue of Workforce Development for People with Disabilities. This report and the Policy Academy will include a focus on ideas for K-12 education. 

To sign up for the Policy Academy and learn more please visit: CSG National Conference

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Nebraska Prepares to Open ABLE Accounts to Residents of Other States

By Debra Miller

A new federal law allows persons with disabilities to save for their futures through tax-advantaged  savings accounts set up by states. These accounts — called ABLE — are much like 529 college savings plan. 

On February 23, Nebraska Treasurer Don Stenburg announced plans to make his state’s plan available nationwide.

Nebraska is one of 34 states that have passed legislation to implement the December 2014 ABLE law. (See this February 2016 CSG Research Brief for more on ABLE accounts.) The federal law allows persons with disabilities to save for their futures through tax-advantaged  savings accounts set up by states. These ABLE accounts are much like 529 college savings plan.

With a recent change in federal policy, persons are not required to use an account in their home state, but instead can shop around.  

Nebraska’s Enable plan is expected to be one of the first plans on the market under the new federal law, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. The state has reason to be optimistic that the account will be successful. The state’s 529 college savings plan has 243,000 accounts, only 70,000 of which are held by Nebraskans.

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Top 5 Issues for 2016: Workforce Development

By Elizabeth Whitehouse

CSG Director of Education Policy Elizabeth Whitehouse outlines the top five issues in workforce development policy for 2016, including Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act implementation, employment issues for people with criminal records, engaging people with disabilities in the workforce, veterans’ employment issues, and career pathways for students.

Continue reading “Top 5 Issues for 2016: Workforce Development”
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Achieving a Better Life Experience Act

By CSG Committee on Suggested State Legislation

Achieving a Better Life Experience Act

The Act establishes ABLE savings trust accounts to be administered by the Virginia College Savings Plan to facilitate the saving of private funds for paying the qualified disability expenses of certain disabled individuals. Under the federal Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014, Congress authorized states to establish ABLE savings trust accounts to assist individuals and families in saving and paying for the education, housing, transportation, employment training and support, assistive technology and personal support services, health, prevention and wellness, financial management and administrative services, and other expenses of individuals who were disabled or blind prior to the age of 26. Earnings on contributions to ABLE savings trust accounts are exempt from federal income tax.  Because Virginia conforms to the federal income tax laws, earnings on contributions to ABLE savings trust accounts will also be excluded from Virginia taxable income. 

Submitted as:

Virginia
HB 2306
Status: Signed into law on March 17, 2015.

Achieving a Better Life Experience Act

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In Wisconsin, new programs aim to help students with disabilities transition out of high school

By Katelyn Tye-Skowronski

A year after they have left high school, 58 percent of Wisconsin students with disabilities report that they have not yet worked, participated in a job-training program or taken a postsecondary course. Rep. Robert Brooks, a first-year legislator in the state Assembly, believes the state and its schools can do better for this population.

His plan, introduced at least initially as a budget resolution, calls for new pay-for- performance incentives for school districts to improve their career- and college-readiness programs for students with disabilities.

Districts would be rewarded with a $1,000 payment for each student with an Individualized Education Plan who graduates and, the following year, is either employed or enrolled in a postsecondary school. (School districts and the state already collect this data.)

Schools would use these payments to expand their programs — for example, providing students with transportation to jobs, paying for specialized staff training, or developing college-prep courses for students with disabilities.

“The initiative was something [disability rights groups] already had on the table,” Brooks says. “I decided to get going on it.”

If the plan isn’t adopted with the budget, Brooks plans to then introduce it as a stand-alone bill in the fall. The Department of Public Instruction estimates the program would need $5.8 million in its initial year.

Brooks says his new approach complements existing state programs, including Gov. Scott Walker’s Better Bottom Line plan, which seeks to improve the job market for people with disabilities. Wisconsin is also home to the Let’s Get to Work initiative, a federally funded project overseen by the state’s Board for People with Developmental Disabilities. The program aims to improve employment outcomes for students with disabilities as they transition out of high school.

Each of the project’s 12 pilot schools has developed and implemented recommendations to improve services and outcomes. One strategy, for example, has been to provide access to courses that relate to the students’ interests and career goals.

In the project’s first year, the number of students with disabilities who had paid jobs tripled. After three years, more than 60 percent of the students from these pilot schools were working.

Stateline Midwest May 2015

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Jobless numbers are falling, but so are rates of labor participation

By Tim Anderson

In 2014, year-over-year unemployment rates fell in all 50 states. That hadn’t happened since 1984, and the news was greeted as another positive sign of economic recovery. But there is another trend getting more attention from economists and state policymakers: the continuing decline in rates of labor participation.

Close to six years after the official end of the Great Recession, these rates continue to fall. The labor force includes people who have jobs and those who are actively seeking work (the unemployed). Four states in the Midwest (North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota) have the highest labor-participation rates in the country. But with the exception of North Dakota, every state in this region has been following the national trend: declines in participation since 2000 (see table).

For state policymakers, the causes for this drop can serve as an indicator of a state’s economic health — for example, more people are long-term unemployed, become discouraged about finding work and drop out of the labor market. That has contributed to the decline in participation rates, but there are other factors as well, notes Eugene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute.

People are retiring earlier and living longer, he says, and state populations are aging. More people, too, simply aren’t entering the labor force, and are instead staying in school longer or raising children, a 2013 Urban Institute study notes.

And while labor-participation rates fall, the number of people on federal disability rolls is on the rise — a 77.3 percent increase between 2000 and 2013. In comparison, the U.S. population has increased by 12.0 percent over that time.

Earlier this year, Express Employment Professionals (a provider of staffing for businesses) released a report examining state-by-state increases in the number of people on federal disability. Between 2008 and 2013, two Midwestern states had the largest increases in the nation: Michigan (29.1 percent) and Ohio (28.2 percent). North Dakota had the Midwest’s lowest rate of increase, 12.8 percent (fifth-lowest among the 50 states.)

Stateline Midwest April 2015

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Disabled, and able to work: With legislation and executive actions, states are doing more to improve job prospects of people with disabilities

By Laura Tomaka

For nearly 40 years, South Dakota Rep. Fred Romkema has run a jobs training center for a segment of his state’s population that he says is too often forgotten. About 140 people with disabilities are currently served at the Northern Hills Training Center, and 108 of them are earning a regular paycheck.

Continue reading “Disabled, and able to work: With legislation and executive actions, states are doing more to improve job prospects of people with disabilities”
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Six states awarded grants to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities

By Jennifer Burnett

The Department of Labor has awarded $14,837,785 in grants to six states – California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota and South Dakota – to improve employment opportunities for adults and youth with disabilities as part of the Disability Employment Initiative. The initiative awards grants to help increase the participation of adults and youth with disabilities in existing career pathway systems and other programs that bring together educational institutions, the private sector and disability advocates. 

“Breaking down barriers to employment for people with disabilities is important in order for our country to field a full team and ensure that no worker is left behind,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez in a press release. “The federal grants we’re awarding today will help open many more doors to opportunities, providing people with disabilities with skills they need to achieve economic self-sufficiency.”

In particular, those awarded grants will use the funding to: 

  • hire or designate a Disability Resource Coordinator, an expert in workforce and disability issues, to achieve program goals;
  • foster partnerships and collaboration at the state and local levels;
  • integrate resources and services; and
  • ensure that local American Job Centers comply with physical, programmatic and communications accessibility requirements.  

This is the fifth round of grants through the initiative, which has funded 37 projects across 26 states.

To learn more about this initiative, visit the U.S. Department of Labor.

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Minnesota governor issues executive order to boost state’s hiring of disabled

By Tim Anderson

Concerned about a steady decline in the proportion of state workers who are disabled, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is ordering agency heads to do more. His executive order also includes a workforce goal — that by 2018, 7 percent of the people employed by Minnesota’s state agencies be individuals with disabilities.

In 2013, about 3 percent of the state workers in Minnesota were disabled. In his August announcement, Dayton pointed to neighboring states that have higher rates — 5.8 percent and 4.4 percent in Wisconsin and Iowa, respectively. State agencies will get guidance on how to recruit and hire people with disabilities. They must also promote employment opportunities for this population and, four times a year, report progress on meeting the state’s new goals.

Minnesota is not alone in establishing new initiatives to expand work opportunities for the disabled. Michigan, for example, issued a “Better Off Working” plan in August that identifies policy changes to help individuals with disabilities find work. One of the recommendations is to improve the state’s own hiring process. In 2012, Ohio Gov. John Kasich launched the Employment First Initiative, the goal of which is to deliver “meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”

Stateline Midwest September 2014