State Policies – By Topic
This bill requires the State Board of Community Colleges to establish a two-year pilot program for training programs that provide credentials or micro-credentials that lead to increased employment outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The goal of the program is to inform community colleges on best practices for providing these training programs and other services (such as financial and benefits counseling).
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill increases funding for a program for farmers with disabilities, which helps them gainfully engage in farming through agricultural worksite and home modification consultations, peer support services, services to families, information and referral and equipment loan services.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill:
1. Authorizes local workforce development boards to:
• Include representatives of community-based organizations that provide competitive integrated employment to individuals with disabilities; and
• Establish standing committees to provide information and assist with issues relating to serving individuals with disabilities;
2. Requires local workforce development boards to work with the state to ensure sufficient numbers and types of providers are providing opportunities that lead to competitive integrated employment; and
3. Requires local workforce development boards to coordinate activities with education and training providers relating to vocational rehabilitation services, which can include cross-training staff and providing technical assistance.
State / Territory: Iowa
This resolution creates the Joint Study Committee on Postsecondary Education and Employment Options for Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, consisting of Legislative members and members appointed by the Governor.
State / Territory: Georgia
This resolution urges the Legislative Council to assign to the appropriate study committee the topic of studying barriers to competitive integrated employment that Hoosiers with disabilities face, and to create an advisory subcommittee that consists of disability-led advocacy organizations and allies.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill appropriates money to Intellectual Disabilities State Centers for employment and training, as well as to Vocational Rehabilitation for supported employment. It further appropriates money for medical assistance for workers with disabilities.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill increases the reimbursement rate (to be used to compensate direct support professionals) for a variety of home- and community-based services for people with developmental disabilities, including prevocational services, mentorship and supported employment.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill establishes an Adult High School Pilot Program, to establish an alternative method for adults (age 21 and older) who did not graduate from high school to earn a high school diploma, postsecondary education credits and industry-recognized certification. If requires applicants looking to establish a pilot program to indicate how they will work with students with disabilities, and requires pilot programs to provide accommodations to students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill establishes that competitive integrated employment will be considered the first option when serving people with disabilities of working age, and requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill increases the reimbursement rate minimum wage for providers of state-administered services for people with intellectual disabilities, including employment services.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill requires IEPs of students with autism spectrum disorder to include appropriate measurable postsecondary goals (based upon transition assessments related to training, education and employment), and to indicate the transition services needed to assist a child in reaching those goals.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill requires the state to develop a plan to establish a workforce development pipeline for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes a task force to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including by studying and making recommendations around expanding employment assistance programs for people with disabilities. Members include employed people with disabilities and the commissioners of Developmental Services, Mental Health and Addiction Services, Labor and Rehabilitation Services.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes that it is the policy of the state that competitive integrated employment is considered the first option when serving people with disabilities of working age, and requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Kansas
This bill establishes a multi-stakeholder Task Force on Maximizing Employment for People with Disabilities, to study the problem of unemployment and underemployment among individuals with disabilities and provide recommendations on how to increase opportunities, expand employment readiness and training programs and offer greater employment supports.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires that a statement of transition service needs be included in a student’s IEP, beginning at or before the student reaches the age of 14.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes that the preferred outcome of work-based learning experiences for youth with disabilities is competitive integrated employment. It further adds members to the Employment First Oversight Commission, including a representative from the Pennsylvania Client Assistance Program and from an organization that works to create competitive integrated employment opportunities.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill designates the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) as the lead agency responsible for developing connections between local education agencies and employers to promote the successful transition of students from school to competitive, gainful employment. This includes ensuring that job readiness skills training is included in a student’s IEP. The bill further requires OVR to arrange for, monitor and support the placement of high school students with disabilities in internships, on-the-job training and full- or part-time work at competitive wages in integrated settings with private and public sector employers.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill requires the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals; school districts; and other agencies to create a transition plan for students who are developmentally delayed and under the jurisdiction of Family Court. The plan includes an education plan, available mentors, workforce supports and employment services, a health insurance option and more.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill makes several provisions to eliminate subminimum wage employment for people with disabilities, including
1. Prohibiting providers of jobs and training services from entering into a contract where a person will be paid less than minimum wage;
2. Prohibiting counseling, information, referrals, services and supports to be provided to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities for the purpose of obtaining subminimum wage employment;
3. Requiring the Aging and Disability Services Division to provide people employed at subminimum wage with career counseling, information and referrals to facilitate independent decisions and informed choice; and
4. Requiring employers of people working at subminimum wage to provide information on training concerning self-advocacy, self-determination and peer mentoring.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill requires clients receiving services through a waiver to be offered the option to transition from a community access program to an employment program at any time. It further requires the Department of Social and Health Services to inform clients of all available options for employment and day services and emphasize support for the client so they are able to participate in activities that integrate them into their community and support independent living and skills.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill establishes the extended employment services program for the purpose of increasing employment opportunities for people 16 years of age or older who have a disability that constitutes a barrier to maintaining paid employment without long-term vocational support.
State / Territory: Idaho
This bill requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate (including through data sharing) to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This bill establishes an Employment First policy for the state, and requires agencies to coordinate and collaborate (including through sharing data) to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Wyoming
This bill establishes that the purpose of vocational rehabilitation programs is to prepare individuals with disabilities to engage in competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill establishes that the employment of individuals with developmental disabilities in fully-integrated work settings is the highest priority over unemployment, segregated employment, facility-based employment or day habilitation (i.e. services that assist people in acquiring, retaining or improving self-help, socialization and adaptive skills).
State / Territory: Oregon
This bill broadens eligibility for the Mary Brennan fellowship fund program, such that young adults with disabilities (not just college students with disabilities) can participate. Fellows engage in a semester-long, part-time placement with the Governor’s Commission on Disabilities, working on disability policy and research, meeting with decisionmakers and developing networks with professionals who can assist in career development and future endeavors.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires the Governor’s Workforce Board to expand job and career opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It also adds representatives from the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals to the advisory committee of the state career pathways systems.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires the Department of Labor to increase the availability of training programs that lead to a credential of value and to create an integrated postsecondary career and technical education system. In doing so the Department is required to recognize issues faced by people with historical barriers to employment or who are underrepresented in the workforce, including people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Vermont
This bill establishes that transition services for children with disabilities, as well as vocational rehabilitation services, will focus on helping individuals become gainfully employed in integrated settings.
State / Territory: Alaska
This bill requires the State Board of Education and Early Development to adopt regulations that provide for the needs of students with disabilities in the implementation of the college and career readiness assessment, which includes the SAT, ACT, or WorkKeys assessment. The regulations may address the conditions, criteria, procedure, and scheduling of the assessment.
State / Territory: Alaska
This bill establishes a permanent commission on the status of people with disabilities, which is tasked with studying and advising on the status of transportation for people with disabilities, including to access employment opportunities; establishing school-to-work activities for transition-aged youth with disabilities that engage family members (among other stakeholders); and promoting and facilitating collaboration among local disability commissions, disability right advocacy organizations and disability employment service providers.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill prohibits employers from paying any individual with a disability an hourly rate lower than minimum wage. It also repeals the special authorization for sheltered workshops.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This bill:
1. Requires boards of education to provide special education and related services to students who attain the age of 21 during the pandemic, provided the student’s parent and IEP team determine the student requires additional or compensatory special education and related services, including transition services;
2. Requires these services be paid for through federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Act (CRRSA) and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, and that Property Tax Relief Fund be used to reimburse school districts for any costs that federal funds do not cover; and
3. Permits approved private schools for students with disabilities to temporarily utilize non-qualifying spaces on school property for instruction and educational purposes in order to serve any additional students receiving these services, including transition services.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires mental health and disability services regions to ensure that certain services – including transition services related to job development, supported employment and prevocational services – are available to children not eligible for the medical assistance program or receiving other third-party payment for services.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill appropriates funds to the Department of Education from the Division of Career and Technical Education Public School Fund Account, for Coordinated Career Education Services for Special Needs Students.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill requires the State Department of Developmental Services to conduct a four-year demonstration project to determine whether community-based vocational development services will increase employment outcomes for consumers and reduce purchase of service costs for working age adults.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to assign a student identification number to individuals with exceptional needs for the purpose of evaluating special education programs and related services, including transition and work experience programs.
State / Territory: California
This bill authorizes residents of two crisis centers for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities to participate in work programs and other developmental center facility activities when identified as appropriate and consistent with the individual’s treatment plan.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the California Workforce Investment Board to assist the Governor in helping individuals experiencing barriers to employment (including individuals with disabilities) achieve economic security and upward mobility by implementing policies that encourage the attainment of marketable skills relevant to current labor market trends.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires each developmental disability regional center planning team to consider and provide information about the state’s Employment First policy when developing an individual program plan for a transition-age youth or working-age adult. This includes providing options for integrated competitive employment and services and supports that can enable the participant to transition from school to work or obtain competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires community college districts to maintain student equity plans in order to receive specific funding. As part of these plans, districts must conduct campus-based research on equity for students with disabilities (among other groups of students); establish goals for enhancing access to and completion of basic skills, career technical education and workforce training for various populations (including students with disabilities); and lay out how each college in the district will address any significant disparities in access or outcomes for those groups of students.
State / Territory: California
This bill enables the Director of Developmental Disabilities to establish an Employment First Task Force to improve coordination of the state’s efforts to address the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities who seek community employment. It further appropriates funds for the Employment First Pilot Program, to develop a long-term, sustainable system that places individuals with developmental disabilities in community employment.
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill requires that discussions about employment options with children and parents during the IEP process are consistent with Delaware’s Employment First policy, and that progress made toward postsecondary goals in transition IEPs is reported with the same frequency as that for academic goals.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill adds the Director of the Division for the Visually Impaired and the Director of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health to the state’s Employment First Oversight Commission.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill tasks the Employment First Oversight Commission with developing and implementing a plan to phase out subminimum wage employment that considers the needs of affected providers and employees with disabilities working at less than minimum wage.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill establishes that the goal of the Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities is to improve employment outcomes for working-age adults with disabilities, including by coordinating and collaborating to remove barriers in reaching competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: North Dakota
This bill provides that the policy of the state is to promote competitive integrated employment, including self-employment, as the first and preferred option when providing services (including transition services) to individuals with disabilities. In addition, it directs the Commission on Rehabilitation Services to:
1. Establish baseline data regarding the number of individuals with disabilities in competitive integrated employment (CIE);
2. Set annual goals for increasing the percentage of individuals in CIE;
3. Identify and resolve barriers to employment for individuals with disabilities; and
4. Recommend changes to state policies and assist state agencies in implementing disability employment policies.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill prohibits an employer from paying less than minimum wage to a person by virtue of that person having a mental or physical disability, and nullifies special certificates authorizing the payment of less than minimum wage.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill requires that publicly-funded programs prioritize competitive integrated employment, and that the departments of Workforce Development, Public Instruction and Health Services work together to lead a collaboration among state agencies and jointly develop a plan to ensure that programs, policies and procedures support competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Wisconsin
This bill establishes that competitive integrated employment, including self-employment, is the first and preferred option for all working age citizens with disabilities. It further requires state agencies to coordinate their efforts to ensure that programs, funding and policies support integrated community-based employment or customized employment.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill states that the goal of rehabilitation services – including pre-employment transition services and other services for students and youth with disabilities to facilitate transition from school to postsecondary life – is to engage in competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Maine
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Task Force on Employment and Economic Opportunity for people with disabilities, to advise the Governor on policies and programs that will increase employment and economic opportunity for people with disabilities. Members include representatives from the Office of Special Education, the Division of Behavioral Health and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This Executive Order directs state agencies to coordinate efforts to increase competitive integrated employment for Tennesseans with disabilities, and convenes an Employment First Task Force to identify barriers and best practices for increasing competitive integrated employment opportunities in the state.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This Executive Order reconstitutes the state Workforce Development Board, which includes one representative of a community-based organization that has demonstrated experience and expertise in addressing the employment, training or education needs of individuals with barriers to employment, including providing competitive integrated employment to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill adds ex officio members to the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship, including the Director of Rehabilitation and the Executive Director of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. The bill further establishes a subcommittee to address apprenticeship for the disabled community, to encourage greater participation for people with disabilities in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.
State / Territory: California
This bill establishes the legislature’s intent that the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation work with community rehabilitation providers (CRPs) to understand the impact that the level of fees for service has on their ability to recruit and retain qualified workers, and reappropriates funding to be used for a one-year rate increase to CRPs.
State / Territory: Idaho
This bill establishes the Legislature’s intent that the Division of Rehabilitation Services and the Division of Developmental Disabilities work collaboratively to improve employment for individuals with disabilities and to maximize federal matching funds.
State / Territory: Nebraska
This bill appropriates funds to the Department of Mental Health to provide supportive employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Mississippi
This bill furthers the policy of the state to encourage and assist individuals with severe disabilities to achieve maximum personal independence through useful, productive and gainful employment by assuring expanded competitive integrated employment opportunities. In addition, it creates a Committee for Providing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Severe Disabilities, which provides oversight to a central nonprofit agency in employing individuals with severe disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill dedicates funding for a county office of education to convene a workgroup that will examine and propose alternative pathways to a high school diploma for students with disabilities. It further dedicates funding for a county office of education to convene a workgroup that will design a state standardized IEP template and support transition planning.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires school districts to begin providing transition services to students with developmental disabilities at age 14 (rather than 16).
State / Territory: Nebraska
This bill:
1. Requires each student’s IEP to include age-appropriate transition assessments related to education, training and employment for students age 14 and older;
2. Requires each student’s IEP to include pre-vocational assessments for students in kindergarten through grade six;
3. Authorizes the Tennessee School for the Blind to implement programs and install facilities for career and technical education; and
4. Authorizes the Commissioner of Education to establish a work training program for adults who are blind or visually impaired.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill establishes the Colorado Deafblind Citizens Council, which will advise various government entities on how to increase competitive integrated employment, enlarge economic opportunities, enhance independence and self-sufficiency and improve services for people who are deafblind.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish interagency agreements with various agencies to foster effective collaboration, promote efficiencies and establish a uniform focus among agencies providing transition services to special education students. It further requires the Education Data Center to monitor outcomes for special education students, including the number of students entering competitive integrated employment or postsecondary education and training programs.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill authorizes transition planning for students with disabilities to start as soon as practicable and appropriate, and requires interagency responsibilities and linkages with transition services to be addressed in a transition plan in a student’s IEP. It also requires that meetings to discuss postsecondary goals include parents, students and educators.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill takes measures to reduce the number of former foster youth with developmental disabilities who are discharged into homelessness or inappropriately placed in hospitals. This includes requiring the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to plan services for youth with developmental disabilities in advance of their transitions to adulthood. It further requires that priority for Medicaid waivers be given to individuals who exited dependency in the last two years.
State / Territory: Washington
This Executive Directive orders various cabinet secretaries and their respective executive branch agencies and councils to continue completing and updating a comprehensive, cross-governmental strategic plan designed to ensure continued community integration of Virginians with disabilities.
State / Territory: Virginia
This Executive Order creates the Future Ready Iowa Alliance, which will develop and recommend a strategic plan to accomplish the Future Ready Iowa goal of 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce having education or training beyond high school by the year 2025. It authorizes the Governor to appoint representatives from the state’s vocational rehabilitation programs to the Alliance.
State / Territory: Iowa
This resolution creates a task force to study and make recommendations regarding statewide programs for the blind and visually impaired, including around postsecondary transition planning and programming.
State / Territory: Delaware
This Executive Order establishes the RecoveryOhio Advisory Committee, which will advise the Governor’s administration on matters related to mental illness and substance use prevention, treatment and recovery support services and provide recommendations on recovery support strategies (including peer support, employment and housing).
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill directs the Department of Human Services to establish a five-year Customized Employment Pilot Program to help individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities achieve and maintain competitive integrated employment through a process of customized planning and negotiation. It requires that participants in the pilot program reflect the geographical, racial, ethnic, gender and income-level diversity of the state. In addition, the bill requires the Department to seek the advice and recommendations of other entities in creating and operating the pilot program.
State / Territory: Illinois
This resolution establishes a task force to study ways to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including expanding existing employment assistance programs for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill:
1. Requires the State Department of Developmental Services to increase service access and equity and reduce disparities in its Self-Determination Program (which gives participants and families greater choice in implementation of their individual program plan);
2. Establishes an Office of the Self-Determination Program Ombudsperson to assist consumers and their families in understanding their rights under the program;
3. Makes rate increases permanent for specified developmental services, including supported employment services;
4. Establishes incentive payments to service providers who help clients achieve certain employment outcomes (such as competitive integrated employment for a prescribed period of time); and
5. Requires the Department to establish a program to increase pathways to competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the State Department of Social Services to provide the eligibility and enrollment data for the California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) and CalFresh (implementation of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) programs to the State Department of Developmental Services for the purposes of monitoring and evaluating employment outcomes to determine the effectiveness of the state’s Employment First policy.
State / Territory: California
This bill appropriates funding for Workforce Investment boards to provide grants for basic skills training for individuals with learning disabilities or who otherwise need vocational rehabilitation services. It further directs the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development to work with organizations dedicated to the economic empowerment of people with disabilities (among other groups) to promote its basic skills training program.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill creates an interagency committee for providing competitive integrated employment for individuals with severe disabilities, which includes a parent of a child with disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill encourages community college districts and other entities participating in the Strong Workforce Program to develop and support workforce development programs and pathways for young adults with autism and other developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires that each student’s IEP identify the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Digital Tool certificates and CAPE industry certifications the student seeks to attain before high school graduation. It further requires that student IEPs identify the need for transition services, including as it relates to self-advocacy and the attainment of a standard high school diploma. The bill also outlines certificate and diploma options available to students with IEPs.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill establishes a transition-to-work program, which consists of academic instruction, work skills training and a volunteer or paid work experience for private school students with disabilities between the ages of 17-22. It further requires that credit earned by private school students (including those with disabilities) enrolled in dual enrollment programs be applied toward high school completion. Postsecondary institutions eligible to participate in dual enrollment must indicate the services and resources that are available to students with disabilities who register in a dual enrollment course.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill:
1. Establishes the Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) and a corresponding scholarship, designed to increase inclusive postsecondary education and employment opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); and
2. Establishes the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities, which is tasked with:
• Disseminating information to students with disabilities and their parents about education programs, employment opportunities and mentoring;
• Facilitating collaboration between institutions and parents to assist students transitioning into a FPCTP;
• Providing technical assistance to postsecondary institutions regarding programs and services for students with intellectual disabilities; and
• Collaborating with various entities to promote experiential training and employment opportunities for students with IDD.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill eliminates subminimum wage certificates for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill eliminates subminimum wage certificates for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill eliminates subminimum wage employment by providing supports to ensure successful transitions for individuals with disabilities currently working in subminimum wage jobs.
State / Territory: Colorado
This Executive Order directs state agencies to coordinate efforts to increase employment of Arkansans with disabilities.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This Executive Order requires state departments and agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment as the first priority and optimal outcome for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Michigan
This bill establishes the South Carolina Employment First Study Committee for the purpose of studying and evaluating the need for an Employment First Initiative Act, which would establish policies supportive of competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities and create related responsibilities for state agencies.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This Executive Order establishes that competitive integrated employment is the first and preferred option for all working age citizens with disabilities in the state.
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill establishes the Employment First Advisory Partnership, a multi-agency entity tasked with developing a strategic plan to expand competitive integrated employment outcomes for people with disabilities, including by identifying training and knowledge gaps among agency staff, agency vendors and individuals with disabilities and their families that may create obstacles to advancing competitive integrated employment. It further establishes that the Department of Labor and Employment is responsible for promoting youth transitions that focus on public-private collaboration and employer engagement that emphasizes free-market solutions.
State / Territory: Colorado
This resolution encourages the Secretary of Health and Human Resources and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to adopt and implement Employment First practices in providing and coordinating services to Virginians with disabilities.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill requires the first IEP in effect after a child with a disability reaches age 14 to include transition assessments and services, including appropriate measurable postsecondary goals (based upon transition assessments related to training, education and employment); the transition services needed to assist the child in reaching those goals; and a statement of inter-agency responsibilities or any needed linkages before the child leaves the school setting.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to establish and support entrepreneurship assistance centers to train certain groups of individuals, including individuals with disabilities, in the principles and practice of entrepreneurship in order to prepare them to pursue self-employment opportunities. Centers will establish an advisory group of community business experts to provide counseling and mentoring services to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This Executive Order directs State Human Resources to review and recommend any updates to a prior Executive Order to improve employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, in consultation with the Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues and Employment.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill establishes the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Council, which will examine various issues related to the state vocational rehabilitation program and advise the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency on those matters. Topics include order of selection; the extent, scope and effectiveness of services provided; and coordination with the state’s independent living council and centers for independent living.
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill establishes and appropriates money for county college-based adult centers for transition, whose purpose is to coordinate and integrate existing county- and state-based services, programs and resources, and to ensure that individuals with developmental disabilities up to the age of 24 have opportunities to receive mentoring, job coaching, skill training and any other appropriate wrap-around services to help them make a successful transition into employment and independent living.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill establishes a committee to study the payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities and develop a strategic plan to phase out subminimum wages. The plan must address mechanisms to implement technical assistance and training to employers and provider agencies as they phase out subminimum wage arrangements and to provide employment services for individuals with disabilities as they are phased out of subminimum wage arrangements.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This Executive Order establishes a Task Force on Economic Opportunity for Populations Facing Chronically High Rates of Unemployment, which is responsible for identifying challenges and barriers to employment and recommending strategies for helping target populations (including people with disabilities) prepare for and connect to employment opportunities.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Taskforce on Integrated Employment, which is responsible for examining and evaluating current employment programs, resources, funding, available training and employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Nevada
This Executive Order establishes an Employment First Commission to provide guidance and advice to the Governor regarding the competitive integrated employment of individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: New York
This Executive Order establishes an Employment First policy for all state agencies, so that competitive integrated employment is the first consideration and preferred outcome of publicly-funded education, training, employment and long-term supports and services for working-age Pennsylvanians with a disability.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This Executive Order requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Mississippi
This Executive Order requires all current and future contracts that the state enters into as part of the State Use program to pay minimum wage to all employees performing work on the contract. It further allows agencies to amend contracts with vendors that currently pay workers subminimum wage, in order to bring wages to at or above minimum wage.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill expands the state’s business enterprise program to allow people who are blind to operate additional types of businesses on state property, beyond vending facilitates. In addition, it directs the Department of Labor and Employment to convene a working group to examine avenues to expand job and business opportunities, as well as corresponding trainings, for people who are blind.
State / Territory: Colorado
This Executive Order directs the Secretary of Education to expand educational opportunities and advance employment for individuals with disabilities, including by exploring ways to increase active participation in advanced training and higher education programs.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill requires:
1. Centers for independent living to provide services that facilitate the transition of youth with significant disabilities to postsecondary life;
2. Vocational rehabilitation services (including transition services) to prepare people for competitive integrated employment;
3. The Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services to enter into cooperative agreements (including with the Virginia Community College System) to provide vocational rehabilitation services;
4. Vocational rehabilitation services to include assistive technology programs and provide support (including tuition) for advanced training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and other fields; and
5. The Department to regularly evaluate a client’s interests and needs with respect to competitive integrated employment, once they are placed in extended employment.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill establishes a Youth Services Coordination Task Force to study the establishment of a single network of service providers for youth that can provide vocational training, subsidized work experiences, mentoring, tutoring, GED preparation, community service opportunities and other services to youth. The Task Force includes the Director of the Department of Disability Services.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill adds employment assistance and self-advocacy components to a program administered by the Florida Endowment Foundation for Vocational Rehabilitation and state Centers for Independent Living. The program provides personal care attendants and other support and services necessary to enable people with significant disabilities to obtain or maintain competitive integrated employment, including self-employment.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill directs American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the establishment of workforce development programs for underserved populations, including people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill authorizes the Division of Rehabilitation Services to contract with a public or private entity to provide services to vocational rehabilitation program clients and to establish and operate a statewide comprehensive rehabilitation and training center at Smyrna.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill directs the Administrator of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to provide at least a 4.27% increase in service provision rates for community rehabilitation providers.
State / Territory: California
This bill:
1. Establishes Employment First and self-direction policies for the state and reconfigures waiver programs to align with those policies;
2. Requires case managers and support service providers to help waiver recipients identify employment services providers, identify opportunities for competitive employment and understand options for transitioning from day services to employment services; and
3. Expands funding for consumer-directed community supports participants and waiver participants who require additional supports.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires all vendors of supported employment services to obtain a nationally recognized supported employment training certificate or certification. The bill further requires the Executive Director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to facilitate Employment First policies by reporting various datapoints for individuals eligible for supported employment services.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill creates a pilot program for inclusive higher education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which will be operated at two four-year institutions and one community college and include peer mentoring, coordinate with vocational rehabilitation supports and focus on preparing students for gainful competitive employment. Pilot programs can also include an institutional assessment to determine training needs, technical assistance and other capacity needed within the institution to provide these programs.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill eliminates the subminimum wage for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP team to identify the need for transition services before the student enters high school or reaches the age of 14;
2. The student’s IEP team to provide students and their parents with various transition-related information, including transition services, career and technical education and collegiate programs available to students with disabilities;
3. That IEP teams discuss how a student with a disability who meets the requirements for a standard high school diploma can defer receipt of that diploma; and
4. The Department of Education to review existing transition services and programs for students with disabilities to establish uniform best practices, and to post those best practices to its website.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill establishes a Financial Literacy Program for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, which must include information, resources, outreach and education around job training programs and employment opportunities. It further establishes an Employment First policy, to be implemented through an interagency cooperative agreement. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Management Services, in consultation with other agencies and offices, to develop and implement programs that incorporate internships, mentoring, on-the-job training, unpaid work experience, situational assessments and other innovative strategies geared toward individuals with a disability.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill phases out subminimum wage for people with disabilities through a multi-stakeholder process.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill:
1. Directs the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Department of Disabilities, in partnership with other state agencies, to develop and implement a plan to eliminate subminimum wage employment;
2. Requires Resource Coordinators for individuals who are being paid less than minimum wage to develop a plan that addresses how community integration and employment will be accomplished, including by addressing barriers (such as transportation) to accessing funding and resources; and
3. Requires employers to inform any new employees who are employed at less than minimum wage about opportunities to obtain competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill establishes an Employment First Taskforce to develop and implement a state Employment First policy. This includes proposing initiatives to address the culture of low expectations for children with disabilities and describing minimal workforce competency-based training standards applicable for job coaches, case managers and other relevant personnel.
State / Territory: West Virginia
This bill requires county office of education personnel to work in collaboration with the county probation department and local education agencies to ensure specified transition activities are completed for youth in the juvenile justice system, and to facilitate the transfer of a pupil’s IEP (which identifies academic and career goals) when that pupil enters the juvenile court school.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the State Board of Education to institute and establish career-technical education and work training programs for secondary and postsecondary students with visual impairments. The programs will help students develop communication, mobility and work skills.
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill develops a Best Buddies license plate, and distributes funds to Best Buddies International, Inc. to create opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires various agencies to develop a collaborative action plan to increase the community integration of people with disabilities, including through competitive employment, with a focus on aligning policies and funding. It further requires Assertive Community Service teams, which provide treatment and rehabilitative mental health services, to provide employment services and include a full-time vocational specialist.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services to administer and make referrals for Long-Term Employment Support Services and Extended Employment Services to assist individuals with a significant disability or most significant disability related to maintaining employment.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in collaboration with the Department of Social and Health Services Developmental Disabilities Administration and Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, to develop a plan to build statewide capacity among school districts to improve transition planning for students with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill establishes the Legislature’s intent that social support services – including vocational training and employment assistance – be provided to help individuals with mental health conditions live successfully in their communities. It further requires that services provided to people with mental health conditions use the coordination-of-care principles characteristic of recovery oriented services and include vocational training and employment assistance.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill establishes an advisory committee to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. The purpose of the advisory committee is creating an early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention competitive selection process to, among other things, expand the provision of high-quality, evidence-based early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention services (including supported education and employment).
State / Territory: California
This bill requires that any proceeds from sales of state-operated mental health facilities be used to fund mental health services and supports, including individual placement and support as well as supported employment and adaptive equipment for individuals with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This Executive Order establishes the Michigan Workforce Development Board as an advisory body within the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The Board is tasked with assisting the Governor on developing strategies to support the use of career pathways to provide individuals with disabilities (among other populations) with workforce investment activities, education and supportive services to enter or retain employment.
State / Territory: Michigan
This bill phases out subminimum wage for people with disabilities, through a multi-stakeholder process.
State / Territory: California
This bill:
1. Requires school districts to provide students with IEPs information about Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities;
2. Allows students to enroll in the school district’s CTE program at any time if doing so is consistent with their transition goals;
3. Adds disability services coordinators of public community colleges and CTE coordinators as additional participants in a student’s transition planning process; and
4. Directs community college districts and school districts to work together to:
• Provide access to dual enrollment courses for students with disabilities;
• Provide supplementary aids and accommodations needed to access dual credit courses; and
• Offer for-credit and non-credit courses (including general education courses, career and technical education, and vocational training) for students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill establishes the legislature’s intent that the Department of Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Workforce Services and the Utah State Board of Education, develop a comprehensive plan to ensure the effective transition of students with disabilities from public education to appropriate non-segregated employment.
State / Territory: Utah
This bill establishes the Office on Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and requires that it coordinate with appropriate agencies to provide people who are deaf or hard of hearing with support and access to workforce development opportunities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill allocates funding for rate increases to providers of extended employment services for people with severe disabilities. It further requires the Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, to develop a customized training program for skilled manufacturing industries and to actively recruit individuals with disabilities (among other disadvantaged groups) for the program.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill:
1. Establishes Employment first priorities;
2. Establishes a Task Force for Eliminating Subminimum Wages; and
3. Provides grants for a range of disability employment purposes, including:
• Conducting family outreach and education on transitioning from subminimum wage employment to competitive employment;
• Providing intensive treatment and support (including employment support) for adolescents and adults experiencing a first psychotic episode; and
• Delivering peer-led skill training sessions to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities understand community service options related to employment, education and transportation.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill appropriates funding to provide financial assistance to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who attend a Minnesota postsecondary institution. It further requests that the University of Minnesota-Morris offer an academic program for students with IDD that includes peer mentoring, financial literacy training and an internship, apprenticeship or other skills-based experience to prepare students for meaningful employment.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill allocates funding for a pilot program to increase competitive employment opportunities for transition-age youth ages 18-21, which includes training around job-seeking skills, workplace orientation and job site knowledge. In operating the pilot program, the grant recipient is required to collaborate with schools, disability providers, jobs and training organizations, vocational rehabilitation providers and employers.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This Executive Order establishes that competitive integrated employment shall be considered the first and primary option for people with disabilities of working age who have communicated a desire to become employed.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This Executive Order establishes an Employment First Council, which is tasked with increasing opportunities for competitive integrated employment in the state. The Council includes (among other members) representatives who have an immediate family member with a disability.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This bill directs the Secretary of Administration to convene a work group to examine and make recommendations regarding state procurement policies and procedures to incent the competitive integrated employment of individuals with significant disabilities.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill:
1. Adds various members to the state’s Employment and Economic Opportunity for People with Disabilities Task Force, including the Director of Juvenile Justice, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board; and
2. Requires the Task Force to take steps to improve the transition of youth with disabilities to employment and postsecondary education and training, including by:
• Designing a data sharing process and analyzing transitions data;
• Serving as a resource to state and local agencies involved in the delivery of services to youth with disabilities; and
• Developing in-service training programs for consumers and families in improving understanding and awareness of postsecondary transition services.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill requires state agencies to consider competitive integrated employment as a first option for people with disabilities, and to coordinate and collaborate to support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities (including by sharing data and information across systems). It further tasks the Disability Resource Commission with identifying barriers and solutions for increasing competitive integrated employment in the state.
State / Territory: Mississippi
This Mayor’s Order re-establishes the Workforce Investment Council, which includes the Director of the Department on Disability Services as well as representatives of community-based organizations that have demonstrated experience and expertise in providing competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This Executive Order reaffirms a commitment to employment for people with disabilities and establishes an interagency cooperative agreement to ensure the continuation of this commitment.
State / Territory: Florida
This Executive Order reestablishes the state’s Workforce Development Board, and requires that certain members come from organizations that provide competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities. It further tasks the Board with developing strategies to provide workforce investment activities, education and supportive services to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill requires the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services to develop a plan to establish a statewide crisis assistance system program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It further establishes a task force to assess services and supports for people with IDD, which includes representatives from the Division and family members of people with IDD. Finally, it requires the Division to assess staffing and fiscal resources needed to provide vocational rehabilitation services to all eligible individuals.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill requires the Commissioner of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities to establish the Care Demonstration Program, to utilize the state workforce to provide community-based care to individuals with developmental disabilities, including around pathways to employment and supported employment.
State / Territory: New York
This bill establishes a minimum hourly rate schedule that employers who are authorized to employ individuals with disabilities at subminimum wage must pay their employees.
State / Territory: Oregon
This bill appropriates money for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to conduct a study of the employment services and community access services provided by the Department of Social and Health Services for individuals with a developmental disability.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill requires community rehabilitation programs to develop a plan to increase the wages paid to its workers with disabilities to the federal minimum wage, and to provide referrals to benefits counselors so that workers understand the impacts this may have on their eligibility for state and federal benefits.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Health and Human Services Commission to develop a process to assess competitive integrated employment opportunities and related employment services available to individuals with disabilities receiving certain waiver services, and to identify strategies to increase the number of individuals receiving employment services through those wavier programs.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Texas Workforce Commission to prepare a report on occupational skills training for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which includes potential funding sources for occupational skills training and specific occupations in high-demand industries for which a postsecondary certification, occupational license or other workforce credential is required and that may be appropriate for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill directs the Health and Human Services Commission, in conjunction with the Texas Workforce Commission, to conduct a study regarding occupational training programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities, in order to determine regions where training programs should be improved or expanded and develop strategies for placing trained individuals with intellectual disabilities into fulfilling jobs.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill establishes a Pilot Program to Test Person-Centered Managed Care Strategies and Improvements, which is designed (in part) to promote customized, integrated and competitive employment for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Managed care organizations participating in the pilot must deliver employment assistance and supported employment, among other services.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Texas Workforce Commission to:
1. Conduct a program to provide vocational rehabilitation services to eligible individuals with disabilities, which may entail cooperating with other agencies to study problems in providing vocational rehabilitation and developing necessary facilities and services;
2. Establish a specialized training program that covers supports for individuals with disabilities and require it for certain employees (including vocational rehabilitation transition specialists and transition counselors); and
3. Collaborate with the Texas Education Agency to develop a mechanism to identify the areas of the state with the greatest needs for transition services for students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services to adopt and implement an Employment First policy stating that competitive integrated employment is the first and preferred outcome for individuals with disabilities. The policy must contain provisions to ensure that individuals with disabilities, particularly secondary and postsecondary students, are given the opportunity to explore options for further training, including graduate and postgraduate training, as a pathway to employment. The bill further establishes an interagency Employment First task force that will work to ensure that individuals with disabilities are able to obtain competitive employment.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires that community rehabilitation programs maintain a disabled to non-disabled employee ratio equal to or greater than 1-3 at all times, at all levels of employment, management and sub-contracting, to ensure integrated employment of individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Hawaii
This bill requires the Department of Family and Protective Services to make appropriate accommodations to allow youth with disabilities in the foster care system to meaningfully participate in the Preparation for Adult Living Program. The Program is a collaboration among the Department, the Texas Workforce Commission and local workforce development boards.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires Department of Aging and Disability Services facilities and community centers to annually assess the feasibility of converting entry-level support positions into employment opportunities for individuals with mental illness or intellectual disabilities. It also requires facilities and community centers to ensure that designated staff are trained to assist clients in accessing and utilizing the Social Security Administration Work Incentive Provisions to finance training, services and supports needed to obtain career goals.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill establishes the Breaking Barriers to Employment Initiative, which creates a grant program to provide individuals who face barriers to employment (including disabilities) the services they need to enter, participate in, and complete broader workforce preparation, training, and education programs aligned with regional labor market needs.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the state’s Community and Technical Education (CTE) Committee to submit a report each year that includes an assessment of the state of CTE within the state, disaggregated by disability status (among other factors).
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a comprehensive statewide strategic plan to serve people in the state with behavioral health needs (including mental health conditions and developmental disabilities) throughout their lifespans, which will address supported employment, among other topics. It further requires that the plan be developed in collaboration with various agencies and communities, such as indigenous and tribal populations and the LGBTQ community.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill requires the Aging and Disability Services Division to enter into a cooperative agreement with the Rehabilitation Division of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation to provide long-term support to people with intellectual disabilities including jobs, day training services and supported living arrangement services, with the goal of helping them attain competitive employment.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill requires the State Workforce Development Board to annually maintain and update a state workforce services plan to ensure that (among other aims) employment centers address the requirements of special employment needs populations, including individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Utah
This bill establishes that students with disabilities ages 17 to 22 who have not yet received a high school diploma or certificate of completion are eligible for their private school’s transition-to-work program, which provides academic instruction, work skills training, and a volunteer or paid work experience.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires each public high school student to complete and annually update an Individual Career Academic Plan (ICAP) in order to graduate with a standard diploma. The ICAP process includes taking career- and college-interest surveys, developing postsecondary and workforce goals, choosing an intentional sequence of courses that reflect progress toward postsecondary goals and experiencing in-service learning and/or work environment activities. The bill requires that ICAPs for students with disabilities take into account and work in cooperation with students’ IEPs or Section 504 Plans.
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This bill establishes a Commission on Autism, which consists of representatives from the Department of Education, the Department of Labor and Workforce, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, the higher education and community college systems and more. The Commission is tasked with investigating the range of services and supports necessary for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to achieve their full potential, including around education, employment and behavioral and mental health services. The bill also establishes an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Account to enable individuals with disabilities to save private funds for the purpose of education, employment, transportation, assistive technology and other qualified expenses.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill requires the Department of Workforce Services and Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health to prioritize providing services that assist people with disabilities, including mental illness, in retaining meaningful and gainful employment.
State / Territory: Utah
This bill requires the Office of Higher Education to provide all residents (and their families) beginning in 7th grade with information about planning and preparing for postsecondary opportunities, including postsecondary education options for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This Executive Order establishes the State Community Engagement Implementation Task Force to support the efforts of individuals seeking community engagement activities, education or employment. It includes representatives from the South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, the state’s Protection and Advocacy system and the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This bill requires the Indiana Management Performance Hub, Department of Workforce Development and Department of Health to use data resources and technology to identify certain eligible students with disabilities, provide eligible individuals with a list of training and education opportunities and employment services resources and post that resource list online. In addition, it requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to create an alternate diploma for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill enables school districts and special education cooperatives to establish community transition interagency committees for youth with disabilities, which can (among other things) identify services, programs and funding sources within the community that prepare secondary and postsecondary aged youth for further education, employment (including integrated competitive employment) and independent living.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill enables Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grants to be awarded to coordinated specialty care programs, which provide supported employment (among other services) to individuals experiencing early indications of serious mental illness. It further requires the Department of Children and Families to include in its annual behavioral health services assessment an indication of the availability of, and gaps in, access to coordinated specialty care programs.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill continues the state’s Employment First advisory partnership indefinitely.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill appropriates funding to prepare sensory-impaired and multi-disabled students to become productive citizens by providing a learning environment that addresses their academic, vocational, and social development.
State / Territory: Georgia
This bill establishes a task force to study the coordination of services and expansion of educational programs for young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities to identify barriers to full societal integration. It includes representatives from a statewide association for career and technical education, the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill establishes the Katie Beckett Program, which provides essential wraparound services for children with disabilities and their families to plan and prepare children (under the age of 18) for transition to employment and community living with as much independence as possible.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to collect and study data on the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in workforce education programs. It further instructs the Board to work with junior college districts to develop and recommend minimum reporting language related to the amount of money expended on programs focused on the participation, retention and graduation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill updates Maryland’s Blueprint for the Future, which is designed to transform the state’s systems to eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps for students with disabilities (among other objectives). A component of the Blueprint is providing additional supports and services to certain students (including students with disabilities) to stay on track for college and career readiness.
State / Territory: Maryland
This Executive Order directs all state agencies that provide services and support to people with disabilities to implement Employment First in Arizona and coordinate efforts to improve employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Arizona
This bill:
1. Adds additional members to the Iowa Workforce Development Board, including a representative from the Department for the Blind;
2. Creates a standing committee on the Board to provide information and assist with issues relating to the provision of services to individuals with disabilities;
3. Requires the Board to ensure that technology for accessing workforce development services is accessible to individuals with disabilities; and
4. Requires the Department of Workforce Development to consult with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services for co-locating state and federal employment and training programs in centers providing services at the local level.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill establishes that competitive integrated employment, including self-employment, is the first and preferred option for all working age citizens with disabilities. It further establishes the Employment First Georgia Council to advise the Governor, General Assembly and state agencies on the adoption and integration of an Employment First policy.
State / Territory: Georgia
This bill uses the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act to expand employment supports and other supports for adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill requires that a student’s IEP include a transition plan that addresses college and career planning components.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill establishes the Building Better Futures High School Program, which enables students with intellectual disabilities to broaden their career opportunities in an inclusive environment while completing the additional years of high school as allowed by law.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill establishes the Building Better Futures Program, which enables students with intellectual disabilities to broaden their career opportunities through education and job training in an inclusive and age-appropriate environment.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill establishes a legislative task force on best practices for special education, which will (among other duties) compare the amount of academic instruction with the training time for independent function and career development.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill requires the State Board of Education, in collaboration with the Vocational Rehabilitation Department and other stakeholders, to develop criteria for a uniform state-recognized employability credential aligned to the program of study for students with a disability whose IEP team determines that a diploma pathway would not provide a free appropriate public education. This includes developing a rubric and guidelines to identify and assess the employability skills of the students, based on appropriate standards.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This resolution urges the legislative council to assign to an appropriate study committee the topic of an Employment First Program, which promotes and expands quality, community employment outcomes for all people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill requires the State Board of Education to report annually on the development and implementation of policies related to improving outcomes for elementary and secondary school students with disabilities, including model programs to improve graduation rates of students with disabilities, transition services for students from high school to postsecondary education and employment opportunities.
State / Territory: North Carolina
This Executive Order establishes the Vermont Interagency Afterschool Youth Task Force, which includes the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Transition Program Manager. The Task Force is responsible for targeting specific infrastructure gaps in the existing afterschool system, such as access for children and youth with disabilities, and ensuring options exist for youth employment and for education and acquisition of job skills.
State / Territory: Vermont
This bill requires the Department of Human Services to complete a comprehensive assessment and work with individuals with disabilities to develop employment goals based on the person’s strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, interests and informed choice.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill requires the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to provide Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) to potentially eligible individuals; to record and report transition services data; and to enter into a formal interagency agreement with the state education agency and collaborate with local education agencies to provide Pre-ETS and other vocational rehabilitation services.
State / Territory: Florida
This Executive Order establishes the Workforce Development Council within the Executive Office of the Governor, which includes representatives from a community-based organization for individuals with disabilities and from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
State / Territory: Idaho
This bill requires various agencies to enter into a memorandum of understanding supporting the Virginia Workforce Data Trust, a workforce database designed to (among other things) improve coordination, outcomes and efficiency across public workforce programs and partner organizations. These agencies include:
• Virginia Employment Commission;
• Community College System;
• Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services;
• Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired;
• Department of Education;
• Department of Labor and Industry;
• Department of Social Services;
• Department of Juvenile Justice; and
• State Council of Higher Education.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill directs the State Workforce Development Board to combine two or more sources of funding to support workforce-related programs or activities for vulnerable populations, including individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill creates a 20-member task force to develop the state’s plan for implementing the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which includes the directors of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Division of Blind Services and the Agency for People with Disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires the State Board of Community Colleges to establish a two-year pilot program for training programs that provide credentials or micro-credentials that lead to increased employment outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The goal of the program is to inform community colleges on best practices for providing these training programs and other services (such as financial and benefits counseling).
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill increases funding for a program for farmers with disabilities, which helps them gainfully engage in farming through agricultural worksite and home modification consultations, peer support services, services to families, information and referral and equipment loan services.
State / Territory: Iowa
This resolution declares August 2017 as #ABLEtoSave Month, to enhance awareness of Achieving a Better Living Experience (ABLE) accounts as a financial savings tool and to increase the number of ABLE accounts opened.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill appropriates money to Intellectual Disabilities State Centers for employment and training, as well as to Vocational Rehabilitation for supported employment. It further appropriates money for medical assistance for workers with disabilities.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill requires the Department of Transportation to convene and consult with a stakeholder group – which includes a representative of people with disabilities – to examine the economic, environmental and transportation impacts of new transportation technologies and business models.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill establishes the Aging and Disability Resource Connection program, which provides information to consumers with disabilities and their families on available long-term services and supports at the local level.
State / Territory: California
This bill establishes the Alabama Public Transportation Trust Fund, which is intended to (in part) alleviate deficiencies in the supply of safe and affordable public transportation for citizens of Alabama, many of whom have disabilities. It requires the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to conduct an assessment of the needs of individuals with disabilities and to fund activities that address the transportation needs of people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Alabama
This bill increases the contribution amounts for Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts to $4,000 per year.
State / Territory: Arizona
This bill prohibits transportation network companies (TNCs) from imposing additional charges because of a person’s disability and requires TNCs to:
1. Adopt a policy of nondiscrimination regarding individuals with disabilities;
2. Transport service animals accompanying individuals with disabilities at no additional charge;
3. Facilitate transportation for passengers who require a wheelchair-accessible vehicle;
4. Annually report the programs and best practices implemented to improve the accessibility of service to individuals with disabilities; and
5. Provide materials and train drivers around providing service to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill:
1. Requires transportation network companies (TNCs) to adopt policies of non-discrimination on the basis of disability (among other characteristics) and provide drivers with information on accommodating a rider with a disability;
2. Prohibits TNCs from imposing additional fees for accommodating a person with a physical disability because of that disability; and
3. Requires drivers to comply with all applicable laws relating to accommodation of service animals.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill establishes a task force to study issues with publicly-funded transportation for people with disabilities (among other groups).
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill permits a person whose driver’s license has been withdrawn as a result of a medical or physical health condition to operate a motor vehicle while accompanied by personnel from the driver training unit for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill prohibits a transportation network company from imposing additional charges or increasing fares when providing services to people with disabilities and requires all transportation network drivers to comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations relating to the accommodation of service animals. If further creates a Ride for Hire Task Force to make recommendations around public safety, consumer protection and economic fairness and equity of the ride for hire industry, which includes a representative of the Disability Law Center.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill requires the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals; school districts; and other agencies to create a transition plan for students who are developmentally delayed and under the jurisdiction of Family Court. The plan includes an education plan, available mentors, workforce supports and employment services, a health insurance option and more.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill establishes the Nevada Commission for Persons Who Are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired, and tasks the Commission with (among other duties):
1. Providing consumers with information concerning services and resources that promote equality in education, employment and socialization;
2. Providing referrals for those services and resources;
3. Making recommendations to state and local governmental entities concerning integrating services and programs for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired; and
4. Improving cooperation among governmental entities that provide such services.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill provides that when a child with a disability is enrolled in a postsecondary or transitional education program as part of the services provided to the child by the school committee or local education agency (LEA), and the child reaches age 21 during a school or program year, the school committee or LEA would pay for the child’s schooling to the conclusion of the school or program’s academic year.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires various agencies – including local education agencies and state adult service agencies responsible for providing supports for adults with developmental disabilities – to provide children with disabilities and their parents or guardians with certain notices about rights and benefits available when the child turns 21.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires clients receiving services through a waiver to be offered the option to transition from a community access program to an employment program at any time. It further requires the Department of Social and Health Services to inform clients of all available options for employment and day services and emphasize support for the client so they are able to participate in activities that integrate them into their community and support independent living and skills.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill prohibits autonomous vehicle network companies from imposing any additional charges for providing transportation services to a person with a physical disability because of that disability, and requires them to adopt a policy which prohibits discrimination against a passenger or potential passenger on account of their disability (among other characteristics).
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill establishes a permanent commission on the status of people with disabilities, which is tasked with studying and advising on the status of transportation for people with disabilities, including to access employment opportunities; establishing school-to-work activities for transition-aged youth with disabilities that engage family members (among other stakeholders); and promoting and facilitating collaboration among local disability commissions, disability right advocacy organizations and disability employment service providers.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill creates the Delaware Advance Scholarship Program, which provides grants to students with intellectual disabilities to help them pursue studies for a comprehensive certificate or degree at a Delaware institution of higher education.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill requires psychiatric hospitals to prepare a written continuing care plan for patients who are voluntarily or involuntary admitted, which includes a realistic assessment of the patient’s post-discharge social, financial, vocational, housing and treatment needs, and which identifies available support services and provider linkages necessary for meeting those needs.
State / Territory: Delaware
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Task Force on Community Transportation, which is tasked with developing and providing recommendations to the Governor around establishing a well-coordinated, interconnected and accessible statewide transportation system for all transit users in the state, in part to remove one of the major barriers to people with disabilities becoming employed.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Task Force on Employment and Economic Opportunity for people with disabilities, to advise the Governor on policies and programs that will increase employment and economic opportunity for people with disabilities. Members include representatives from the Office of Special Education, the Division of Behavioral Health and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This bill requires the Department of Transportation to create and administer the Office of Accessible Transportation and Mobility, to expand and improve accessible transportation and mobility across the state. The bill requires the office to consult with consumers of accessible transportation as well as professionals with experience in transportation, disability, and aging in developing its mission, scope, and strategic plan.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill enables adults with disabilities to voluntarily enter into one or more supported decision-making agreements and assist them in understanding the options, responsibilities, and consequences of life decisions, including where they want to work.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
Concerning Authorization for Automated Driving Systems to Control Motor Vehicles Throughout Colorado
This bill authorizes individuals to use an automated driving system to drive a motor vehicle or control a function of a motor vehicle if the system complies with every state and federal law, given that automated driving systems can help people with disabilities gain access to goods and services essential to daily life.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill takes measures to reduce the number of former foster youth with developmental disabilities who are discharged into homelessness or inappropriately placed in hospitals. This includes requiring the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to plan services for youth with developmental disabilities in advance of their transitions to adulthood. It further requires that priority for Medicaid waivers be given to individuals who exited dependency in the last two years.
State / Territory: Washington
This Executive Order establishes the RecoveryOhio Advisory Committee, which will advise the Governor’s administration on matters related to mental illness and substance use prevention, treatment and recovery support services and provide recommendations on recovery support strategies (including peer support, employment and housing).
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill:
1. Requires the State Department of Developmental Services to increase service access and equity and reduce disparities in its Self-Determination Program (which gives participants and families greater choice in implementation of their individual program plan);
2. Establishes an Office of the Self-Determination Program Ombudsperson to assist consumers and their families in understanding their rights under the program;
3. Makes rate increases permanent for specified developmental services, including supported employment services;
4. Establishes incentive payments to service providers who help clients achieve certain employment outcomes (such as competitive integrated employment for a prescribed period of time); and
5. Requires the Department to establish a program to increase pathways to competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires federal funds to be used to maximize the ability of Self-Determination Program participants to direct their own lives. The Self-Determination Program provides individuals with developmental disabilities and their families increased flexibility and choice and greater control over decisions, resources, services and supports to implement their individual program plan.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the Higher Education Department to review certain conditions of eligibility for public postsecondary educational institution tuition scholarships and adjust them for students with disabilities who require accommodations. It further waives scholarship residency requirements for students who had to leave the state to receive an education pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
State / Territory: New Mexico
This resolution affirms that the state’s policies and procedures should ensure technology and information access for individuals with disabilities to the greatest extent possible, including to promote self-determination, help individuals engage in education and employment, and create new markets and employment opportunities.
State / Territory: California
This bill modifies eligibility criteria so that students with disabilities can apply for the Excelsior scholarship, which helps cover tuition at New York state public institutions of higher education. It further requires transportation network companies (TNCs) to adopt policies and comply with laws related to non-discrimination of riders on the basis of disability (among other characteristics), and prohibits TNCs from imposing additional charges for providing services to people with physical disabilities because of those disabilities.
State / Territory: New York
This bill authorizes the purchaser of a motor vehicle to be eligible for a tax rebate after they make vehicle modifications for the purpose of transporting a person with an orthopedic disability or enabling a person with an orthopedic disability to operate the vehicle.
State / Territory: Louisiana
This bill establishes and appropriates money for county college-based adult centers for transition, whose purpose is to coordinate and integrate existing county- and state-based services, programs and resources, and to ensure that individuals with developmental disabilities up to the age of 24 have opportunities to receive mentoring, job coaching, skill training and any other appropriate wrap-around services to help them make a successful transition into employment and independent living.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires the New Jersey Transit Corporation to ensure that all paratransit services it manages and administers adhere to a specific set of standards, and to collaborate with the Department of Human Services to develop and implement a paratransit best practices pilot program. The pilot program will produce a training module for paratransit best practices and train paratransit providers on those best practices. Finally, the bill establishes regional paratransit coordinating councils for the purpose of exchanging best practices.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires the Transportation Council to solicit input from disability communities (among other stakeholders) in its work studying and promoting methods of implementing new transportation technologies and modes of transportation throughout the state.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This bill requires:
1. Centers for independent living to provide services that facilitate the transition of youth with significant disabilities to postsecondary life;
2. Vocational rehabilitation services (including transition services) to prepare people for competitive integrated employment;
3. The Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services to enter into cooperative agreements (including with the Virginia Community College System) to provide vocational rehabilitation services;
4. Vocational rehabilitation services to include assistive technology programs and provide support (including tuition) for advanced training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and other fields; and
5. The Department to regularly evaluate a client’s interests and needs with respect to competitive integrated employment, once they are placed in extended employment.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill authorizes an increase in the number of consumers served by the Self-Determination Program, including residents in developmental centers who are moving to the community. The Self-Determination Program provides individuals with developmental disabilities and their families increased flexibility and choice and greater control over decisions, resources, services and supports to implement their individual program plan.
State / Territory: California
This bill:
1. Establishes Employment First and self-direction policies for the state and reconfigures waiver programs to align with those policies;
2. Requires case managers and support service providers to help waiver recipients identify employment services providers, identify opportunities for competitive employment and understand options for transitioning from day services to employment services; and
3. Expands funding for consumer-directed community supports participants and waiver participants who require additional supports.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires the Agency for People with Disabilities to examine the state’s transportation disadvantaged services. It further establishes a task force on Transportation Disadvantaged Services, which will examine (among other topics) the provision of transportation disadvantaged services to individual users to allow them to access health care, places of employment, education and other life-sustaining activities in a cost-effective and efficient manner, while reducing fragmentation and duplication of services.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill expands eligibility of certain medical assistance benefits to include workers with disabilities experiencing job success.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill continues the Technology-Related Assistance Revolving Loan Fund for Individuals with Disabilities Board, which includes the Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Services. Among other duties, the Board is responsible for awarding loans to assist individuals with disabilities in improving their independence through the purchase of technology-related devices. The bill further requires each school district to establish a Professional Staff Development Council comprised of proportional representation from the major school levels and from vocational, special education and other specialties.
State / Territory: West Virginia
This bill establishes a Financial Literacy Program for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, which must include information, resources, outreach and education around job training programs and employment opportunities. It further establishes an Employment First policy, to be implemented through an interagency cooperative agreement. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Management Services, in consultation with other agencies and offices, to develop and implement programs that incorporate internships, mentoring, on-the-job training, unpaid work experience, situational assessments and other innovative strategies geared toward individuals with a disability.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill:
1. Directs the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Department of Disabilities, in partnership with other state agencies, to develop and implement a plan to eliminate subminimum wage employment;
2. Requires Resource Coordinators for individuals who are being paid less than minimum wage to develop a plan that addresses how community integration and employment will be accomplished, including by addressing barriers (such as transportation) to accessing funding and resources; and
3. Requires employers to inform any new employees who are employed at less than minimum wage about opportunities to obtain competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill requires public colleges and universities to take various measures to improve mental health awareness and services on campus, including:
1. Developing and implementing a student orientation session aimed at raising awareness about mental health conditions;
2. Creating a webpage with information about mental health resources at the school and in the community;
3. Implementing a peer support program for individuals living with mental health conditions; and
4. Partnering with local mental health service providers to improve campus mental wellness.
In addition, it requires the Board of Higher Education to develop a Technical Assistance Center to provide support to public colleges or universities in reviewing policies related to students living with mental health conditions and their academic standing.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill requires that any proceeds from sales of state-operated mental health facilities be used to fund mental health services and supports, including individual placement and support as well as supported employment and adaptive equipment for individuals with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill:
1. Establishes Employment first priorities;
2. Establishes a Task Force for Eliminating Subminimum Wages; and
3. Provides grants for a range of disability employment purposes, including:
• Conducting family outreach and education on transitioning from subminimum wage employment to competitive employment;
• Providing intensive treatment and support (including employment support) for adolescents and adults experiencing a first psychotic episode; and
• Delivering peer-led skill training sessions to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities understand community service options related to employment, education and transportation.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill appropriates funding to provide financial assistance to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who attend a Minnesota postsecondary institution. It further requests that the University of Minnesota-Morris offer an academic program for students with IDD that includes peer mentoring, financial literacy training and an internship, apprenticeship or other skills-based experience to prepare students for meaningful employment.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires the Department of Health and Social Services to take a flexible approach to administering programs for people with disabilities that allows each person to participate actively in managing their support services so they can achieve a meaningful life in their home, job, and community.
State / Territory: Alaska
This Executive Order directs the Secretary of Administration to ensure that a program is in place to increase awareness of legal protections for people with disabilities in order to allow individuals with disabilities to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of their jobs and enjoy the privileges and benefits of employment.
State / Territory: Kansas
This bill requires each community and technical college to establish a culturally appropriate outreach program to assist potential students from underserved backgrounds – including students with disabilities – in understanding available opportunities and navigating the student aid system. Outreach programs may include partnerships with appropriate community-based organizations. The bill further establishes the legislature’s intent that guided pathways (which provide mentorship and advising) be implemented at all community and technical colleges to improve completion rates for students, including those with disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill requires the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services to develop a plan to establish a statewide crisis assistance system program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It further establishes a task force to assess services and supports for people with IDD, which includes representatives from the Division and family members of people with IDD. Finally, it requires the Division to assess staffing and fiscal resources needed to provide vocational rehabilitation services to all eligible individuals.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill requires that any youth participating in the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) offered by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance be provided with financial literacy education. SYEP makes special efforts to ensure participation of at-risk and vulnerable youth including youth with disabilities.
State / Territory: New York
This bill requires school districts to provide students with disabilities and their parents with information on alternatives to guardianship, including supported decision-making.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority to convene a coordinating council responsible for meeting the needs of low-income seniors and people with disabilities, which will develop recommendations for the appropriate and sustainable funding of the free-fare program for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires transportation network companies to adopt policies and comply with all applicable laws regarding non-discrimination against riders or potential riders on the basis of the rider’s physical disability (among other characteristics).
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill allows applicants to the University of Hawaii who qualified for and received special education services (among other qualifications) to be eligible for the Hawaii state scholars program, which provides financial assistance for up to four years.
State / Territory: Hawaii
Relating to Transition Planning for a Public School Student Enrolled In a Special Education Program.
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP to address the use and availability of appropriate services and supports to assist them in developing decision-making skills, independence and self-determination;
2. The Commissioner of Education to develop and post a list of services and benefits that may be appropriate for students with an IEP;
3. The Commissioner to regularly review and update the minimum training guidelines for employees serving as a school district’s designee on transition and employment services for special education students; and
4. School districts to provide students and their parents with information regarding guardianship, alternatives to guardianship and other supports that may enable a student to live independently.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires community rehabilitation programs to develop a plan to increase the wages paid to its workers with disabilities to the federal minimum wage, and to provide referrals to benefits counselors so that workers understand the impacts this may have on their eligibility for state and federal benefits.
State / Territory: Texas
This resolution declares August 2017 as #ABLEtoSave Month, to enhance awareness of Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts as a financial savings tool and to increase the number of ABLE accounts opened.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the Agency for People with Disabilities to provide certain information to people (and their families) who are applying for certain waiver services, including:
1. An overview of vocational rehabilitation services offered through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation;
2. An overview of the Florida Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) program and various disability benefits programs;
3. A statement indicating that the applicant’s local public school district may provide specialized instructional services, including transition programs;
4. An overview of programs and services funded through the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities; and
5. An overview of decision-making options for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill creates a state income tax deduction for those who wish to contribute to the State Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act program (up to $10,000 per individual taxpayer or $20,000 for taxpayers filing a joint return).
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This bill establishes a Commission on Autism, which consists of representatives from the Department of Education, the Department of Labor and Workforce, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, the higher education and community college systems and more. The Commission is tasked with investigating the range of services and supports necessary for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to achieve their full potential, including around education, employment and behavioral and mental health services. The bill also establishes an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Account to enable individuals with disabilities to save private funds for the purpose of education, employment, transportation, assistive technology and other qualified expenses.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill creates a technical demonstration forum to study solutions to improve transportation access for people with disabilities, including so they can access work. Members of the forum include representatives from the State Rehabilitation Council.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill enables Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grants to be awarded to coordinated specialty care programs, which provide supported employment (among other services) to individuals experiencing early indications of serious mental illness. It further requires the Department of Children and Families to include in its annual behavioral health services assessment an indication of the availability of, and gaps in, access to coordinated specialty care programs.
State / Territory: Florida
This resolution establishes the Alabama Task Force on At-Risk Children to study a range of issues related to children in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems, including around providing appropriate rehabilitative, educational, and mental health treatment services.
State / Territory: Alabama
This bill establishes a task force to study the coordination of services and expansion of educational programs for young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities to identify barriers to full societal integration. It includes representatives from a statewide association for career and technical education, the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill establishes the Katie Beckett Program, which provides essential wraparound services for children with disabilities and their families to plan and prepare children (under the age of 18) for transition to employment and community living with as much independence as possible.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill requires postsecondary education institutions to develop, procure, maintain and use electronic instructional materials and related information technology that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. It further requires the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to convene an Accessibility Task Force, which includes representatives from disability advocacy and experts in accessible technology.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill creates a pilot program to establish Education Scholarship Accounts for parents of eligible students with special needs, which can be used to cover tuition, fees and textbooks at a postsecondary institution (among other qualified expenses).
State / Territory: Mississippi
This bill allows a student with disabilities receiving special education or related services to present proof the student is successfully completing his or her IEP in order to be issued a driver’s license, in place of proof of receipt of a high school diploma or proof of a “C” average in the previous semester.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill requires that youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are 18 years of age and older who are currently being served through child welfare services be transitioned to the adult home- and community-based services program, and requires that a plan be developed for the ongoing transition of such youth when they turn 18 years of age.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill establishes a task force to make recommendations on improving the transition of individuals with disabilities from receiving services and supports in an educational setting to receiving services and supports through home- and community-based services.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill prohibits a transportation network company (TNC) from imposing additional charges for providing services to a person who has a physical disability because of the person’s disability, and requires that TNCs that provide paratransit services comply with all applicable state and federal laws related to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a program relating to transportation accessibility for people with disabilities, including individuals who need a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
State / Territory: California
This bill establishes a Multimodal Accessibility Advisory Council, to serve as the advisory body to the Mayor, the Council and District agencies on making local transit and public space in the District more accessible to people with disabilities. The Council includes representatives from the Office of Disability Rights and the disability advocacy community, among others. In addition, the bill tasks the Operations Administration with establishing policies to increase transportation services for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill increases funding for a program for farmers with disabilities, which helps them gainfully engage in farming through agricultural worksite and home modification consultations, peer support services, services to families, information and referral and equipment loan services.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill establishes the Aging and Disability Resource Connection program, which provides information to consumers with disabilities and their families on available long-term services and supports at the local level.
State / Territory: California
This Executive Order establishes the North Carolina Statewide Independent Living Council, to advise state efforts to improve and expand the provision of independent living services in the state. It includes representatives from an American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services project, the NCWorks Commission and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, as well as parents and legal guardians of individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill requires local or regional boards of education to inform the parents or guardians of children with disabilities about any relevant information and resources relating to IEPs, including information relating to transition resources and services for high school students.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill requires various agencies – including local education agencies and state adult service agencies responsible for providing supports for adults with developmental disabilities – to provide children with disabilities and their parents or guardians with certain notices about rights and benefits available when the child turns 21.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill expands the State Interagency Council for Services and Supports to Children to become the Interagency Council for Services and Supports to Children and Transition-Age Youth. The Council is tasked with designing and implementing a system of care for children and transition-age youth with or at risk of developing behavioral health needs that is community based, family- and youth-driven and culturally and linguistically competent. It adds the Executive Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and the President of the Council on Postsecondary Education to the Council, and requires agencies represented on the Council to adopt interagency agreements to advance the system of care.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This bill creates an Advisory Council on Postsecondary Education for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), which includes a parent or guardian of a person with IDD. If further requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in coordination with the Advisory Council, to periodically review the policies and practices that increase access to higher education opportunities for people with IDD and distribute educational outreach materials to increase awareness regarding postsecondary opportunities for people with IDD. This includes identifying, evaluating and developing recommendations to address barriers to accessing higher education for people with IDD who are or have been in the foster care system.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires each school district to establish a three-year plan for addressing persistent disparities in achievement among certain student subgroups, which includes a description of how the district will effectuate and measure increased engagement with parents of students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill establishes a permanent commission on the status of people with disabilities, which is tasked with studying and advising on the status of transportation for people with disabilities, including to access employment opportunities; establishing school-to-work activities for transition-aged youth with disabilities that engage family members (among other stakeholders); and promoting and facilitating collaboration among local disability commissions, disability right advocacy organizations and disability employment service providers.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill requires foster parents to complete training related to (among other topics) learning disabilities and transition to successful adulthood skills, which can include completing an education or vocational training and obtaining employment.
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This bill authorizes transition planning for students with disabilities to start as soon as practicable and appropriate, and requires interagency responsibilities and linkages with transition services to be addressed in a transition plan in a student’s IEP. It also requires that meetings to discuss postsecondary goals include parents, students and educators.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill adds funds to the Parents to Parents Program, where parents of children with disabilities are paired with other parents to better understand how to support and advocate for their children to help them lead independent, successful lives.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill:
1. Requires the State Department of Developmental Services to increase service access and equity and reduce disparities in its Self-Determination Program (which gives participants and families greater choice in implementation of their individual program plan);
2. Establishes an Office of the Self-Determination Program Ombudsperson to assist consumers and their families in understanding their rights under the program;
3. Makes rate increases permanent for specified developmental services, including supported employment services;
4. Establishes incentive payments to service providers who help clients achieve certain employment outcomes (such as competitive integrated employment for a prescribed period of time); and
5. Requires the Department to establish a program to increase pathways to competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires federal funds to be used to maximize the ability of Self-Determination Program participants to direct their own lives. The Self-Determination Program provides individuals with developmental disabilities and their families increased flexibility and choice and greater control over decisions, resources, services and supports to implement their individual program plan.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires school districts to provide parents of children with disabilities with information and training resources to remain engaged in the child’s secondary education and post-school outcomes. This information will be provided at each IEP meeting that includes discussion of postsecondary education goals and transition services.
State / Territory: Oregon
This bill creates an interagency committee for providing competitive integrated employment for individuals with severe disabilities, which includes a parent of a child with disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill allows parents of public school students with disabilities to bring another adult of their choice with them to meetings with school district personnel, including meetings related to IEPs, transitions and more.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill makes several provisions to expand Family Empowerment Centers on Disability, which assist families of children and youth (ages 3-22) with disabilities by providing a wide range of services that include trainings, information, referrals and peer-to-peer support related to navigating supports and special education. This includes requiring the State Department of Education to award grants to applicants in regions that do not have a center and increasing the minimum base rate for each center.
State / Territory: California
This bill:
1. Establishes the Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) and a corresponding scholarship, designed to increase inclusive postsecondary education and employment opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); and
2. Establishes the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities, which is tasked with:
• Disseminating information to students with disabilities and their parents about education programs, employment opportunities and mentoring;
• Facilitating collaboration between institutions and parents to assist students transitioning into a FPCTP;
• Providing technical assistance to postsecondary institutions regarding programs and services for students with intellectual disabilities; and
• Collaborating with various entities to promote experiential training and employment opportunities for students with IDD.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill authorizes an increase in the number of consumers served by the Self-Determination Program, including residents in developmental centers who are moving to the community. The Self-Determination Program provides individuals with developmental disabilities and their families increased flexibility and choice and greater control over decisions, resources, services and supports to implement their individual program plan.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP team to identify the need for transition services before the student enters high school or reaches the age of 14;
2. The student’s IEP team to provide students and their parents with various transition-related information, including transition services, career and technical education and collegiate programs available to students with disabilities;
3. That IEP teams discuss how a student with a disability who meets the requirements for a standard high school diploma can defer receipt of that diploma; and
4. The Department of Education to review existing transition services and programs for students with disabilities to establish uniform best practices, and to post those best practices to its website.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill:
1. Establishes Employment first priorities;
2. Establishes a Task Force for Eliminating Subminimum Wages; and
3. Provides grants for a range of disability employment purposes, including:
• Conducting family outreach and education on transitioning from subminimum wage employment to competitive employment;
• Providing intensive treatment and support (including employment support) for adolescents and adults experiencing a first psychotic episode; and
• Delivering peer-led skill training sessions to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities understand community service options related to employment, education and transportation.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This Executive Order establishes an Employment First Council, which is tasked with increasing opportunities for competitive integrated employment in the state. The Council includes (among other members) representatives who have an immediate family member with a disability.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This bill creates and appropriates funding for Parents Encouraging Parents conferences to help parents of children with disabilities advocate for their child’s education and life plans.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill:
1. Adds various members to the state’s Employment and Economic Opportunity for People with Disabilities Task Force, including the Director of Juvenile Justice, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board; and
2. Requires the Task Force to take steps to improve the transition of youth with disabilities to employment and postsecondary education and training, including by:
• Designing a data sharing process and analyzing transitions data;
• Serving as a resource to state and local agencies involved in the delivery of services to youth with disabilities; and
• Developing in-service training programs for consumers and families in improving understanding and awareness of postsecondary transition services.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill requires the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services to develop a plan to establish a statewide crisis assistance system program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It further establishes a task force to assess services and supports for people with IDD, which includes representatives from the Division and family members of people with IDD. Finally, it requires the Division to assess staffing and fiscal resources needed to provide vocational rehabilitation services to all eligible individuals.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill requires school districts to provide students with disabilities and their parents with information on alternatives to guardianship, including supported decision-making.
State / Territory: Texas
Relating to Transition Planning for a Public School Student Enrolled In a Special Education Program.
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP to address the use and availability of appropriate services and supports to assist them in developing decision-making skills, independence and self-determination;
2. The Commissioner of Education to develop and post a list of services and benefits that may be appropriate for students with an IEP;
3. The Commissioner to regularly review and update the minimum training guidelines for employees serving as a school district’s designee on transition and employment services for special education students; and
4. School districts to provide students and their parents with information regarding guardianship, alternatives to guardianship and other supports that may enable a student to live independently.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Agency for People with Disabilities to provide certain information to people (and their families) who are applying for certain waiver services, including:
1. An overview of vocational rehabilitation services offered through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation;
2. An overview of the Florida Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) program and various disability benefits programs;
3. A statement indicating that the applicant’s local public school district may provide specialized instructional services, including transition programs;
4. An overview of programs and services funded through the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities; and
5. An overview of decision-making options for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This memorial requests the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council and the University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability to convene a task force to assess and report on ways to improve the system of school-to-work transition for students with disabilities, including increasing the knowledge of students with disabilities and their family members on transition from school-to-work options.
State / Territory: New Mexico
This bill requires the Office of Higher Education to provide all residents (and their families) beginning in 7th grade with information about planning and preparing for postsecondary opportunities, including postsecondary education options for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill creates a pilot program to establish Education Scholarship Accounts for parents of eligible students with special needs, which can be used to cover tuition, fees and textbooks at a postsecondary institution (among other qualified expenses).
State / Territory: Mississippi
This bill requires the State Board of Community Colleges to establish a two-year pilot program for training programs that provide credentials or micro-credentials that lead to increased employment outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The goal of the program is to inform community colleges on best practices for providing these training programs and other services (such as financial and benefits counseling).
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill:
1. Authorizes local workforce development boards to:
• Include representatives of community-based organizations that provide competitive integrated employment to individuals with disabilities; and
• Establish standing committees to provide information and assist with issues relating to serving individuals with disabilities;
2. Requires local workforce development boards to work with the state to ensure sufficient numbers and types of providers are providing opportunities that lead to competitive integrated employment; and
3. Requires local workforce development boards to coordinate activities with education and training providers relating to vocational rehabilitation services, which can include cross-training staff and providing technical assistance.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill increases the reimbursement rate (to be used to compensate direct support professionals) for a variety of home- and community-based services for people with developmental disabilities, including prevocational services, mentorship and supported employment.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill creates a standing committee to provide information and assist with operational and other issues relating to the provision of services to individuals with disabilities within the state’s One-Stop Career Centers. This includes providing training for staff concerning the provision of support or accommodation to, and finding employment opportunities for, individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill increases the reimbursement rate minimum wage for providers of state-administered services for people with intellectual disabilities, including employment services.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes the Nevada Commission for Persons Who Are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired, and tasks the Commission with (among other duties):
1. Providing consumers with information concerning services and resources that promote equality in education, employment and socialization;
2. Providing referrals for those services and resources;
3. Making recommendations to state and local governmental entities concerning integrating services and programs for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired; and
4. Improving cooperation among governmental entities that provide such services.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill establishes the Delaware Network for Excellence in Autism to provide training and technical assistance to state agencies, organizations and other private entities who provide services and support to individuals and families affected by Autism (including in the areas of education and vocational services).
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill provides that the policy of the state is to promote competitive integrated employment, including self-employment, as the first and preferred option when providing services (including transition services) to individuals with disabilities. In addition, it directs the Commission on Rehabilitation Services to:
1. Establish baseline data regarding the number of individuals with disabilities in competitive integrated employment (CIE);
2. Set annual goals for increasing the percentage of individuals in CIE;
3. Identify and resolve barriers to employment for individuals with disabilities; and
4. Recommend changes to state policies and assist state agencies in implementing disability employment policies.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill establishes the legislature’s intent that the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation work with community rehabilitation providers (CRPs) to understand the impact that the level of fees for service has on their ability to recruit and retain qualified workers, and reappropriates funding to be used for a one-year rate increase to CRPs.
State / Territory: Idaho
This bill appropriates funding for the North Carolina Association of People Supporting Employment First to develop and implement training programs (including online training modules) for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services on the provision of evidence-based employment services.
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill requires school districts to develop comprehensive school counseling programs to maximize educational outcomes, postsecondary readiness and social-emotional learning for students, including those with disabilities. These programs will use state- and nationally-recognized counselor frameworks, identify student needs through a multi-level school data review and analysis and provide direct and indirect services.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill:
1. Requires the State Department of Developmental Services to increase service access and equity and reduce disparities in its Self-Determination Program (which gives participants and families greater choice in implementation of their individual program plan);
2. Establishes an Office of the Self-Determination Program Ombudsperson to assist consumers and their families in understanding their rights under the program;
3. Makes rate increases permanent for specified developmental services, including supported employment services;
4. Establishes incentive payments to service providers who help clients achieve certain employment outcomes (such as competitive integrated employment for a prescribed period of time); and
5. Requires the Department to establish a program to increase pathways to competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires candidates for an interim teaching certificate for special education to complete a training program that addresses preparing students with disabilities for the transition into postsecondary and employment environments.
State / Territory: Michigan
This bill:
1. Establishes the Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) and a corresponding scholarship, designed to increase inclusive postsecondary education and employment opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); and
2. Establishes the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities, which is tasked with:
• Disseminating information to students with disabilities and their parents about education programs, employment opportunities and mentoring;
• Facilitating collaboration between institutions and parents to assist students transitioning into a FPCTP;
• Providing technical assistance to postsecondary institutions regarding programs and services for students with intellectual disabilities; and
• Collaborating with various entities to promote experiential training and employment opportunities for students with IDD.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill establishes the Employment First Advisory Partnership, a multi-agency entity tasked with developing a strategic plan to expand competitive integrated employment outcomes for people with disabilities, including by identifying training and knowledge gaps among agency staff, agency vendors and individuals with disabilities and their families that may create obstacles to advancing competitive integrated employment. It further establishes that the Department of Labor and Employment is responsible for promoting youth transitions that focus on public-private collaboration and employer engagement that emphasizes free-market solutions.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill directs the Secretary of Higher Education to develop a training program for direct support professionals who work closely with people with disabilities of any age and whose work supports the client in making gains towards self-sufficiency and community integration. The program is required to provide information around (among other topics) age-appropriate behavior including social, educational and occupational skills pertaining to intellectual, developmental, mental and physical disabilities.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill establishes a committee to study the payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities and develop a strategic plan to phase out subminimum wages. The plan must address mechanisms to implement technical assistance and training to employers and provider agencies as they phase out subminimum wage arrangements and to provide employment services for individuals with disabilities as they are phased out of subminimum wage arrangements.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This bill authorizes the Division of Rehabilitation Services to contract with a public or private entity to provide services to vocational rehabilitation program clients and to establish and operate a statewide comprehensive rehabilitation and training center at Smyrna.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill requires all vendors of supported employment services to obtain a nationally recognized supported employment training certificate or certification. The bill further requires the Executive Director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to facilitate Employment First policies by reporting various datapoints for individuals eligible for supported employment services.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill continues the Technology-Related Assistance Revolving Loan Fund for Individuals with Disabilities Board, which includes the Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Services. Among other duties, the Board is responsible for awarding loans to assist individuals with disabilities in improving their independence through the purchase of technology-related devices. The bill further requires each school district to establish a Professional Staff Development Council comprised of proportional representation from the major school levels and from vocational, special education and other specialties.
State / Territory: West Virginia
This bill creates a pilot program for inclusive higher education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which will be operated at two four-year institutions and one community college and include peer mentoring, coordinate with vocational rehabilitation supports and focus on preparing students for gainful competitive employment. Pilot programs can also include an institutional assessment to determine training needs, technical assistance and other capacity needed within the institution to provide these programs.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill establishes an Employment First Taskforce to develop and implement a state Employment First policy. This includes proposing initiatives to address the culture of low expectations for children with disabilities and describing minimal workforce competency-based training standards applicable for job coaches, case managers and other relevant personnel.
State / Territory: West Virginia
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in collaboration with the Department of Social and Health Services Developmental Disabilities Administration and Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, to develop a plan to build statewide capacity among school districts to improve transition planning for students with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill requires the Department of Education to provide training and guidance documents to local school divisions on the development of IEPs for children with disabilities that incorporate specific examples of high-quality level of performance descriptions, annual goals and postsecondary transition sections. It further requires the Department to develop and maintain a statewide plan for improving its ongoing oversight, technical assistance and guidance related to postsecondary transition planning and services for children with disabilities.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill allocates funding for rate increases to providers of extended employment services for people with severe disabilities. It further requires the Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, to develop a customized training program for skilled manufacturing industries and to actively recruit individuals with disabilities (among other disadvantaged groups) for the program.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill creates peer-run recovery support services organizations, which will help expand peer support services for people with behavioral health needs throughout the state (including services related to employment) and expand the behavioral health workforce.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill:
1. Adds various members to the state’s Employment and Economic Opportunity for People with Disabilities Task Force, including the Director of Juvenile Justice, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board; and
2. Requires the Task Force to take steps to improve the transition of youth with disabilities to employment and postsecondary education and training, including by:
• Designing a data sharing process and analyzing transitions data;
• Serving as a resource to state and local agencies involved in the delivery of services to youth with disabilities; and
• Developing in-service training programs for consumers and families in improving understanding and awareness of postsecondary transition services.
State / Territory: Illinois
Relating to Transition Planning for a Public School Student Enrolled In a Special Education Program.
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP to address the use and availability of appropriate services and supports to assist them in developing decision-making skills, independence and self-determination;
2. The Commissioner of Education to develop and post a list of services and benefits that may be appropriate for students with an IEP;
3. The Commissioner to regularly review and update the minimum training guidelines for employees serving as a school district’s designee on transition and employment services for special education students; and
4. School districts to provide students and their parents with information regarding guardianship, alternatives to guardianship and other supports that may enable a student to live independently.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Texas Workforce Commission to:
1. Conduct a program to provide vocational rehabilitation services to eligible individuals with disabilities, which may entail cooperating with other agencies to study problems in providing vocational rehabilitation and developing necessary facilities and services;
2. Establish a specialized training program that covers supports for individuals with disabilities and require it for certain employees (including vocational rehabilitation transition specialists and transition counselors); and
3. Collaborate with the Texas Education Agency to develop a mechanism to identify the areas of the state with the greatest needs for transition services for students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires Department of Aging and Disability Services facilities and community centers to annually assess the feasibility of converting entry-level support positions into employment opportunities for individuals with mental illness or intellectual disabilities. It also requires facilities and community centers to ensure that designated staff are trained to assist clients in accessing and utilizing the Social Security Administration Work Incentive Provisions to finance training, services and supports needed to obtain career goals.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill prohibits a person from acting as a vocational rehabilitation counselor for a third-party administrator unless the person has obtained a license as a vocational rehabilitation counselor.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill requires the State Board of Community Colleges to establish a two-year pilot program for training programs that provide credentials or micro-credentials that lead to increased employment outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The goal of the program is to inform community colleges on best practices for providing these training programs and other services (such as financial and benefits counseling).
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill prohibits a school corporation from requiring a student with a disability to complete locally required credits that exceed state credit requirements to receive a diploma, unless otherwise required as part of the student’s IEP.
State / Territory: Indiana
This resolution creates the Joint Study Committee on Postsecondary Education and Employment Options for Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, consisting of Legislative members and members appointed by the Governor.
State / Territory: Georgia
This bill indicates that additional members can be added to Area Planning Councils within each community college district, including representatives from Vocational Rehabilitation Services.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill establishes an Adult High School Pilot Program, to establish an alternative method for adults (age 21 and older) who did not graduate from high school to earn a high school diploma, postsecondary education credits and industry-recognized certification. If requires applicants looking to establish a pilot program to indicate how they will work with students with disabilities, and requires pilot programs to provide accommodations to students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill requires IEPs of students with autism spectrum disorder to include appropriate measurable postsecondary goals (based upon transition assessments related to training, education and employment), and to indicate the transition services needed to assist a child in reaching those goals.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill requires that a statement of transition service needs be included in a student’s IEP, beginning at or before the student reaches the age of 14.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill authorizes the Department of Education to perform a comprehensive, annual review of the delivery of special education services within the state’s public school system, including the coordination and distribution of information on services available for children with disabilities that cross multiple state agencies.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill designates the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) as the lead agency responsible for developing connections between local education agencies and employers to promote the successful transition of students from school to competitive, gainful employment. This includes ensuring that job readiness skills training is included in a student’s IEP. The bill further requires OVR to arrange for, monitor and support the placement of high school students with disabilities in internships, on-the-job training and full- or part-time work at competitive wages in integrated settings with private and public sector employers.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill provides that when a child with a disability is enrolled in a postsecondary or transitional education program as part of the services provided to the child by the school committee or local education agency (LEA), and the child reaches age 21 during a school or program year, the school committee or LEA would pay for the child’s schooling to the conclusion of the school or program’s academic year.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires that any student with a disability eligible for a Rhode Island Promise Scholarship (which funds associates degrees at the Community College of Rhode Island) be afforded all reasonable accommodations, including enrolling on a part-time basis, attaining a high school diploma/GED by age 21 and taking longer than two years to graduate with an associate’s degree.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill enables a student with a disability to receive a standard high school diploma if he or she satisfies the requirements set forth in his or her IEP and demonstrates, through a portfolio of work, proficiency in the standards of content and performance established by the Council to Establish Academic Standards for Public Schools. The bill also allows a student who has a significant cognitive disability to receive an alternative diploma if he or she passes an alternate assessment.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill requires the Department of Labor to increase the availability of training programs that lead to a credential of value and to create an integrated postsecondary career and technical education system. In doing so the Department is required to recognize issues faced by people with historical barriers to employment or who are underrepresented in the workforce, including people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Vermont
This bill creates an Advisory Council on Postsecondary Education for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), which includes a parent or guardian of a person with IDD. If further requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in coordination with the Advisory Council, to periodically review the policies and practices that increase access to higher education opportunities for people with IDD and distribute educational outreach materials to increase awareness regarding postsecondary opportunities for people with IDD. This includes identifying, evaluating and developing recommendations to address barriers to accessing higher education for people with IDD who are or have been in the foster care system.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the State Board of Education and Early Development to adopt regulations that provide for the needs of students with disabilities in the implementation of the college and career readiness assessment, which includes the SAT, ACT, or WorkKeys assessment. The regulations may address the conditions, criteria, procedure, and scheduling of the assessment.
State / Territory: Alaska
This bill:
1. Requires boards of education to provide special education and related services to students who attain the age of 21 during the pandemic, provided the student’s parent and IEP team determine the student requires additional or compensatory special education and related services, including transition services;
2. Requires these services be paid for through federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Act (CRRSA) and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, and that Property Tax Relief Fund be used to reimburse school districts for any costs that federal funds do not cover; and
3. Permits approved private schools for students with disabilities to temporarily utilize non-qualifying spaces on school property for instruction and educational purposes in order to serve any additional students receiving these services, including transition services.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill appropriates funds to the Department of Education from the Division of Career and Technical Education Public School Fund Account, for Coordinated Career Education Services for Special Needs Students.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to assign a student identification number to individuals with exceptional needs for the purpose of evaluating special education programs and related services, including transition and work experience programs.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires community college districts to maintain student equity plans in order to receive specific funding. As part of these plans, districts must conduct campus-based research on equity for students with disabilities (among other groups of students); establish goals for enhancing access to and completion of basic skills, career technical education and workforce training for various populations (including students with disabilities); and lay out how each college in the district will address any significant disparities in access or outcomes for those groups of students.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires that discussions about employment options with children and parents during the IEP process are consistent with Delaware’s Employment First policy, and that progress made toward postsecondary goals in transition IEPs is reported with the same frequency as that for academic goals.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill creates the Delaware Advance Scholarship Program, which provides grants to students with intellectual disabilities to help them pursue studies for a comprehensive certificate or degree at a Delaware institution of higher education.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill appropriates funds to assist community college districts in covering the excess direct instructional cost of providing special support services or instruction to students with disabilities enrolled in community colleges.
State / Territory: California
This bill dedicates funding for a county office of education to convene a workgroup that will examine and propose alternative pathways to a high school diploma for students with disabilities. It further dedicates funding for a county office of education to convene a workgroup that will design a state standardized IEP template and support transition planning.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires school districts to begin providing transition services to students with developmental disabilities at age 14 (rather than 16).
State / Territory: Nebraska
This bill:
1. Requires each student’s IEP to include age-appropriate transition assessments related to education, training and employment for students age 14 and older;
2. Requires each student’s IEP to include pre-vocational assessments for students in kindergarten through grade six;
3. Authorizes the Tennessee School for the Blind to implement programs and install facilities for career and technical education; and
4. Authorizes the Commissioner of Education to establish a work training program for adults who are blind or visually impaired.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish interagency agreements with various agencies to foster effective collaboration, promote efficiencies and establish a uniform focus among agencies providing transition services to special education students. It further requires the Education Data Center to monitor outcomes for special education students, including the number of students entering competitive integrated employment or postsecondary education and training programs.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill authorizes transition planning for students with disabilities to start as soon as practicable and appropriate, and requires interagency responsibilities and linkages with transition services to be addressed in a transition plan in a student’s IEP. It also requires that meetings to discuss postsecondary goals include parents, students and educators.
State / Territory: Washington
This Executive Order creates the Future Ready Iowa Alliance, which will develop and recommend a strategic plan to accomplish the Future Ready Iowa goal of 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce having education or training beyond high school by the year 2025. It authorizes the Governor to appoint representatives from the state’s vocational rehabilitation programs to the Alliance.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill requires the Department of Corrections to establish a process for identifying and assessing incarcerated individuals with learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries and other cognitive impairments to determine whether the person requires accommodations in order to effectively participate in educational programming, including General Educational Development tests and postsecondary education. The Department is further required to establish a process for providing such accommodations.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill requires school districts to develop comprehensive school counseling programs to maximize educational outcomes, postsecondary readiness and social-emotional learning for students, including those with disabilities. These programs will use state- and nationally-recognized counselor frameworks, identify student needs through a multi-level school data review and analysis and provide direct and indirect services.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill appropriates funding for Workforce Investment boards to provide grants for basic skills training for individuals with learning disabilities or who otherwise need vocational rehabilitation services. It further directs the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development to work with organizations dedicated to the economic empowerment of people with disabilities (among other groups) to promote its basic skills training program.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires the Higher Education Department to review certain conditions of eligibility for public postsecondary educational institution tuition scholarships and adjust them for students with disabilities who require accommodations. It further waives scholarship residency requirements for students who had to leave the state to receive an education pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
State / Territory: New Mexico
This bill encourages community college districts and other entities participating in the Strong Workforce Program to develop and support workforce development programs and pathways for young adults with autism and other developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires that each student’s IEP identify the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Digital Tool certificates and CAPE industry certifications the student seeks to attain before high school graduation. It further requires that student IEPs identify the need for transition services, including as it relates to self-advocacy and the attainment of a standard high school diploma. The bill also outlines certificate and diploma options available to students with IEPs.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires the State Board of Education to adopt an alternate academic diploma for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who are assessed with the state’s alternate assessment, and requires the diploma to be aligned with the requirements for a regular high school diploma.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill directs the State Board of Education to create an alternate diploma for students with significant cognitive disabilities, which is standards-based, aligns with Indiana’s requirements for a diploma and is awarded to no more than 1% of students in a cohort.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill establishes a transition-to-work program, which consists of academic instruction, work skills training and a volunteer or paid work experience for private school students with disabilities between the ages of 17-22. It further requires that credit earned by private school students (including those with disabilities) enrolled in dual enrollment programs be applied toward high school completion. Postsecondary institutions eligible to participate in dual enrollment must indicate the services and resources that are available to students with disabilities who register in a dual enrollment course.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill stipulates that children who have IEPs and who satisfy the graduation requirements through their IEPs shall be awarded a standard high school diploma.
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This bill:
1. Establishes the Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) and a corresponding scholarship, designed to increase inclusive postsecondary education and employment opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); and
2. Establishes the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities, which is tasked with:
• Disseminating information to students with disabilities and their parents about education programs, employment opportunities and mentoring;
• Facilitating collaboration between institutions and parents to assist students transitioning into a FPCTP;
• Providing technical assistance to postsecondary institutions regarding programs and services for students with intellectual disabilities; and
• Collaborating with various entities to promote experiential training and employment opportunities for students with IDD.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill modifies eligibility criteria so that students with disabilities can apply for the Excelsior scholarship, which helps cover tuition at New York state public institutions of higher education. It further requires transportation network companies (TNCs) to adopt policies and comply with laws related to non-discrimination of riders on the basis of disability (among other characteristics), and prohibits TNCs from imposing additional charges for providing services to people with physical disabilities because of those disabilities.
State / Territory: New York
This bill requires the first IEP in effect after a child with a disability reaches age 14 to include transition assessments and services, including appropriate measurable postsecondary goals (based upon transition assessments related to training, education and employment); the transition services needed to assist the child in reaching those goals; and a statement of inter-agency responsibilities or any needed linkages before the child leaves the school setting.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill establishes and appropriates money for county college-based adult centers for transition, whose purpose is to coordinate and integrate existing county- and state-based services, programs and resources, and to ensure that individuals with developmental disabilities up to the age of 24 have opportunities to receive mentoring, job coaching, skill training and any other appropriate wrap-around services to help them make a successful transition into employment and independent living.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This Executive Order directs the Secretary of Education to expand educational opportunities and advance employment for individuals with disabilities, including by exploring ways to increase active participation in advanced training and higher education programs.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill establishes the Student Equity and Achievement Program, which supports community colleges in eliminating achievement gaps for students from traditionally underrepresented groups (including students with disabilities) and which requires participating institutions to maintain student equity plans to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students, regardless of disability or other factors. The bill further establishes the California Online Community College, and makes provisions to ensure students with disabilities receive support services and educational accommodations so that they can participate and benefit equal to students without disabilities.
State / Territory: California
This bill appropriates funds to assist community college districts in covering the excess direct instructional cost of providing special support services or instruction to students with disabilities enrolled at community colleges.
State / Territory: California
This bill creates a pilot program for inclusive higher education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which will be operated at two four-year institutions and one community college and include peer mentoring, coordinate with vocational rehabilitation supports and focus on preparing students for gainful competitive employment. Pilot programs can also include an institutional assessment to determine training needs, technical assistance and other capacity needed within the institution to provide these programs.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP team to identify the need for transition services before the student enters high school or reaches the age of 14;
2. The student’s IEP team to provide students and their parents with various transition-related information, including transition services, career and technical education and collegiate programs available to students with disabilities;
3. That IEP teams discuss how a student with a disability who meets the requirements for a standard high school diploma can defer receipt of that diploma; and
4. The Department of Education to review existing transition services and programs for students with disabilities to establish uniform best practices, and to post those best practices to its website.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill establishes a program to award competitive grants to institutions of higher education to develop and implement programs that provide inclusive higher education opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill requires county office of education personnel to work in collaboration with the county probation department and local education agencies to ensure specified transition activities are completed for youth in the juvenile justice system, and to facilitate the transfer of a pupil’s IEP (which identifies academic and career goals) when that pupil enters the juvenile court school.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the Superintendent for the Juvenile Services Education Program to submit a report to the Governor on the educational outcomes of students at all juvenile residential facilities, which will be disaggregated by disability status.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill requires the State Board of Education to institute and establish career-technical education and work training programs for secondary and postsecondary students with visual impairments. The programs will help students develop communication, mobility and work skills.
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in collaboration with the Department of Social and Health Services Developmental Disabilities Administration and Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, to develop a plan to build statewide capacity among school districts to improve transition planning for students with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill requires public colleges and universities to take various measures to improve mental health awareness and services on campus, including:
1. Developing and implementing a student orientation session aimed at raising awareness about mental health conditions;
2. Creating a webpage with information about mental health resources at the school and in the community;
3. Implementing a peer support program for individuals living with mental health conditions; and
4. Partnering with local mental health service providers to improve campus mental wellness.
In addition, it requires the Board of Higher Education to develop a Technical Assistance Center to provide support to public colleges or universities in reviewing policies related to students living with mental health conditions and their academic standing.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill:
1. Requires school districts to provide students with IEPs information about Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities;
2. Allows students to enroll in the school district’s CTE program at any time if doing so is consistent with their transition goals;
3. Adds disability services coordinators of public community colleges and CTE coordinators as additional participants in a student’s transition planning process; and
4. Directs community college districts and school districts to work together to:
• Provide access to dual enrollment courses for students with disabilities;
• Provide supplementary aids and accommodations needed to access dual credit courses; and
• Offer for-credit and non-credit courses (including general education courses, career and technical education, and vocational training) for students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill requires the Department of Education to provide training and guidance documents to local school divisions on the development of IEPs for children with disabilities that incorporate specific examples of high-quality level of performance descriptions, annual goals and postsecondary transition sections. It further requires the Department to develop and maintain a statewide plan for improving its ongoing oversight, technical assistance and guidance related to postsecondary transition planning and services for children with disabilities.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill allocates funding for rate increases to providers of extended employment services for people with severe disabilities. It further requires the Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, to develop a customized training program for skilled manufacturing industries and to actively recruit individuals with disabilities (among other disadvantaged groups) for the program.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill appropriates funding to provide financial assistance to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who attend a Minnesota postsecondary institution. It further requests that the University of Minnesota-Morris offer an academic program for students with IDD that includes peer mentoring, financial literacy training and an internship, apprenticeship or other skills-based experience to prepare students for meaningful employment.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This Organization Order establishes an Interdepartmental Operating Committee on Adult Literacy, focused on developing, implementing and coordinating a total adult literacy program. It includes representatives from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation as well as the Youth Council.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill requires each community and technical college to establish a culturally appropriate outreach program to assist potential students from underserved backgrounds – including students with disabilities – in understanding available opportunities and navigating the student aid system. Outreach programs may include partnerships with appropriate community-based organizations. The bill further establishes the legislature’s intent that guided pathways (which provide mentorship and advising) be implemented at all community and technical colleges to improve completion rates for students, including those with disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill reauthorizes a work group to explore ways to improve the process for students with disabilities when they are transferring between institutions of higher education. This includes developing a plan that focuses on removing obstacles for students with disabilities and addressing changing methods of delivering course content.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to collect and study data on the participation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at public institutions of higher education.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to maintain an inventory of postsecondary educational programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; post the inventory to the Board’s website; and submit it for inclusion in the Texas Education Agency’s transition and employment guide.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill allows applicants to the University of Hawaii who qualified for and received special education services (among other qualifications) to be eligible for the Hawaii state scholars program, which provides financial assistance for up to four years.
State / Territory: Hawaii
Relating to Transition Planning for a Public School Student Enrolled In a Special Education Program.
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP to address the use and availability of appropriate services and supports to assist them in developing decision-making skills, independence and self-determination;
2. The Commissioner of Education to develop and post a list of services and benefits that may be appropriate for students with an IEP;
3. The Commissioner to regularly review and update the minimum training guidelines for employees serving as a school district’s designee on transition and employment services for special education students; and
4. School districts to provide students and their parents with information regarding guardianship, alternatives to guardianship and other supports that may enable a student to live independently.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill directs the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to convene a work group to analyze and make recommendations on how to address disparities in higher education among traditionally marginalized, underserved and underrepresented communities, including people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Oregon
This bill requires the state’s Community and Technical Education (CTE) Committee to submit a report each year that includes an assessment of the state of CTE within the state, disaggregated by disability status (among other factors).
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill establishes that students with disabilities ages 17 to 22 who have not yet received a high school diploma or certificate of completion are eligible for their private school’s transition-to-work program, which provides academic instruction, work skills training, and a volunteer or paid work experience.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires each public high school student to complete and annually update an Individual Career Academic Plan (ICAP) in order to graduate with a standard diploma. The ICAP process includes taking career- and college-interest surveys, developing postsecondary and workforce goals, choosing an intentional sequence of courses that reflect progress toward postsecondary goals and experiencing in-service learning and/or work environment activities. The bill requires that ICAPs for students with disabilities take into account and work in cooperation with students’ IEPs or Section 504 Plans.
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This Executive Order requires school districts to hold IEP team meetings to consider Extended-School Year services for every child with an IEP, and to consider what Compensatory Education Services are required to make up for regression or services not provided during periods of remote instruction and support.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This bill requires the Office of Higher Education to provide all residents (and their families) beginning in 7th grade with information about planning and preparing for postsecondary opportunities, including postsecondary education options for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires the Indiana Management Performance Hub, Department of Workforce Development and Department of Health to use data resources and technology to identify certain eligible students with disabilities, provide eligible individuals with a list of training and education opportunities and employment services resources and post that resource list online. In addition, it requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to create an alternate diploma for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill enables school districts and special education cooperatives to establish community transition interagency committees for youth with disabilities, which can (among other things) identify services, programs and funding sources within the community that prepare secondary and postsecondary aged youth for further education, employment (including integrated competitive employment) and independent living.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill appropriates funding to prepare sensory-impaired and multi-disabled students to become productive citizens by providing a learning environment that addresses their academic, vocational, and social development.
State / Territory: Georgia
This bill establishes a task force to study the coordination of services and expansion of educational programs for young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities to identify barriers to full societal integration. It includes representatives from a statewide association for career and technical education, the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill requires postsecondary education institutions to develop, procure, maintain and use electronic instructional materials and related information technology that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. It further requires the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to convene an Accessibility Task Force, which includes representatives from disability advocacy and experts in accessible technology.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to collect and study data on the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in workforce education programs. It further instructs the Board to work with junior college districts to develop and recommend minimum reporting language related to the amount of money expended on programs focused on the participation, retention and graduation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill updates Maryland’s Blueprint for the Future, which is designed to transform the state’s systems to eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps for students with disabilities (among other objectives). A component of the Blueprint is providing additional supports and services to certain students (including students with disabilities) to stay on track for college and career readiness.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill creates a pilot program to establish Education Scholarship Accounts for parents of eligible students with special needs, which can be used to cover tuition, fees and textbooks at a postsecondary institution (among other qualified expenses).
State / Territory: Mississippi
This bill requires that a student’s IEP include a transition plan that addresses college and career planning components.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill establishes the Building Better Futures High School Program, which enables students with intellectual disabilities to broaden their career opportunities in an inclusive environment while completing the additional years of high school as allowed by law.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill establishes the Building Better Futures Program, which enables students with intellectual disabilities to broaden their career opportunities through education and job training in an inclusive and age-appropriate environment.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill establishes a legislative task force on best practices for special education, which will (among other duties) compare the amount of academic instruction with the training time for independent function and career development.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This bill requires the State Board of Education, in collaboration with the Vocational Rehabilitation Department and other stakeholders, to develop criteria for a uniform state-recognized employability credential aligned to the program of study for students with a disability whose IEP team determines that a diploma pathway would not provide a free appropriate public education. This includes developing a rubric and guidelines to identify and assess the employability skills of the students, based on appropriate standards.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This bill requires the State Board of Education to report annually on the development and implementation of policies related to improving outcomes for elementary and secondary school students with disabilities, including model programs to improve graduation rates of students with disabilities, transition services for students from high school to postsecondary education and employment opportunities.
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill requires the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to provide Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) to potentially eligible individuals; to record and report transition services data; and to enter into a formal interagency agreement with the state education agency and collaborate with local education agencies to provide Pre-ETS and other vocational rehabilitation services.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill:
1. Authorizes local workforce development boards to:
• Include representatives of community-based organizations that provide competitive integrated employment to individuals with disabilities; and
• Establish standing committees to provide information and assist with issues relating to serving individuals with disabilities;
2. Requires local workforce development boards to work with the state to ensure sufficient numbers and types of providers are providing opportunities that lead to competitive integrated employment; and
3. Requires local workforce development boards to coordinate activities with education and training providers relating to vocational rehabilitation services, which can include cross-training staff and providing technical assistance.
State / Territory: Iowa
This resolution creates the Joint Study Committee on Postsecondary Education and Employment Options for Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, consisting of Legislative members and members appointed by the Governor.
State / Territory: Georgia
This resolution urges the Legislative Council to assign to the appropriate study committee the topic of studying barriers to competitive integrated employment that Hoosiers with disabilities face, and to create an advisory subcommittee that consists of disability-led advocacy organizations and allies.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill indicates that additional members can be added to Area Planning Councils within each community college district, including representatives from Vocational Rehabilitation Services.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill creates a standing committee to provide information and assist with operational and other issues relating to the provision of services to individuals with disabilities within the state’s One-Stop Career Centers. This includes providing training for staff concerning the provision of support or accommodation to, and finding employment opportunities for, individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Colorado
This Executive Order establishes the North Carolina Statewide Independent Living Council, to advise state efforts to improve and expand the provision of independent living services in the state. It includes representatives from an American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services project, the NCWorks Commission and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, as well as parents and legal guardians of individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: North Carolina
This bill establishes that competitive integrated employment will be considered the first option when serving people with disabilities of working age, and requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill requires the Advisory Board for Persons Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing to periodically meet with the commissioners of Social Services, Education, Developmental Services and Labor (among others) to discuss best practices and gaps in services for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.
State / Territory: Connecticut
An Act Concerning the Department of Public Health’s Various Revisions to the Public Health Statutes.
This bill requires the Commissioner of Education to assign one vocational rehabilitation consultant to act as a liaison staff member to the Advisory Board for Persons Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes a task force to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including by studying and making recommendations around expanding employment assistance programs for people with disabilities. Members include employed people with disabilities and the commissioners of Developmental Services, Mental Health and Addiction Services, Labor and Rehabilitation Services.
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes a task force to study issues with publicly-funded transportation for people with disabilities (among other groups).
State / Territory: Connecticut
This bill establishes that it is the policy of the state that competitive integrated employment is considered the first option when serving people with disabilities of working age, and requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Kansas
This bill establishes a multi-stakeholder Task Force on Maximizing Employment for People with Disabilities, to study the problem of unemployment and underemployment among individuals with disabilities and provide recommendations on how to increase opportunities, expand employment readiness and training programs and offer greater employment supports.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill authorizes the Department of Education to perform a comprehensive, annual review of the delivery of special education services within the state’s public school system, including the coordination and distribution of information on services available for children with disabilities that cross multiple state agencies.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill establishes that the preferred outcome of work-based learning experiences for youth with disabilities is competitive integrated employment. It further adds members to the Employment First Oversight Commission, including a representative from the Pennsylvania Client Assistance Program and from an organization that works to create competitive integrated employment opportunities.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill designates the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) as the lead agency responsible for developing connections between local education agencies and employers to promote the successful transition of students from school to competitive, gainful employment. This includes ensuring that job readiness skills training is included in a student’s IEP. The bill further requires OVR to arrange for, monitor and support the placement of high school students with disabilities in internships, on-the-job training and full- or part-time work at competitive wages in integrated settings with private and public sector employers.
State / Territory: Pennsylvania
This bill prohibits a transportation network company from imposing additional charges or increasing fares when providing services to people with disabilities and requires all transportation network drivers to comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations relating to the accommodation of service animals. If further creates a Ride for Hire Task Force to make recommendations around public safety, consumer protection and economic fairness and equity of the ride for hire industry, which includes a representative of the Disability Law Center.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill requires the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals; school districts; and other agencies to create a transition plan for students who are developmentally delayed and under the jurisdiction of Family Court. The plan includes an education plan, available mentors, workforce supports and employment services, a health insurance option and more.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill establishes the Nevada Commission for Persons Who Are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired, and tasks the Commission with (among other duties):
1. Providing consumers with information concerning services and resources that promote equality in education, employment and socialization;
2. Providing referrals for those services and resources;
3. Making recommendations to state and local governmental entities concerning integrating services and programs for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired; and
4. Improving cooperation among governmental entities that provide such services.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate (including through data sharing) to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Oklahoma
This bill establishes an Employment First policy for the state, and requires agencies to coordinate and collaborate (including through sharing data) to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Wyoming
This bill expands the State Interagency Council for Services and Supports to Children to become the Interagency Council for Services and Supports to Children and Transition-Age Youth. The Council is tasked with designing and implementing a system of care for children and transition-age youth with or at risk of developing behavioral health needs that is community based, family- and youth-driven and culturally and linguistically competent. It adds the Executive Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and the President of the Council on Postsecondary Education to the Council, and requires agencies represented on the Council to adopt interagency agreements to advance the system of care.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This bill requires the Governor’s Workforce Board to expand job and career opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It also adds representatives from the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals to the advisory committee of the state career pathways systems.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill creates an Advisory Council on Postsecondary Education for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), which includes a parent or guardian of a person with IDD. If further requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in coordination with the Advisory Council, to periodically review the policies and practices that increase access to higher education opportunities for people with IDD and distribute educational outreach materials to increase awareness regarding postsecondary opportunities for people with IDD. This includes identifying, evaluating and developing recommendations to address barriers to accessing higher education for people with IDD who are or have been in the foster care system.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill establishes a permanent commission on the status of people with disabilities, which is tasked with studying and advising on the status of transportation for people with disabilities, including to access employment opportunities; establishing school-to-work activities for transition-aged youth with disabilities that engage family members (among other stakeholders); and promoting and facilitating collaboration among local disability commissions, disability right advocacy organizations and disability employment service providers.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill requires the California Workforce Investment Board to assist the Governor in helping individuals experiencing barriers to employment (including individuals with disabilities) achieve economic security and upward mobility by implementing policies that encourage the attainment of marketable skills relevant to current labor market trends.
State / Territory: California
This bill enables the Director of Developmental Disabilities to establish an Employment First Task Force to improve coordination of the state’s efforts to address the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities who seek community employment. It further appropriates funds for the Employment First Pilot Program, to develop a long-term, sustainable system that places individuals with developmental disabilities in community employment.
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill requires psychiatric hospitals to prepare a written continuing care plan for patients who are voluntarily or involuntary admitted, which includes a realistic assessment of the patient’s post-discharge social, financial, vocational, housing and treatment needs, and which identifies available support services and provider linkages necessary for meeting those needs.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill adds the Director of the Division for the Visually Impaired and the Director of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health to the state’s Employment First Oversight Commission.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill establishes the Behavioral Health Planning and Advisory Council, which is tasked with conducting research, advising and advocating for adults and children with mental illnesses or emotional problems. The Council includes the Director of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill establishes that the goal of the Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities is to improve employment outcomes for working-age adults with disabilities, including by coordinating and collaborating to remove barriers in reaching competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: North Dakota
This bill requires that publicly-funded programs prioritize competitive integrated employment, and that the departments of Workforce Development, Public Instruction and Health Services work together to lead a collaboration among state agencies and jointly develop a plan to ensure that programs, policies and procedures support competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Wisconsin
This bill establishes that competitive integrated employment, including self-employment, is the first and preferred option for all working age citizens with disabilities. It further requires state agencies to coordinate their efforts to ensure that programs, funding and policies support integrated community-based employment or customized employment.
State / Territory: Maine
This Executive Order establishes the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, which includes a representative from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. The Council is tasked with undertaking advocacy, capacity building and systemic change activities to support Tennesseans with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion, which is tasked with identifying and recommending ways to combat discrimination and advance diversity and inclusion, including in employment. Members include representatives from the departments of Labor and Education and the state’s university and community college systems.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Task Force on Community Transportation, which is tasked with developing and providing recommendations to the Governor around establishing a well-coordinated, interconnected and accessible statewide transportation system for all transit users in the state, in part to remove one of the major barriers to people with disabilities becoming employed.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Task Force on Employment and Economic Opportunity for people with disabilities, to advise the Governor on policies and programs that will increase employment and economic opportunity for people with disabilities. Members include representatives from the Office of Special Education, the Division of Behavioral Health and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This Executive Order directs state agencies to coordinate efforts to increase competitive integrated employment for Tennesseans with disabilities, and convenes an Employment First Task Force to identify barriers and best practices for increasing competitive integrated employment opportunities in the state.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This Executive Order reconstitutes the state Workforce Development Board, which includes one representative of a community-based organization that has demonstrated experience and expertise in addressing the employment, training or education needs of individuals with barriers to employment, including providing competitive integrated employment to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill adds ex officio members to the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship, including the Director of Rehabilitation and the Executive Director of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. The bill further establishes a subcommittee to address apprenticeship for the disabled community, to encourage greater participation for people with disabilities in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.
State / Territory: California
This bill establishes the Legislature’s intent that the Division of Rehabilitation Services and the Division of Developmental Disabilities work collaboratively to improve employment for individuals with disabilities and to maximize federal matching funds.
State / Territory: Nebraska
This bill requires the Department of Transportation to create and administer the Office of Accessible Transportation and Mobility, to expand and improve accessible transportation and mobility across the state. The bill requires the office to consult with consumers of accessible transportation as well as professionals with experience in transportation, disability, and aging in developing its mission, scope, and strategic plan.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill dedicates funding for a county office of education to convene a workgroup that will examine and propose alternative pathways to a high school diploma for students with disabilities. It further dedicates funding for a county office of education to convene a workgroup that will design a state standardized IEP template and support transition planning.
State / Territory: California
This bill establishes the Colorado Deafblind Citizens Council, which will advise various government entities on how to increase competitive integrated employment, enlarge economic opportunities, enhance independence and self-sufficiency and improve services for people who are deafblind.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish interagency agreements with various agencies to foster effective collaboration, promote efficiencies and establish a uniform focus among agencies providing transition services to special education students. It further requires the Education Data Center to monitor outcomes for special education students, including the number of students entering competitive integrated employment or postsecondary education and training programs.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill authorizes transition planning for students with disabilities to start as soon as practicable and appropriate, and requires interagency responsibilities and linkages with transition services to be addressed in a transition plan in a student’s IEP. It also requires that meetings to discuss postsecondary goals include parents, students and educators.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill takes measures to reduce the number of former foster youth with developmental disabilities who are discharged into homelessness or inappropriately placed in hospitals. This includes requiring the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to plan services for youth with developmental disabilities in advance of their transitions to adulthood. It further requires that priority for Medicaid waivers be given to individuals who exited dependency in the last two years.
State / Territory: Washington
This Executive Directive orders various cabinet secretaries and their respective executive branch agencies and councils to continue completing and updating a comprehensive, cross-governmental strategic plan designed to ensure continued community integration of Virginians with disabilities.
State / Territory: Virginia
This Executive Order creates the Future Ready Iowa Alliance, which will develop and recommend a strategic plan to accomplish the Future Ready Iowa goal of 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce having education or training beyond high school by the year 2025. It authorizes the Governor to appoint representatives from the state’s vocational rehabilitation programs to the Alliance.
State / Territory: Iowa
This resolution creates a task force to study and make recommendations regarding statewide programs for the blind and visually impaired, including around postsecondary transition planning and programming.
State / Territory: Delaware
This Executive Order establishes the RecoveryOhio Advisory Committee, which will advise the Governor’s administration on matters related to mental illness and substance use prevention, treatment and recovery support services and provide recommendations on recovery support strategies (including peer support, employment and housing).
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill directs the Department of Human Services to establish a five-year Customized Employment Pilot Program to help individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities achieve and maintain competitive integrated employment through a process of customized planning and negotiation. It requires that participants in the pilot program reflect the geographical, racial, ethnic, gender and income-level diversity of the state. In addition, the bill requires the Department to seek the advice and recommendations of other entities in creating and operating the pilot program.
State / Territory: Illinois
This resolution establishes a task force to study ways to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including expanding existing employment assistance programs for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill requires the State Department of Developmental Services to consult with specified stakeholders – including representatives of the Department of Rehabilitation, which provides vocational rehabilitation services – to discuss system reforms to better serve consumers with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the State Department of Social Services to provide the eligibility and enrollment data for the California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) and CalFresh (implementation of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) programs to the State Department of Developmental Services for the purposes of monitoring and evaluating employment outcomes to determine the effectiveness of the state’s Employment First policy.
State / Territory: California
This resolution directs the Kentucky Department of Education to collaborate with other entities to implement the Kentucky Peer Support Network Project, which equips a group of peers to provide ongoing support to individual students with significant disabilities to help them develop more effective communication skills, increase their participation in the classroom, enhance academic engagement and increase self-confidence and self-determination.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This bill appropriates funding for Workforce Investment boards to provide grants for basic skills training for individuals with learning disabilities or who otherwise need vocational rehabilitation services. It further directs the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development to work with organizations dedicated to the economic empowerment of people with disabilities (among other groups) to promote its basic skills training program.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill creates an interagency committee for providing competitive integrated employment for individuals with severe disabilities, which includes a parent of a child with disabilities.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This bill:
1. Establishes the Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) and a corresponding scholarship, designed to increase inclusive postsecondary education and employment opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); and
2. Establishes the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities, which is tasked with:
• Disseminating information to students with disabilities and their parents about education programs, employment opportunities and mentoring;
• Facilitating collaboration between institutions and parents to assist students transitioning into a FPCTP;
• Providing technical assistance to postsecondary institutions regarding programs and services for students with intellectual disabilities; and
• Collaborating with various entities to promote experiential training and employment opportunities for students with IDD.
State / Territory: Florida
This Executive Order directs state agencies to coordinate efforts to increase employment of Arkansans with disabilities.
State / Territory: Arkansas
This Executive Order requires state departments and agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment as the first priority and optimal outcome for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Michigan
This bill establishes the South Carolina Employment First Study Committee for the purpose of studying and evaluating the need for an Employment First Initiative Act, which would establish policies supportive of competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities and create related responsibilities for state agencies.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This bill establishes the Employment First Advisory Partnership, a multi-agency entity tasked with developing a strategic plan to expand competitive integrated employment outcomes for people with disabilities, including by identifying training and knowledge gaps among agency staff, agency vendors and individuals with disabilities and their families that may create obstacles to advancing competitive integrated employment. It further establishes that the Department of Labor and Employment is responsible for promoting youth transitions that focus on public-private collaboration and employer engagement that emphasizes free-market solutions.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill requires the first IEP in effect after a child with a disability reaches age 14 to include transition assessments and services, including appropriate measurable postsecondary goals (based upon transition assessments related to training, education and employment); the transition services needed to assist the child in reaching those goals; and a statement of inter-agency responsibilities or any needed linkages before the child leaves the school setting.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This Executive Order directs State Human Resources to review and recommend any updates to a prior Executive Order to improve employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, in consultation with the Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues and Employment.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill establishes the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Council, which will examine various issues related to the state vocational rehabilitation program and advise the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency on those matters. Topics include order of selection; the extent, scope and effectiveness of services provided; and coordination with the state’s independent living council and centers for independent living.
State / Territory: Ohio
This bill establishes and appropriates money for county college-based adult centers for transition, whose purpose is to coordinate and integrate existing county- and state-based services, programs and resources, and to ensure that individuals with developmental disabilities up to the age of 24 have opportunities to receive mentoring, job coaching, skill training and any other appropriate wrap-around services to help them make a successful transition into employment and independent living.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires the New Jersey Transit Corporation to ensure that all paratransit services it manages and administers adhere to a specific set of standards, and to collaborate with the Department of Human Services to develop and implement a paratransit best practices pilot program. The pilot program will produce a training module for paratransit best practices and train paratransit providers on those best practices. Finally, the bill establishes regional paratransit coordinating councils for the purpose of exchanging best practices.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This Executive Order establishes the Children’s System State Board to serve as the single point of responsibility in the development and implementation of a Children’s Mental Health System. It authorizes the Governor to appoint a representative from the Department of Workforce Development, as well as the Iowa Mental Health and Disability Services Commission.
State / Territory: Iowa
This Executive Order establishes a Task Force on Economic Opportunity for Populations Facing Chronically High Rates of Unemployment, which is responsible for identifying challenges and barriers to employment and recommending strategies for helping target populations (including people with disabilities) prepare for and connect to employment opportunities.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This bill requires the Transportation Council to solicit input from disability communities (among other stakeholders) in its work studying and promoting methods of implementing new transportation technologies and modes of transportation throughout the state.
State / Territory: New Hampshire
This resolution establishes the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services Task Force (which includes a supported employment provider) to study and make recommendations regarding the policies, rules, structure and regulations of the Division.
State / Territory: Delaware
This Executive Order establishes the Governor’s Taskforce on Integrated Employment, which is responsible for examining and evaluating current employment programs, resources, funding, available training and employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Nevada
This Executive Order establishes an Employment First Commission to provide guidance and advice to the Governor regarding the competitive integrated employment of individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: New York
This Executive Order requires all state agencies to coordinate and collaborate to ensure that state programs, policies, procedures and funding support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Mississippi
This bill expands the state’s business enterprise program to allow people who are blind to operate additional types of businesses on state property, beyond vending facilitates. In addition, it directs the Department of Labor and Employment to convene a working group to examine avenues to expand job and business opportunities, as well as corresponding trainings, for people who are blind.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill requires:
1. Centers for independent living to provide services that facilitate the transition of youth with significant disabilities to postsecondary life;
2. Vocational rehabilitation services (including transition services) to prepare people for competitive integrated employment;
3. The Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services to enter into cooperative agreements (including with the Virginia Community College System) to provide vocational rehabilitation services;
4. Vocational rehabilitation services to include assistive technology programs and provide support (including tuition) for advanced training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and other fields; and
5. The Department to regularly evaluate a client’s interests and needs with respect to competitive integrated employment, once they are placed in extended employment.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill establishes a Youth Services Coordination Task Force to study the establishment of a single network of service providers for youth that can provide vocational training, subsidized work experiences, mentoring, tutoring, GED preparation, community service opportunities and other services to youth. The Task Force includes the Director of the Department of Disability Services.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill requires the Agency for People with Disabilities to examine the state’s transportation disadvantaged services. It further establishes a task force on Transportation Disadvantaged Services, which will examine (among other topics) the provision of transportation disadvantaged services to individual users to allow them to access health care, places of employment, education and other life-sustaining activities in a cost-effective and efficient manner, while reducing fragmentation and duplication of services.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill continues the Technology-Related Assistance Revolving Loan Fund for Individuals with Disabilities Board, which includes the Director of the Division of Rehabilitation Services. Among other duties, the Board is responsible for awarding loans to assist individuals with disabilities in improving their independence through the purchase of technology-related devices. The bill further requires each school district to establish a Professional Staff Development Council comprised of proportional representation from the major school levels and from vocational, special education and other specialties.
State / Territory: West Virginia
This bill establishes a Financial Literacy Program for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, which must include information, resources, outreach and education around job training programs and employment opportunities. It further establishes an Employment First policy, to be implemented through an interagency cooperative agreement. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Management Services, in consultation with other agencies and offices, to develop and implement programs that incorporate internships, mentoring, on-the-job training, unpaid work experience, situational assessments and other innovative strategies geared toward individuals with a disability.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill phases out subminimum wage for people with disabilities through a multi-stakeholder process.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill:
1. Directs the Developmental Disabilities Administration and the Department of Disabilities, in partnership with other state agencies, to develop and implement a plan to eliminate subminimum wage employment;
2. Requires Resource Coordinators for individuals who are being paid less than minimum wage to develop a plan that addresses how community integration and employment will be accomplished, including by addressing barriers (such as transportation) to accessing funding and resources; and
3. Requires employers to inform any new employees who are employed at less than minimum wage about opportunities to obtain competitive integrated employment.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill establishes an Employment First Taskforce to develop and implement a state Employment First policy. This includes proposing initiatives to address the culture of low expectations for children with disabilities and describing minimal workforce competency-based training standards applicable for job coaches, case managers and other relevant personnel.
State / Territory: West Virginia
This bill requires county office of education personnel to work in collaboration with the county probation department and local education agencies to ensure specified transition activities are completed for youth in the juvenile justice system, and to facilitate the transfer of a pupil’s IEP (which identifies academic and career goals) when that pupil enters the juvenile court school.
State / Territory: California
This bill requires the Superintendent for the Juvenile Services Education Program to submit a report to the Governor on the educational outcomes of students at all juvenile residential facilities, which will be disaggregated by disability status.
State / Territory: Maryland
This bill requires various agencies to develop a collaborative action plan to increase the community integration of people with disabilities, including through competitive employment, with a focus on aligning policies and funding. It further requires Assertive Community Service teams, which provide treatment and rehabilitative mental health services, to provide employment services and include a full-time vocational specialist.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in collaboration with the Department of Social and Health Services Developmental Disabilities Administration and Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, to develop a plan to build statewide capacity among school districts to improve transition planning for students with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This bill establishes the Legislature’s intent that social support services – including vocational training and employment assistance – be provided to help individuals with mental health conditions live successfully in their communities. It further requires that services provided to people with mental health conditions use the coordination-of-care principles characteristic of recovery oriented services and include vocational training and employment assistance.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill establishes an advisory committee to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. The purpose of the advisory committee is creating an early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention competitive selection process to, among other things, expand the provision of high-quality, evidence-based early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention services (including supported education and employment).
State / Territory: California
This Executive Order establishes the Michigan Workforce Development Board as an advisory body within the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The Board is tasked with assisting the Governor on developing strategies to support the use of career pathways to provide individuals with disabilities (among other populations) with workforce investment activities, education and supportive services to enter or retain employment.
State / Territory: Michigan
This bill phases out subminimum wage for people with disabilities, through a multi-stakeholder process.
State / Territory: California
This bill:
1. Requires school districts to provide students with IEPs information about Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities;
2. Allows students to enroll in the school district’s CTE program at any time if doing so is consistent with their transition goals;
3. Adds disability services coordinators of public community colleges and CTE coordinators as additional participants in a student’s transition planning process; and
4. Directs community college districts and school districts to work together to:
• Provide access to dual enrollment courses for students with disabilities;
• Provide supplementary aids and accommodations needed to access dual credit courses; and
• Offer for-credit and non-credit courses (including general education courses, career and technical education, and vocational training) for students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill establishes the legislature’s intent that the Department of Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Workforce Services and the Utah State Board of Education, develop a comprehensive plan to ensure the effective transition of students with disabilities from public education to appropriate non-segregated employment.
State / Territory: Utah
This bill establishes the Office on Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and requires that it coordinate with appropriate agencies to provide people who are deaf or hard of hearing with support and access to workforce development opportunities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill allocates funding for rate increases to providers of extended employment services for people with severe disabilities. It further requires the Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, to develop a customized training program for skilled manufacturing industries and to actively recruit individuals with disabilities (among other disadvantaged groups) for the program.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill:
1. Establishes Employment first priorities;
2. Establishes a Task Force for Eliminating Subminimum Wages; and
3. Provides grants for a range of disability employment purposes, including:
• Conducting family outreach and education on transitioning from subminimum wage employment to competitive employment;
• Providing intensive treatment and support (including employment support) for adolescents and adults experiencing a first psychotic episode; and
• Delivering peer-led skill training sessions to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities understand community service options related to employment, education and transportation.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill allocates funding for a pilot program to increase competitive employment opportunities for transition-age youth ages 18-21, which includes training around job-seeking skills, workplace orientation and job site knowledge. In operating the pilot program, the grant recipient is required to collaborate with schools, disability providers, jobs and training organizations, vocational rehabilitation providers and employers.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This Executive Order establishes an Employment First Council, which is tasked with increasing opportunities for competitive integrated employment in the state. The Council includes (among other members) representatives who have an immediate family member with a disability.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This Organization Order establishes an Interdepartmental Operating Committee on Adult Literacy, focused on developing, implementing and coordinating a total adult literacy program. It includes representatives from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation as well as the Youth Council.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill:
1. Adds various members to the state’s Employment and Economic Opportunity for People with Disabilities Task Force, including the Director of Juvenile Justice, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board; and
2. Requires the Task Force to take steps to improve the transition of youth with disabilities to employment and postsecondary education and training, including by:
• Designing a data sharing process and analyzing transitions data;
• Serving as a resource to state and local agencies involved in the delivery of services to youth with disabilities; and
• Developing in-service training programs for consumers and families in improving understanding and awareness of postsecondary transition services.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill requires state agencies to consider competitive integrated employment as a first option for people with disabilities, and to coordinate and collaborate to support competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities (including by sharing data and information across systems). It further tasks the Disability Resource Commission with identifying barriers and solutions for increasing competitive integrated employment in the state.
State / Territory: Mississippi
This bill requires each community and technical college to establish a culturally appropriate outreach program to assist potential students from underserved backgrounds – including students with disabilities – in understanding available opportunities and navigating the student aid system. Outreach programs may include partnerships with appropriate community-based organizations. The bill further establishes the legislature’s intent that guided pathways (which provide mentorship and advising) be implemented at all community and technical colleges to improve completion rates for students, including those with disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
This Mayor’s Order re-establishes the Workforce Investment Council, which includes the Director of the Department on Disability Services as well as representatives of community-based organizations that have demonstrated experience and expertise in providing competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This Executive Order reaffirms a commitment to employment for people with disabilities and establishes an interagency cooperative agreement to ensure the continuation of this commitment.
State / Territory: Florida
This Executive Order reestablishes the state’s Workforce Development Board, and requires that certain members come from organizations that provide competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities. It further tasks the Board with developing strategies to provide workforce investment activities, education and supportive services to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Delaware
This bill requires the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services to develop a plan to establish a statewide crisis assistance system program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It further establishes a task force to assess services and supports for people with IDD, which includes representatives from the Division and family members of people with IDD. Finally, it requires the Division to assess staffing and fiscal resources needed to provide vocational rehabilitation services to all eligible individuals.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill requires the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority to convene a coordinating council responsible for meeting the needs of low-income seniors and people with disabilities, which will develop recommendations for the appropriate and sustainable funding of the free-fare program for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to maintain an inventory of postsecondary educational programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; post the inventory to the Board’s website; and submit it for inclusion in the Texas Education Agency’s transition and employment guide.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill directs the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to convene a work group to analyze and make recommendations on how to address disparities in higher education among traditionally marginalized, underserved and underrepresented communities, including people with disabilities.
State / Territory: Oregon
This bill directs the Health and Human Services Commission, in conjunction with the Texas Workforce Commission, to conduct a study regarding occupational training programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities, in order to determine regions where training programs should be improved or expanded and develop strategies for placing trained individuals with intellectual disabilities into fulfilling jobs.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Texas Workforce Commission to:
1. Conduct a program to provide vocational rehabilitation services to eligible individuals with disabilities, which may entail cooperating with other agencies to study problems in providing vocational rehabilitation and developing necessary facilities and services;
2. Establish a specialized training program that covers supports for individuals with disabilities and require it for certain employees (including vocational rehabilitation transition specialists and transition counselors); and
3. Collaborate with the Texas Education Agency to develop a mechanism to identify the areas of the state with the greatest needs for transition services for students with disabilities.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services to adopt and implement an Employment First policy stating that competitive integrated employment is the first and preferred outcome for individuals with disabilities. The policy must contain provisions to ensure that individuals with disabilities, particularly secondary and postsecondary students, are given the opportunity to explore options for further training, including graduate and postgraduate training, as a pathway to employment. The bill further establishes an interagency Employment First task force that will work to ensure that individuals with disabilities are able to obtain competitive employment.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Department of Family and Protective Services to make appropriate accommodations to allow youth with disabilities in the foster care system to meaningfully participate in the Preparation for Adult Living Program. The Program is a collaboration among the Department, the Texas Workforce Commission and local workforce development boards.
State / Territory: Texas
This resolution requests that the Hawaii Developmental Disabilities Council convene a working group to identify strategies and agreements to better coordinate services provided to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. The working group includes a representative from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
State / Territory: Hawaii
This bill requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education and the Chief Diversity Officer of New Jersey, to establish a peer-to-peer statewide apprenticeship mentoring program for people with disabilities (among other populations), provide mentoring and support services and establish a network of peers involved in apprenticeship.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a comprehensive statewide strategic plan to serve people in the state with behavioral health needs (including mental health conditions and developmental disabilities) throughout their lifespans, which will address supported employment, among other topics. It further requires that the plan be developed in collaboration with various agencies and communities, such as indigenous and tribal populations and the LGBTQ community.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill requires the Aging and Disability Services Division to enter into a cooperative agreement with the Rehabilitation Division of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation to provide long-term support to people with intellectual disabilities including jobs, day training services and supported living arrangement services, with the goal of helping them attain competitive employment.
State / Territory: Nevada
This memorial requests the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council and the University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability to convene a task force to assess and report on ways to improve the system of school-to-work transition for students with disabilities, including increasing the knowledge of students with disabilities and their family members on transition from school-to-work options.
State / Territory: New Mexico
This bill establishes a Commission on Autism, which consists of representatives from the Department of Education, the Department of Labor and Workforce, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, the higher education and community college systems and more. The Commission is tasked with investigating the range of services and supports necessary for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to achieve their full potential, including around education, employment and behavioral and mental health services. The bill also establishes an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Account to enable individuals with disabilities to save private funds for the purpose of education, employment, transportation, assistive technology and other qualified expenses.
State / Territory: Massachusetts
This Executive Order establishes the State Community Engagement Implementation Task Force to support the efforts of individuals seeking community engagement activities, education or employment. It includes representatives from the South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, the state’s Protection and Advocacy system and the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This bill requires the Indiana Management Performance Hub, Department of Workforce Development and Department of Health to use data resources and technology to identify certain eligible students with disabilities, provide eligible individuals with a list of training and education opportunities and employment services resources and post that resource list online. In addition, it requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to create an alternate diploma for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill creates a technical demonstration forum to study solutions to improve transportation access for people with disabilities, including so they can access work. Members of the forum include representatives from the State Rehabilitation Council.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill enables school districts and special education cooperatives to establish community transition interagency committees for youth with disabilities, which can (among other things) identify services, programs and funding sources within the community that prepare secondary and postsecondary aged youth for further education, employment (including integrated competitive employment) and independent living.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill continues the state’s Employment First advisory partnership indefinitely.
State / Territory: Colorado
This resolution establishes the Alabama Task Force on At-Risk Children to study a range of issues related to children in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems, including around providing appropriate rehabilitative, educational, and mental health treatment services.
State / Territory: Alabama
This bill establishes the Task Force for Assessment of Services and Supports for People With Intellectual and Other Developmental Disabilities (IDD), which is tasked with preparing a comprehensive plan for implementing community-based services to people with IDD. Members of the Task Force include representatives from the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services, the Division of Mental Health and Addiction and the Department of Education.
State / Territory: Indiana
This bill establishes a task force to study the coordination of services and expansion of educational programs for young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities to identify barriers to full societal integration. It includes representatives from a statewide association for career and technical education, the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and the Department of Transportation.
State / Territory: Maine
This bill requires postsecondary education institutions to develop, procure, maintain and use electronic instructional materials and related information technology that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. It further requires the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to convene an Accessibility Task Force, which includes representatives from disability advocacy and experts in accessible technology.
State / Territory: Tennessee
This Executive Order directs all state agencies that provide services and support to people with disabilities to implement Employment First in Arizona and coordinate efforts to improve employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Arizona
This bill:
1. Adds additional members to the Iowa Workforce Development Board, including a representative from the Department for the Blind;
2. Creates a standing committee on the Board to provide information and assist with issues relating to the provision of services to individuals with disabilities;
3. Requires the Board to ensure that technology for accessing workforce development services is accessible to individuals with disabilities; and
4. Requires the Department of Workforce Development to consult with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services for co-locating state and federal employment and training programs in centers providing services at the local level.
State / Territory: Iowa
This bill establishes that competitive integrated employment, including self-employment, is the first and preferred option for all working age citizens with disabilities. It further establishes the Employment First Georgia Council to advise the Governor, General Assembly and state agencies on the adoption and integration of an Employment First policy.
State / Territory: Georgia
This bill requires that youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are 18 years of age and older who are currently being served through child welfare services be transitioned to the adult home- and community-based services program, and requires that a plan be developed for the ongoing transition of such youth when they turn 18 years of age.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill establishes a task force to make recommendations on improving the transition of individuals with disabilities from receiving services and supports in an educational setting to receiving services and supports through home- and community-based services.
State / Territory: Colorado
This bill establishes a Multimodal Accessibility Advisory Council, to serve as the advisory body to the Mayor, the Council and District agencies on making local transit and public space in the District more accessible to people with disabilities. The Council includes representatives from the Office of Disability Rights and the disability advocacy community, among others. In addition, the bill tasks the Operations Administration with establishing policies to increase transportation services for people with disabilities.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill requires the State Board of Education, in collaboration with the Vocational Rehabilitation Department and other stakeholders, to develop criteria for a uniform state-recognized employability credential aligned to the program of study for students with a disability whose IEP team determines that a diploma pathway would not provide a free appropriate public education. This includes developing a rubric and guidelines to identify and assess the employability skills of the students, based on appropriate standards.
State / Territory: South Carolina
This Executive Order establishes the Vermont Interagency Afterschool Youth Task Force, which includes the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Transition Program Manager. The Task Force is responsible for targeting specific infrastructure gaps in the existing afterschool system, such as access for children and youth with disabilities, and ensuring options exist for youth employment and for education and acquisition of job skills.
State / Territory: Vermont
This bill requires the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to provide Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) to potentially eligible individuals; to record and report transition services data; and to enter into a formal interagency agreement with the state education agency and collaborate with local education agencies to provide Pre-ETS and other vocational rehabilitation services.
State / Territory: Florida
This Executive Order establishes the Workforce Development Council within the Executive Office of the Governor, which includes representatives from a community-based organization for individuals with disabilities and from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
State / Territory: Idaho
This bill requires various agencies to enter into a memorandum of understanding supporting the Virginia Workforce Data Trust, a workforce database designed to (among other things) improve coordination, outcomes and efficiency across public workforce programs and partner organizations. These agencies include:
• Virginia Employment Commission;
• Community College System;
• Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services;
• Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired;
• Department of Education;
• Department of Labor and Industry;
• Department of Social Services;
• Department of Juvenile Justice; and
• State Council of Higher Education.
State / Territory: Virginia
This bill directs the State Workforce Development Board to combine two or more sources of funding to support workforce-related programs or activities for vulnerable populations, including individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill creates a 20-member task force to develop the state’s plan for implementing the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which includes the directors of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Division of Blind Services and the Agency for People with Disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires the Department of Children, Youth and Families to work collaboratively with the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals; school districts; and other agencies to create a transition plan for students who are developmentally delayed and under the jurisdiction of Family Court. The plan includes an education plan, available mentors, workforce supports and employment services, a health insurance option and more.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This bill makes several provisions to eliminate subminimum wage employment for people with disabilities, including
1. Prohibiting providers of jobs and training services from entering into a contract where a person will be paid less than minimum wage;
2. Prohibiting counseling, information, referrals, services and supports to be provided to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities for the purpose of obtaining subminimum wage employment;
3. Requiring the Aging and Disability Services Division to provide people employed at subminimum wage with career counseling, information and referrals to facilitate independent decisions and informed choice; and
4. Requiring employers of people working at subminimum wage to provide information on training concerning self-advocacy, self-determination and peer mentoring.
State / Territory: Nevada
This bill broadens eligibility for the Mary Brennan fellowship fund program, such that young adults with disabilities (not just college students with disabilities) can participate. Fellows engage in a semester-long, part-time placement with the Governor’s Commission on Disabilities, working on disability policy and research, meeting with decisionmakers and developing networks with professionals who can assist in career development and future endeavors.
State / Territory: Rhode Island
This resolution directs the Kentucky Department of Education to collaborate with other entities to implement the Kentucky Peer Support Network Project, which equips a group of peers to provide ongoing support to individual students with significant disabilities to help them develop more effective communication skills, increase their participation in the classroom, enhance academic engagement and increase self-confidence and self-determination.
State / Territory: Kentucky
This bill requires that each student’s IEP identify the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Digital Tool certificates and CAPE industry certifications the student seeks to attain before high school graduation. It further requires that student IEPs identify the need for transition services, including as it relates to self-advocacy and the attainment of a standard high school diploma. The bill also outlines certificate and diploma options available to students with IEPs.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill:
1. Establishes the Florida Postsecondary Comprehensive Transition Program (FPCTP) and a corresponding scholarship, designed to increase inclusive postsecondary education and employment opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); and
2. Establishes the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities, which is tasked with:
• Disseminating information to students with disabilities and their parents about education programs, employment opportunities and mentoring;
• Facilitating collaboration between institutions and parents to assist students transitioning into a FPCTP;
• Providing technical assistance to postsecondary institutions regarding programs and services for students with intellectual disabilities; and
• Collaborating with various entities to promote experiential training and employment opportunities for students with IDD.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to establish and support entrepreneurship assistance centers to train certain groups of individuals, including individuals with disabilities, in the principles and practice of entrepreneurship in order to prepare them to pursue self-employment opportunities. Centers will establish an advisory group of community business experts to provide counseling and mentoring services to individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Illinois
This bill establishes and appropriates money for county college-based adult centers for transition, whose purpose is to coordinate and integrate existing county- and state-based services, programs and resources, and to ensure that individuals with developmental disabilities up to the age of 24 have opportunities to receive mentoring, job coaching, skill training and any other appropriate wrap-around services to help them make a successful transition into employment and independent living.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill establishes a Youth Services Coordination Task Force to study the establishment of a single network of service providers for youth that can provide vocational training, subsidized work experiences, mentoring, tutoring, GED preparation, community service opportunities and other services to youth. The Task Force includes the Director of the Department of Disability Services.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
This bill adds employment assistance and self-advocacy components to a program administered by the Florida Endowment Foundation for Vocational Rehabilitation and state Centers for Independent Living. The program provides personal care attendants and other support and services necessary to enable people with significant disabilities to obtain or maintain competitive integrated employment, including self-employment.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill authorizes the State Council on Developmental Disabilities to encourage and assist in the establishment or strengthening of self-advocacy organizations led by individuals with developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: California
This bill authorizes funds from sales of certain special license plates to be allocated to a non-profit organization dedicated to (among other things) promoting social inclusion for individuals with disabilities through youth and adult leadership programs and other self-advocacy programs and campaigns.
State / Territory: Arizona
This bill develops a Best Buddies license plate, and distributes funds to Best Buddies International, Inc. to create opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida
This bill authorizes counties to develop peer support specialist certification programs, which provide coaching and support to individuals with mental health care needs, including around self-sufficiency, self-advocacy and preparation for employment opportunities. Peer support specialists can engage in specialized curricula for transition-age youth.
State / Territory: California
This bill appropriates funding to provide financial assistance to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who attend a Minnesota postsecondary institution. It further requests that the University of Minnesota-Morris offer an academic program for students with IDD that includes peer mentoring, financial literacy training and an internship, apprenticeship or other skills-based experience to prepare students for meaningful employment.
State / Territory: Minnesota
This bill requires each community and technical college to establish a culturally appropriate outreach program to assist potential students from underserved backgrounds – including students with disabilities – in understanding available opportunities and navigating the student aid system. Outreach programs may include partnerships with appropriate community-based organizations. The bill further establishes the legislature’s intent that guided pathways (which provide mentorship and advising) be implemented at all community and technical colleges to improve completion rates for students, including those with disabilities.
State / Territory: Washington
Relating to Transition Planning for a Public School Student Enrolled In a Special Education Program.
This bill requires:
1. A student’s IEP to address the use and availability of appropriate services and supports to assist them in developing decision-making skills, independence and self-determination;
2. The Commissioner of Education to develop and post a list of services and benefits that may be appropriate for students with an IEP;
3. The Commissioner to regularly review and update the minimum training guidelines for employees serving as a school district’s designee on transition and employment services for special education students; and
4. School districts to provide students and their parents with information regarding guardianship, alternatives to guardianship and other supports that may enable a student to live independently.
State / Territory: Texas
This bill requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education and the Chief Diversity Officer of New Jersey, to establish a peer-to-peer statewide apprenticeship mentoring program for people with disabilities (among other populations), provide mentoring and support services and establish a network of peers involved in apprenticeship.
State / Territory: New Jersey
This bill requires the Agency for People with Disabilities to provide certain information to people (and their families) who are applying for certain waiver services, including:
1. An overview of vocational rehabilitation services offered through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation;
2. An overview of the Florida Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) program and various disability benefits programs;
3. A statement indicating that the applicant’s local public school district may provide specialized instructional services, including transition programs;
4. An overview of programs and services funded through the Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities; and
5. An overview of decision-making options for individuals with disabilities.
State / Territory: Florida