Meeting Minutes March 9-10, 2011

State Rehabilitation Council - Quarterly Meeting Minutes

ACCES-VR Budget Update -- Rosemary Johnson

The $21,000,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) ends September 30, 2011. ARRA money was not used for a stand alone initiative, but rather it was in the overall budget and was used for supported employment program. Last year's federal reallotment money was $27,000,000, although usually ACCES-VR receives between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000. Reallotment and maintenance of effort were explained for new members' benefit. Tamar Sherman inquired whether the 15-day evaluation could be re-funded through the reallotment money.

Overview of Rehabilitation Research and Training Institute's (RRTI) Model Transition Program (MTP) Job Readiness Curriculum -- Pat Dowse

RRTI's Model Transition Program Evaluation Report was handed out and the results were reviewed. The actual curriculum is available online at www.rrti.org and SRC members were encouraged to review the site. The majority of the curriculum is pictorial and thus not accessible. The instructors guide contains materials for both visual and auditory learners. These materials are not copyrighted and can be used in any order. Ideally, the trainers would tailor the lessons and pull material from various modules to address specific subjects that are brought up by the transitioning youth. Greg Bell inquired if it would be beneficial to share/distribute the curriculum with Matt Sapolin of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities.

Review/Update State Plan Goals and Performance Standards -- Frank Coco and Monica Toye-Smith

Frank reported ACCES-VR and the State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) have worked closely to jointly develop the State’s goals and priorities over the past few months. The identified priorities are:

Increase the employment rate and earnings for individuals with disabilities served by ACCES-VR.
Increase services to unserved and underserved groups.
Improve the quality of ACCES-VR services

Each of these priorities had corresponding goals which were identified in the handout. ACCES-VR wants to meet the standards established by RSA, but the State average wage of $28 per hour is skewed by New York City wages. It was suggested that rather than using the State average wage as an earnings marker, ACCES should use 200 percent of poverty. Census data is being used for disability and may not be totally accurate since disclosure is self-reported. There was discussion on how to measure collaboration with other state entities and if it is a quantifiable goal. One suggestion was to identify existing and newly formed collaborations which is how DDPC reports their collaborations to the federal government.

ACCES Update -- Kevin Smith and Debora Brown Johnson

Kevin Smith spoke about how VR services will address the collaboration between ACCES units and build on the agency's ability to serve the needs of adult learners. The Regents have been increasing emphasis on the work of ACCES as integral within SED. Susan asked again that Kevin return to the SRC with the full ACCES team to discuss intra-agency plans and related merger considerations.

Kevin was asked to define a proprietary school. He explained the Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision (BPSS) provides oversight of the licensure, curriculum and quality of non-degree granting programs. Proprietary schools include trade and business schools, beauty schools, computer training facilities and film schools. BPSS investigates student complaints, conducts comprehensive investigations of schools to assure compliance with Education Law and can shut proprietary schools if standards are not met. Currently, there are a thousand unlicensed programs/schools operating in New York State, mostly in the New York City area.

Tamar Sherman raised the issue of Governor Cuomo's $92,000,000 cuts to schools for the deaf, blind and autistic. These dedicated costs would be shifted to the home school districts to pay. There is concern schools would integrate students into school programs in their district of residence instead of paying for students to attend a disability specific school thus forcing closure of these schools.

Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2011 is a pilot year for RSA to test its new state monitoring protocol for the VR program. Following the FY 2011 pilot year, RSA will review 14 state VR agencies per year with New York's review due in 2012. RSA will review New York's Independent Living Program and CBVH's VR program at the same time. This monitoring will address transition services, fiscal management, organizational structure and any previously identified issues/needs. Susan asked for the monitoring tool and protocol to be shared with the SRC. Debora agreed to share these and any information disclosed at the CSAVR on this subject. One difference is RSA will not deploy a full team due to travel restrictions. The exit conference would consist of next steps rather than preliminary findings. The team would set a date within two weeks of the review to discuss their findings.

VR Counselors at the district offices have been provided guidance to make determinations regarding diagnostic evaluations based on individual consumer's need and to assess the necessity of supported employment. These authorizations are subject to supervisory review.

Regional Special Education Technical Assistance Support Centers network Overview -- Sophie McDermott

The Regional Special Education Technical Assistance Centers (RSE-TASC) are a coordinated effort to bring the various networks of technical assistance and school improvement for students with disabilities together. The network is described in detail in the handout (attached). Transition specialists are creating training packages on topics such as: 18-21 programs, accessible materials, after high school self-advocacy and self-determination, and transition for families. These training packages will be reviewed and vetted by the Policy Unit of Special Education. The www.transitionsource.org website maintained by Cornell's Employment and Disability Institute will be one-stop shopping for transition with ongoing content. She suggested SRC members examine the site and submit any questions or comments to the developers by clicking on need help. Through a federal grant project, school districts with effective instructional practices for students with disabilities were identified. This project called Supporting Successful Strategies to Achieve Improved Results (S3TAIR) Project found the Freeport School was very successful at transition and Sophie offered to have a rep from Special Education come to the next meeting to inform the Council of what made this school stand out.

Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG) Update -- Michael Seereiter

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) grant for 2011 was $4.7 million that is $1.2 million less than New York received the previous two years. Absent a congressional mandate, federal funding ends on September 30, 2011. Many of the core elements will be maintained but the focus remains on the data system and computer infrastructure. They are very close to finalizing the agreement between DOL and OMH.

Rolling out the OS2 cross systems platform for information exchange and employment tools is the primary focus for the final year of the MIG grant. OS2 training will need to be reduced from a three-tiered approach because the CMS grant award was considerably less than the $9.8 million New York requested. Training curriculum will start with executive staff that will then identify staff to actually use the system on an on-going basis. The training will be in May and system will be operational on a real-time basis by the end of June. The system will be able to provide volunteer opportunities and meaningful community participation for people with disabilities which may lead to an employment opportunity that meets their needs, skills and preferences. Mira Bowin suggested another ancilliary to volunteer opportunities would be intern or apprenticeships.

Client Assistance Program (CAP) Overview -- Lisa Rosano

The Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities administers this federally-funded program mandated for any State which receives federal funds for its VR program. The CAP program does a considerable amount of information and referral. Although most issues are resolved at the local level, due process can include mediation, administrative review and impartial fair hearing. CAP data was provided in a handout. Tobi suggested CAP provide a comparison between states that are and are not in order of selection.

ACCES-VR Quality Assurance Unit Overview -- Lisa Van Ryn

The unit consists of seven staff including three in the field. Ongoing unit activities are: coordinating due process including mediation; consumer satisfaction surveys; and monitoring of district office records. Review of district office records gives opportunity to see what is happening in the field, how well policies are being administered and is this borne out in the actual records. Supported employment visits will resume once the policy is revised, tentatively scheduled for the fall.

The Quality Assurance Unit will be training mediators in the next year on vocational rehabilitation because prior to reorganization the bulk of cases were special education. The question was raised on how are mediators trained to disregard own bias or assumptions because historically people with disabilities have not been considered credible reporters of their own disability experience. Susan made a motion to include disability literacy and ADA compliance in the mediator training, Gregory Bell seconded and motion passed. Susan suggested the Council could advise Lisa Van Ryn on where to recruit hearing officers. Francine Tishman made a motion proposing forming an ad hoc committee to work on the hearing officer/mediator candidates, Greg Bell seconded and the motion passed.

Presumed eligibility was reviewed in the past and it was found ACCES-VR was below where they should be on this. Appropriateness of homemaker closures is also being reviewed. Lisa Bayer made a motion recommending Quality Assurance Committee should be given an opportunity to review these reports on a timely basis, Mira Bowin seconded and motion passed.

Committee Report Outs

The Workforce Development Committee provided input on State Plan Attachment 4.2 and will continue to work on their mission statement. The committee would like to focus on strategies around benefits counseling and consumer's disincentive to work because of loss of benefits.

The Policy and State Plan Committee discussed how to make economic need policy simpler and less cumbersome for staff using it. Supported employment policy revision emphasizes determining who receives and/or needs continuing support. The policy wording will change from "working toward" to "achieving" competitive wage. Gerri Malone will be doing some field research on mobile enclaves to help the committee form a strategy to address this policy. Confidentiality policy was also discussed but the committee did not have any suggestions on how to streamline this for consumers.

The Quality Assurance and Improvement Committee acknowledged Scott's leadership and intend to nominate co-chairs on their next monthly conference call since Scott resigned. While discussing the State Plan Attachment 4.2, two key themes emerged:

consumer satisfaction efforts need to look deeper and more personalized (e.g. Is the outcome what the person really wanted)
comprehensive needs assessment.

The committee is contemplating a way to link the two themes through quality data both statewide and regional. It was suggested Lisa Van Ryn spend more time with the Committee.

Francine Tishman welcomed two new members and reported the Membership Committee is continuing its search for a representative of business/industry. She encouraged SRC members to advance candidates from a small or medium size company in the upstate area and expressed hope the Board of Regents could make appointment by June meeting. Lisa Bayer made a motion to have a presentation in June on the entire ACCES budget and Francine Tishman asked for program info at the same time. This presentation would include the budget's impact on the program, report on any additional funds received and how they are deployed. Motion passed.

State Rehabilitation Council Business

Tamar Sherman made a motion to accept December minutes and Francine Tishman seconded. Sophie suggested corrections to page three be incorporated and motion passed. Kyle Goodridge made a motion delegating final preparation of the 4.2 attachment to the Executive Committee, Gregory Bell seconded it and the motion passed. Tobi Bickweat suggested a calendar of deadlines should be put together so the Committees could be better prepared to meet these and could address on their monthly conference calls.

It was initially suggested to dedicate June or September meeting to strategic planning, but then Francine Tishman made a motion to request additional funding be made available for one additional overnight, conference facilities and pay a facilitator to lead the discussion and record decisions. Mira Bowin seconded and motion passed. Greg Bell suggested the monthly conference calls leading up to this day should lay a foundation. Suggested topics for discussion were: obtaining public input; review mission statement; guiding principles; relationship with other bodies; and supplementing quantitative data with more experiential reports or possibly case studies.

ACCES-VR

Adult Career and Continuing Education Services-Vocational Rehabilitation