Community-Based Alternatiaves/Promoting Community Integration

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-----Original Message-----

From: Hawke

----- Original Message -----

As a part of his New Freedom Initiative, the President issued Executive

Order 13217, " Community-Based Alternatives for Individuals with

Disabilities, " on June 18, 2001. The Order calls upon the federal government

to assist states and localities to swiftly implement the decision of the

United States Supreme Court in Olmstead v. L.C., stating: " The United States

is committed to community-based alternatives for individuals with

disabilities and recognizes that such services advance the best interests of

the United States. "

Ten federal agencies were formed into the Interagency Council on Community

Living to work collaboratively in this direction. On December 21, Health and

Human Services Secretary Tommy G. presented President Bush with a

preliminary collective report: Delivering on the Promise: Preliminary

Report of Federal Agencies' Actions to Eliminate Barriers and Promote

Community Integration. Individual reports of the agencies carrying out the

Executive Order will be presented to the President in the near future.

The employment-related content of this report is below. The full report is

online at http://www.hhs.gov/newfreedom/presidentrpt.html

EMPLOYMENT

If people with disabilities are to fully access and be a part of their

communities, they must have the opportunity to work. Work is so essential

that without it people with disabilities often face isolation and

segregation from the very communities in which they wish to participate.

The dignity, responsibility, and economic independence resulting from

gainful employment is the most effective way of reducing dependency on

public benefits, enhancing self-reliance, changing attitudes, and promoting

community acceptance of persons with disabilities.

The multiple barriers to employment and economic empowerment of adults with

disabilities include the fragmentation of existing employment services; the

isolation and segregation of people with disabilities from mainstream

programs and services; the lack of access to health insurance; the

complexity of existing work incentives; the lack of control and choice in

selection of providers and other agents; inadequate work opportunities

resulting from attitudinal barriers based on historical and erroneous

stereotypes; and the lack of accurate data on employment of people with

disabilities needed to measure progress in eliminating barriers to their

employment. The following actions are planned to help address these

barriers and to increase employment opportunities for people with

disabilities.

Department of Labor

Assuming that the President's FY 2002 Budget is passed in its proposed form,

the following activities will be funded out of existing budgetary resources:

· DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) will initiate

an Olmstead Community Employment Initiative, developing and implementing a

coordinated strategy to ensure that all DOL policies and activities fully

address the employment and training needs of people with disabilities who

are at risk of institutionalization, or who are transitioning from

institutions into the workplace and the community.

· ODEP will award Olmstead Community Employment Planning and

Implementation Grants to states that (1) develop an employment focus for

persons with disabilities in their Olmstead state implementation plans and

activities, and (2) incorporate activities coordinating employment and

related supports at the state and local level. Recipients will be a

consortia of nonprofit advocacy or service agencies and Local Workforce

Investment Boards (Local Boards). Activities will focus on increased

capacity and coordination, as well as the provision of ongoing feedback to

ODEP and other DOL agencies on effective implementation strategies.

· DOL's ETA and ODEP will work together to disseminate promising

practices and successful strategies being identified under the Work

Incentive Grant Program, and to ensure close collaboration and the

dissemination of information and technical assistance throughout the

workforce system gleaned from the new ODEP Technical Assistance Grants.

· ODEP will expand the Customized Employment Grant Initiative to 10

additional sites in FY 2002. These grants support Local Boards in

systematically reviewing their policies and practices in terms of services

to persons with disabilities, incorporating new and innovative practices, as

appropriate, and developing comprehensive models of customized employment

services and supports for individuals with significant disabilities.

· ODEP will collaborate with ESA's Wage and Hour Division to develop

training and technical assistance on increasing earnings and customized

employment for individuals with significant disabilities earning

commensurate wages under section 14© of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and

disseminate this assistance to their stakeholder networks.

· The Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with

Disabilities will convene the Youth Advisory Committee, composed of 15 young

people (ages 14 to 28) with diverse disabilities and backgrounds to advise

the Secretary of Labor and her designees (which include the Office of the

21st Century Workforce and the Office of Disability Employment Policy) on

education, transition, employment, health, rehabilitation, and independent

living issues affecting young people with disabilities.

· ODEP will work with other DOL agencies, the Department of

Education, and other appropriate federal departments on activities that

promote the transition of young people with disabilities from school to

post-secondary opportunities and/or employment, including researching,

demonstrating, and disseminating successful strategies for transitioning

young adults with significant disabilities into employment, and initiation

of policy actions and implementation ensuring such strategies are utilized

within DOL programs and activities.

· Recipients of ODEP grants to fund model youth demonstration

programs to increase the participation of youth with disabilities in

workforce development activities will develop, implement, evaluate and

disseminate new and/or improved strategies and techniques to increase youth

participation and positive outcomes.

· DOL will expand self-employment, small business, micro-enterprise

development, and other entrepreneurial opportunities for people with

disabilities who want to transition from institutions to their communities,

or who are at risk of institutionalization or segregation. ODEP, in concert

with the Task Force, will develop and implement an action plan with multiple

DOL agencies to promote self-employment and small business development among

people with disabilities, particularly those with the most significant

disabilities.

· DOL, with ODEP in the lead, will work with other agencies to

increase One-Stop center employment services for people with psychiatric

disabilities, including those transitioning to the community from

institutions or those at risk of placement in residential facilities.

Department of Education

· ED's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services

(OSERS) will coordinate with appropriate components within ED, state

vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies, and state education agencies to

evaluate and improve transition services provided to youth with disabilities

who are making the transition from school to work or postsecondary

education.

· ED will establish a " prime study group " under the Institute on

Rehabilitation Issues and develop a publication targeted to VR counselors

and other service providers on transition from school to work for young

adults with disabilities.

· OSERS will continue to actively enforce the new VR regulation that

eliminates extended employment as a final employment outcome under the State

Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program, so that an employment outcome

may only be counted if an individual with a disability is working in an

integrated setting in the community.

Department of Health and Human Services

· HHS will work with SSA, DOL, and HUD and with other federal

agencies to devise and implement strategies on employment issues as part of

the Interagency Council on Community Living.

· HHS will initiate a Disability Fellows Program to bring more

individuals with direct experience with disability into the HHS workforce.

Social Security Administration

· The Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program is the cornerstone

of SSA's current efforts to support work. Continued swift implementation of

the Ticket Program is a key commitment of the President's New Freedom

Initiative, and SSA is working aggressively toward that end.

· SSA will continue to work with private and public organizations in

each state through grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts to provide

benefit planning and assistance to Social Security Disability Insurance

(SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries to assist them

in their efforts to work.

· SSA is expanding its corps of employment support representatives

(ESRs). The ESRs are specially trained to facilitate the efforts of SSDI

and SSI beneficiaries to work by ensuring that SSA's employment support

policies are used to maximum effect and that the public receives full and

accurate information about the effect of work on benefits.

· SSA will conduct research and demonstration projects to explore new

ways to encourage the employment of SSDI and SSI beneficiaries.

Office of Personnel Management

· OPM will conduct a campaign to disseminate widely to federal

employers information about hiring, retaining and working with individuals

with disabilities. Among the information to be disseminated is guidance

that may help agencies facilitate " telework " by individuals with

disabilities.

· OPM will consider revisions to its regulations in order to allow

the Social Security Administration to certify that a federal job applicant

has a disability.

· OPM will revise its Employment Guide for People with Disabilities

in the Federal Government to incorporate regulatory changes that allow

individuals with psychiatric disabilities to become permanent federal

employees, and will revise its guidance in order to make it easier for

individuals with disabilities to apply for federal employment.

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*Reference Points: Transition updates from the TATRA Project is administered

by PACER Center www.pacer.org as a joint technical assistance activity of

the TATRA Project and the National Center on Secondary Education and

Transition http://ici.umn.edu/ncset/ . Reference Points features resources

and updates to help parent organizations, advocates and professionals better

serve adolescents and young adults with disabilities, and their families.

You can Subscribe or Unsubscribe to Reference Points on the web at

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to a wealth of additional resources and information!Readers are invited to

send information about new resources on secondary education, transition and

vocational rehabilitation topics to tatra@.... Approved items will be

posted. Please note that Reference Points is not a discussion group.

Questions about Reference Points should be directed to Deborah Leuchovius,

National Coordinator of Technical Assistance on Transition and Vocational

Rehabilitation, PACER Center at tatra@... National Center on

Secondary Education and Transition is funded by and is a partner with the

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs,

cooperative agreement # H326J000005. The TATRA Project is funded by the

Rehabilitation Services Administration

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/RSA/index.html.