Dept. Rehabilitation

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

The Department of Rehabilitation

When you think adult employment, think the Department of Rehabilitation aka DR, aka Rehab. The main focus of DR is finding jobs for individuals with disabilities. With some agencies, your eligibility for services can depend upon when in you life you acquired your disability. However, any of us could at some time become disabled, and need services provided by rehab.

Eligibility Criteria - To be eligible for rehab, you must meet the following criteria:

Have a medically diagnosed disability which impairs gaining or maintaining employment.

People are generally eligible when they near the age when there is the potential for full time employment, or age 18. The State of California has developed special collaborative programs with school districts which provide opportunities for earlier involvement.

Have a reasonable expectation of benefiting from services (that is being employable, including supported employment).

Individuals with disabilities are served by "rehabilitation counselors" who do assessments and ultimately develop an "individualized written rehabilitation plan" (IWRP). Rehab counselors develop employment opportunities for their clients through education, training, purchase of special equipment and other forms of support leading to a vocational goal.

Services provided include, medical services, vocational, independent living, personal counseling, job seeking skills, job training, books and training supplies, diagnostic assessment,job placement, transportation expenses, supported employment, job coaching, tools, equipment, supplies and licenses necessary for employment, reader, interpreter or note taking services, telecommunications, sensory, or other technological aids and devices, and follow-up on the job.

Within the Department of Rehabilitation, there is a "sub group" called Habilitation Services which specializes in providing services to "center based programs" (sheltered workshops, adult day care settings) and supported employment. To provide these services, rehab will engage the services of "employment vendors." These are businesses who specialize in developing employment opportunities. Groups like Goodwill Industries or the Salvation Army will also often run sheltered workshops. Here are some links for examples of these programs:

Ability Counts

Cole Vocational Services

Other program examples include,

ARC Riverside (909) 688-5141

ARC San Bernardino (909) 884-6484

Barstow Employment Specialized Training (780) 256-1030

Exceed (Moreno Valley) (909) 653-3611

Foundation for the Retarded of the Desert (Palm Desert) (619) 346-0591

Goodwill Industries (San Bernardino) (909) 885-3831

Industrial Support Systems (Fontana) (909) 428-3833

Partnership with Industry (Riverside) (909) 778-1555

Valley Resource Center (Hemet) (909) 654-3092

Vocational Improvement Program (Rancho Cucamonga) (909) 483-5924

Transition Issues - The agency is reluctant to become involved with students in school prior to age 18. Some collaborative programs have been developed to facilitate this interaction, but much more needs to be done. If you as a teacher are trying to get earlier involvement, know why you need earlier involvement. With their tight budgets, rehab is at times hesitant to pay for services, particularly if they can be paid for by employers as a "reasonable accommodation" under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In demanding times, rehab will alter their "order of selection" criteria (a schema under which levels of disability are assigned a number for the determination of who will be served first) resulting in less disabled individuals being served last, if at all.

To its credit, rehab altered their services to include supported employment as an approved outcome. This opened the door to services for thousands of moderately to severely disabled individuals. Hundreds of thousands of individuals nationally have found work as a result of rehab services.

You can email Dr. McNair at jmcnair@calbaptist.edu