MINUTES
STATE REHABILITATION COUNCIL
February 3, 2015
Attendees: Joan Bindel, Sherri Clark, Jill Crosser, Page Eastin, Kathy Joblinske, Gary McDermott (by phone), John Mikelson, Lori Moore, Renee Neppl, Deb Samson, Rosie Thierer, David Mitchell
Absent: Randell Davis, James Smith, Jeanne Sorenson
IVRS Staff: Matt Coulter, Kelley Rice, Lee Ann Russo, Kathy Slater
Other Attendees: Emmanuel Smith, Disability Rights Iowa advocate; Bureau Chief Kenda Jochimsen; Assistant Bureau Chief Charlie Levine; Resource Managers Richard Clark and Mary Jackson; IVRS Supervisors Mary Augustus, Eric Evans, Steve Faulkner, Sue Frice, Monica Gilkison, Jeanne Helling, Denise Hubert, Mike Howell, Holly Mateer, Leslie McCarthy, Sandy Ostendorf, Mary Ott, Sally Prange and Chad Pratz.
The February 3, 2015, State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) meeting was called to order by Chair Renee Neppl at 10:45 a.m., with introductions. New members in attendance included IVRS staff member Kathy Slater, who replaces recently-retired secretary Jane McCord.
Approval of December 2, 2014, Meeting Minutes: John Mikelson moved the SRC Minutes from the December 2, 2014, meeting be approved, as submitted; Joan Bindel seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously with no corrections.
Public Comment: None.
Administrator’s Report: David Mitchell welcomed everyone and then briefly reviewed highlights from his written report, which focuses on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). IVRS is currently mapping out how this will look across systems and partnerships. The regulations to implement WIOA will hopefully be available in early spring; David indicated it is difficult to provide specific detail beyond the overview noted in his report. Even though rules do not yet exist, IVRS must move forward to plan and implement as WIOA is federally mandated. David and Kenda are currently participating in regular monthly meetings with other federal, state and local leaders to assess capacity, readiness, and any barriers to implementation. Rosie Thierer shared some of the things impacting partnership and career pathways, for example, there is difficulty finding qualified, skilled labor within the construction industry. Applicants are lacking the appropriate skills to go out into the labor force and meet specific employer needs. How do we provide services that meet the needs of both job seeker and employer? Rosie believes it is a time of opportunity for people with disabilities. David emphasized that no one entity has the capacity to serve all of these needs; it is good that we have partnerships to expand capacity.
David provided information about the website Respect Ability (www.respectabilityusa.com), a fairly new private, non-profit group based in Washington, DC. The group focuses on empowering people with disabilities to achieve their goals. Their website has a toolkit for job seekers with numerous disability resources. They also have an emphasis on transition youth and the successful competitive employment outcomes of students involved in Project Search. This organization is hoping to come to Iowa to promote public relations stories, timing events around the Iowa caucuses. Coordinating efforts are taking place with the Governor’s office. Although there are no details yet, look for more to come.
At their January meeting with the legislative appropriations committee, Matt and David showed the Job Honor Awards video that was viewed earlier by SRC members. Job Honor Awards founder Kyle Horn took his story to Manpower headquarters and they will be helping sponsor a national recognition effort.
Financial Overview: Matt Coulter reviewed some of the details of the Financial Update. The financial position is strong and stable, with nothing unanticipated to report. Matt noted that Joe McGarr, a long-time budget analyst for IVRS retired in December. Joe has been replaced by Dawn Trenez, who is doing a good job in this capacity.
IVRS maintains positive cash flow. The agency is trying to maximize the number of clients served with the number of FTEs we currently have. IVRS has requested four additional FTEs, of which the governor is supportive. This can be accomplished without any extra money needed to support these positions because the State Early Retirement Incentive Program (SERIP) is ending, which will free up approximately $300,000. These positions will be focused on service delivery in the field.
We moved 500 people into the caseload last month; 12,500-12,600 is about capacity. The wait list is currently around 1800. The number of authorizations is slightly higher than last year, which is a good sign. The dollar amount of the authorizations has gone up significantly, primarily due to the tuition increase reimbursement rate. IVRS had carry-forward dollars to use, and also wanted to address the rising cost of tuition and help our job candidates to reduce their tuition cost.
Other updates included information that our indirect costs represent 140 DDS personnel who adjudicate SSA claims. IVRS provides administrative support for DDS.
Matt reviewed the graphs provided in the Financial Update. Key highlights include:
IVRS revenue has not changed. As noted previously, authorizations are above last year in both the number and dollar amount. Cumulative case closures are also above last year by about 50 cases at this point in time, which is a good start to the year.
Overall, the graphs are where expected and the agency is in good shape.
Renee asked if the group had any questions regarding the reports presented so far, which generated additional group discussion.
Joan Bindel inquired about the average caseload in relation to the FTEs. Matt responded that the intent in the request to increase the number of FTEs is not to impact the wait list, but rather to ensure IVRS has the ongoing capacity to serve current job candidates.
Creston, Carroll, Fort Dodge, Sioux City and Burlington area offices are working on a special project with Iowa Workforce Development to look at how the agency can partner with one-stop centers. IVRS is already doing this, but there is opportunity to improve service delivery. This pilot project looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the collaborative efforts. A story was shared of a job candidate who was receiving services from a one-stop center, but when he came off the wait list and began working with IVRS, he was confused about what agency he was working with and didn’t understand the partnership between the agencies.
Rosie inquired about item #8 on the Administrator’s report regarding WIOA changes to the order of selection. David clarified how the new legislation would allow for changes in determining when a job candidate can be served, other than looking at only disability severity and need. For example, the legislation would ask that we look at someone who is employed, but might be in danger of losing their job, to be classified as someone needing immediate IVRS services.
Page Eastin added to the conversation, sharing that someone contacted her (as an ICAP advocate) needing assistance to keep their job. She contacted Steve Faulkner in the Mason City area office for assistance. The new law asks VR agencies to think of how we can provide value-added services to job candidates. Both Rosie and Lee Ann commented that oftentimes employers simply need strategies and guidance to help them retain employees.
State Plan Update: Lee Ann Russo discussed state plan goals as noted on page 6 of the SRC Annual Report, focusing on supported employment.
She noted that supported employment provides job coaches to help candidates who may need ancillary services. IVRS’ goal is to improve meaningful, sustained employment for these consumers. In FFY14, IVRS successfully placed 150 job candidates in supported employment.
In a step towards this goal, IVRS signed a Memorandum of Agreement with DHS in November 2014, detailing interagency coordination of services to those under the age of 24 with developmental disabilities and eligible for Medicaid Waiver and IVRS services. David added that the Unified State Plan should ensure we are serving people as best as we can. What does this mean for strategy? It may mean partnering and leveraging resources and aligning services across systems.
Legal Update: The meeting was running ahead of schedule, so staff attorney Kelley Rice reported. At this time of year, Kelley tries to provide legislative updates, highlighting eight or nine of the bills that may have a disability or employment connection. Her update lists several bills in chronological order from the time introduced. Senate File 22 creates a new crime of service dog abuse. Page Eastin indicated she is aware of this bill and that it will hold owners of pets accountable if their animal attacks a service animal.
Another bill of interest was Senate File 3, which requires approved driver education courses to include instruction on the rights, privileges and penalties associated with parking for persons with disabilities. Kelley said that embedding this in driver education courses may help to provide disability awareness pertaining to this issue.
Renee asked if anyone had any questions or comments related to Kelley’s presentation.
John Mikelson mentioned that legislator Mark Chelgren, of Ottumwa, is interested in meeting with SRC members at Wednesday’s SRC legislative reception. Senator Chelgren is the owner of a wheelchair parts manufacturing company.
Deb Samson wondered if anyone was familiar with the Able Law – families can retain more of their income, including a savings of up to $100,000, with money earmarked for specific expenses such as education, transportation, health care, etc. Deb’s understanding is that operation of the program may vary from state to state. Lee Ann is familiar with the Able Act, but not necessarily the specifics. She indicated she would obtain more detail and send out to council members via email after the meeting.
Lunch Presentation – Guest Speaker Emmanuel Smith, Disability Rights Iowa:
Emmanuel spoke about the work of Disability Rights Iowa (DRI), which is a protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities, including those with mental illness. It is a legal resource, either helping directly or getting people to the assistance needed – oftentimes people don’t know exactly what type of help is needed. Advocacy helps people with the roadblocks that may be encountered in the transition to employment. Emmanuel enjoys the opportunity to help people. As a person with a disability, he can appreciate the jump from benefits to employment – he likened it to a jump over a canyon – it is not only a big leap, but can be a frightening one.
A handout entitled, Stalled on the Road to Olmstead Compliance, was provided. In the Olmstead decision regarding discrimination against people with mental disabilities, the Supreme Court determined that whenever possible, individuals have the right to live and work in the community rather than in institutions. Recently, the Dept. of Justice went to Rhode Island and found them not in compliance with ADA laws. The mandate is to provide employment in the most integrated environment possible, but Rhode Island’s sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs relied heavily on segregating these individuals.
DRI wanted to gain a better understanding of where Iowa was on the road to integrated employment. Emmanuel said a challenge was to find a representative sample of employment services in Iowa, from big cities to small rural areas, in types of service, the nature of work and the payment structure of the workers. DRI selected 30 of 67 Community Rehabilitation Provider facilities that had been authorized by the U.S. Department of Labor to pay less than minimum wage.
When he embarked on this project, Emmanuel started with only a working knowledge of sheltered services. They are generally county funded and not a goal-oriented work environment and there is little expectation of forward movement. They might be located on the edge of town, segregating individuals who are already isolated. The environment might be loud, messy, or a setting which involves repetitive motion tasks. Individuals perform tasks such as box making, wages are sub-minimum, oftentimes piece-rate. Wages may be dependent upon the speed of the group, so production – and thus wages are undercut by dependency on others and circumstances that are beyond one’s control. Oftentimes, young people were entering workshops before they had finished school. He said services are needed that allow people with disabilities to have control over their own lives, working in a manner as close to those without disabilities, and in an integrated setting.
As they began their research, and using Rhode Island as their point of comparison, what Emmanuel found was that this wasn’t happening just in Rhode Island, but in Iowa and nationally as well. While some providers were actively working to transition their services from segregated employment models to integrated supported employment, they found other providers still dependent on segregated employment services, hesitant to embrace the new community-based standards of service. They also found that pre-vocational services have taken its place, providing employment services in a segregated setting to enable clients to eventually work in an integrated setting. The problem is that these services were being provided in perpetuity, with no real goals or measurable outcome. It became a destination rather than a waypoint.
Many providers wanted to move away from pre-vocational services but didn’t feel they had the ability to do so. There are numerous challenges, such as how to empower providers to do this. As people move away from these workshops, they may become VR clients – people with very significant disabilities. DRI recognizes that the state can’t shut down a system without having a plan in place to address the resulting need. Emmanuel emphasized that it isn’t Disability Rights Iowa’s intent to shut down sheltered workshops without a plan to work collaboratively with others to address needs. Security is very important to all, but especially to people with disabilities. The transition is frightening.
A challenge with collaboration is that we can become comfortable with the collaboration process, believing that because we are talking about the problem, we don’t have the problem ourselves. Collaboration cannot be an end goal. Change has to happen. What should employment services look like? Emmanuel said DRI’s approach is not to tell providers what needs to happen. Parents whose children move to supported employment have become big advocates and supporters of this effort because they see the positive benefits.
David shared IVRS’ plan, which involves working with parent-family coalitions and in outreach and recruitment activities to inform stakeholders about vocational rehabilitation services. Employment First efforts also continue to help with communication to a diverse audience.