Objective

To determine whether the Adult Career and Continuing Education Services – Vocational Rehabilitation (ACCES-VR) Supported Employment Program achieved its intended objectives, namely, to provide vocational rehabilitation supported employment services for individuals with a disability. The audit covered the period from April 2017 through December 2020.

About the Program

The State Education Department’s (Department) ACCES-VR program provides vocational rehabilitation services for and supports the employment goals of people with a disability. Its mission is to assist individuals with a disability to achieve and maintain employment and to support independent living through training, education, rehabilitation, and career development.

While unemployment rates among New Yorkers with a disability were higher than for the general population over the past decade, they decreased in 2019 just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, shortly before the pandemic hit, unemployment rates for people with a disability were still more than double that of the general population. The pandemic and resulting economic shutdown led to soaring unemployment rates in New York, which have slowly but steadily declined since peaking in April 2020. However, for New Yorkers with a disability, unemployment rates increased more quickly and have remained stubbornly high, disrupting whatever progress had been made leading up to the pandemic.

The impact for New Yorkers who face unique challenges due to a disability is significant, and the unique customized services and support provided by ACCES-VR to its clients are more important now than ever.

To help program participants achieve and maintain employment, counselors jointly develop an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) with each participant. The IPE is a written plan that identifies the employment goal for the participant, the services that will be provided to help achieve that goal, and how progress will be measured along the way. The Department’s Vocational Rehabilitation Policies and Procedures (Policy) call for certain information to be present within each IPE.

Additionally, federal law and the Department’s Policy require certain actions to be taken within specific time frames: participant eligibility determination must be made within 60 days of receipt of an application; IPEs must be developed and finalized within 90 days of eligibility determination; and IPEs must be reviewed by the counselor and participant at least annually.

Key Findings

• The Department does not always meet time frames for eligibility determinations, finalization of IPEs, and ongoing annual reviews of IPEs, as required by federal law and the Department’s Policy.
• The IPEs do not contain all the required information in sufficient detail. The elements of the IPE that were present often contained vague or boilerplate language rather than using specific, customized, or detailed language as called for in the Policy.
• The Department did not provide any documented evaluations to show it was adequately monitoring the ACCES-VR program. Inadequate monitoring, incomplete IPEs, and delays in an already complex process can deter participants from gaining employment, which can further result in disruption to the participants’ goals of independent living and rising out of poverty.

Key Recommendations

• Develop and implement improved controls to ensure eligibility determinations, IPE finalizations, and IPE annual reviews are being completed timely.
• Develop and implement procedures to ensure that IPEs are fully developed for each participant who requires one and contain sufficient detail.
• Develop a process to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the ACCES-VR program based on individual participants’ goals and achievements to ensure that participants are receiving the full benefit of its services and ACCES-VR is meeting the goals of its mission.