August 2020 Newsletter
Indiana’s “Work to Include” Coalition
Advancing Employment for Individuals with Disabilities
State Update
THE DIVISION ON DISABILITY AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES END FUNDING FOR SHELTERED WORK
Due to the Corona Virus emergency and related budget challenges, Indiana’s State Budget Agency announced that each state agency was asked to immediately implement a 15% budget reduction. According to a memo dated July 13, 2020 and amended August 6, DDRS responded to this request by eliminating state line funding for sheltered work and caregiver support services. The following is a memo from the Division on Disability and Rehabilitative Services:
With this announcement, the Family and Social Services Administration has strived to meet the challenges of our state on many fronts and to continue to deliver critical services. …Unfortunately, this did mean that DDRS had to reduce a number of contracts and eliminate certain state-funded programs. The state-funded programs that are being eliminated are caregiver supports, community based sheltered work and facility-based sheltered work.
DDRS understands the value of such state-funded programs, but also wanted to minimize the direct service impact to the least number of individuals and providers. State-funded programs not currently impacted and will continue to be funded include: supported employment follow along services and OBRA services.
This will not affect Medicaid HCBS that may continue to be provided in facilities, such as prevocational services or other habilitation services. Individuals will continue to have access to various employment related services through Medicaid’s home-and community-based services waivers. Additionally, individuals who may want to explore competitive integrated employment are encouraged to learn more about employment services available through the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services Vocational Rehabilitation.
Added August 6. While the original effective date of these changes was set for August 14, 2020, DDRS will grant an extension until Friday, September 18, 2020. This will permit providers additional time to prepare their business for this change and to allow individuals to appropriately transition.
Members of the Work to Include Coalition have advocated for a shift in the service delivery system to increase competitive, integrated employment. We understand this was a difficult decision but applaud DDRS for choices consistent with Indiana’s Employment First Legislation. There are approximately 260 people statewide impacted and Work to Include stands ready to support individuals and families who may want to know more about employment services and supports. Hopefully, we can ensure this will change will not result in less service but more positive, employment outcomes.
Table 1
State of the State in Services for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities: An Analysis of Spending
Table 2
The Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado (colemaninstitute.org) regularly publishes a summary of the status of residential and support services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the U.S. and for each state. The most recent report released earlier this year, includes data for the state of Indiana on numbers of people served and on the amount of dollars spent on those services. It provides an overview of the past twenty years of services (1997 to 2017). Indiana has been a leader in the provision of community-based living services.
Table 3
However, as Table 1 below indicates, our state has actually reduced the ratio of those served in supported employment under Medicaid Waiver from a high of 14% in 2007 to less than half that, 6%, in 2017. Table 2 shows the number of participants over the years served in various programs over the years. The number of participants has been fairly flat since the early part of the decade. In addition, spending on supported employment has declined over the years, as a result, as seen in Table 3.
While this is only one measure of fiscal effort toward community, integrated employment, it serves as a reminder that we have MUCH work to do in improving services and outcomes for Hoosiers with IDD. The Work to Include Coalition has recommended an overall reporting mechanism that includes the amount of money spent on employment services to show how the state is shifting emphasis to jobs as an outcome of services. Only then will we know if we are being effective at changing the system.
Indiana Aims to be a Model Employer
The National Council of State Legislators and other Associations are promoting a movement to get more people with disabilities employed in state and local government. And states all over the country are taking actions to make their state a model employer, known as SAME. Governor Mike Dewine of Ohio signed an Executive Order almost immediately upon taking office in 2018. In a recent video celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ADA he described it this way, “It requires all state agencies to increase recruitment, hiring and advancement of people with disabilities.” Governors in Alaska, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Virginia have used Executive Orders to increase state hiring. State legislatures in California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Washington and the territory of Guam have also mandated Model Employer initiatives.
Now Indiana is working to join them. Work to Include has been meeting with the Indiana State Personnel Department to identify strategies and develop a plan to increase hiring. With over 30,000 employees, the state is uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on disability employment levels. We have a draft Executive Order that has been shared with state leadership. In the next few months, we will continue to push to have the EO established, providing more opportunities for a variety of positions, including full time professional jobs. Let us know if you would like to see the draft.
#INCLUSIONWORKS
National Council on Disability Report
Each year, the National Council on Disability (NCD) submits a statutorily mandated report to the President and Congress assessing the status of the nation in achieving policies that guarantee equal opportunity for all people with disabilities and that empower them to achieve economic self- sufficiency.
The 2020 Progress Report on National Disability Policy focuses on the low employment outcomes for individuals. Entitled “Increasing Disability Employment”, it provides recommendations for how the country should move forward and should give us some ideas for how Indiana should approach its priorities in the Employment First plan. The recommendations issued on the 30th anniversary of the ADA were informed by NCD reports on employment, the input of national experts on employment of people with disabilities, data from five federal agencies, and interviews of stakeholders and Federal Government representatives. It focuses on four areas critical to increasing employment outcomes.
FOUR AREAS TO INCREASING EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES
Services for Transitioning Youth: The need for increased skills training, coordination between systems, and employment-related services and supports available to transition-age youth
Public Benefits: The need to dismantle disincentives to work present in the Social Security Act and the Medicaid Act
Federal Employment and Support of Entrepreneurship: Continued challenges to recruiting and hiring people with targeted disabilities and exclusion from entrepreneurship support
Employer Engagement: Its role in opening government and private sector employment opportunities and highlights of federal and private initiatives to engage private-sector employers.
As the report notes, we have made some progress in recent years, but disability employment policy continues to hold people back. The NCD’s suggestions on Social Security reform and striking and could have some impact on actions in the coming years. Work to Include will feature the issue of Social Security reform and how others are addressing that in the September newsletter. Click the button below to read the entire 120-page report.
EVERYONE WINS WHEN EVERYONE’S IN
Our campaign to make sure ALL Indiana businesses are aware of resources available to hire individuals with disabilities has a theme, Everyone Wins When Everyone’s IN. Work to Include is working with our local coalitions to implement plans to conduct a public relations campaign and provide employers with the Work to Include Toolkit, a series of factsheets designed to inform and enlighten employers.
The series covers 12 topics including: the Positive Impact of Hiring, Reasonable Accommodations, Talent Pipelines, and Establishing a Positive Disability Inclusion Culture. The campaign will coincide with Disability Employment Awareness month in October. Check our website in September for tools we will share to get your campaign going!
CHECK US OUT…
Please help get the word out! Go to our Facebook and LinkedIN pages and share them widely. We hope you enjoy the access to employment-related content and are sure others will, too. Thanks!
HAVE AN EMPLOYMENT SUCCESS STORY YOU ARE WANTING TO SHARE?EMAIL SRINNE60@GMAIL.COM. SHORT, SWEET AND A PICTURE WOULD BE WONDERFUL!
Thank you!
For more information please contact our Co-Directors,
Pat Rogan, Professor, IUPUI School of Education at progan@iupui.edu
or
Susan Rinne, MPA at srinne60@gmail.com
