Executive Summary

PURPOSE

To describe promising approaches and barriers to employment programs for persons with developmental disabilities.

BACKGROUND

Developmental disabilities affect a person's ability to work, live, socialize, and maintain self-sufficiency. Nationally, the number of persons with developmental disabilities is estimated at approximately three to four million. To enhance the environment in which a person with developmental disabilities lives and to lessen the many barriers that they encounter, Congress enacted the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (42 USC 6000) to establish Developmental Disabilities Councils in each State.

The main goals of State Developmental Disabilities Councils include: promoting integration into work and community settings so that individuals with developmental disabilities are not separated or isolated from others; protecting individual rights; ensuring they will have accommodations they need; and ensuring they will have control over their own resources. Nationally, funding for State Councils was approximately $65 million per year for 1996, 1997, and 1998.

We conducted this study in response to a request from the Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD), Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Our purpose was to identify, describe and assess promising approaches to promote employment of persons with developmental disabilities. We based our study on information gathered from State Developmental Disability Councils, Vocational Rehabilitation agencies, Mental Health agencies, Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities agencies, job service agencies, and employers.

FINDINGS

Promising Employment Programs

While State Councils do not obtain direct employment for persons with developmental disabilities, they are instrumental in facilitating job opportunities for them. State Councils initiate demonstration projects by providing seed monies for promising employment approaches. These programs include public awareness, supported employment, and high school-to-work transition programs. Also, innovative employment approaches which Council directors indicate yield successful results are consumer

directed vouchers, entrepreneurial grants, and State hiring programs. In addition, nearly all respondents report that these promising and innovative programs could be replicated in other States.

Factors and Relationships Important in Obtaining Jobs

Many factors are important in creating jobs and in ensuring success in employment programs, including the involvement of the employer community, collaborative arrangements among State entities, and planning for long term support systems.

State entities also report that basing jobs on the personal interests of persons with developmental disabilities, effectively marketing them for appropriate jobs, and a unified State disability policy are critical to the success of employment programs.

Less than Effective Approaches to Employment

Ineffective approaches listed most frequently among respondents are: poor job matching; high speed production jobs which are too stressful; traditional sheltered employment agencies; mobile work crews and groups; offering too many financial initiatives to employers; and outdated pre-vocational training models. In many cases, these approaches also entail inherent barriers to employment of persons with developmental disabilities.

Barriers and Ways to Address Them

State entities report that some of the barriers which impede the development of employment programs are: a lack of transportation; fear of losing Medicaid or a monthly Supplemental Security Income check; negative perceptions held by employers; and lack of flexible financing arrangements among State entities. Respondents cite many methods to reduce or eliminate barriers, including individual transportation plans, cooperative financing, and business advisory councils.

Limited Employment Outcome Data

Very little management information exists on performance and outcomes of monitoring employed individuals with developmental disabilities. Data we reviewed is limited and inconsistent from State to State.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A number of positive initiatives are being undertaken by State Councils directly or through collaborative programs with other State agencies. However, identifying performance data is difficult. While it may be challenging for State Councils to capture and measure extensive information on general effectiveness of employment programs, steps need to be taken to report the progress on individuals with developmental disabilities in obtaining and keeping jobs. To accomplish this, the ACF should consider the following:

Promising Practices Should be Shared Among States

State Councils identify a number of promising and innovative practices and generally feel these could be replicated in other States. In fact, some State Councils already require grantees to develop a replication manual for their demonstration projects. We believe that communicating these practices is in the best interest of employment programs and their effective operation. Three specific actions that ACF/ADD should consider include:

1) working with State Councils to develop an ongoing inventory of successful employment initiatives;

2) working toward developing a formal mechanism to allow State Councils to share promising employment approaches on a

national level; and

3) communicating practices known to enhance the quality and efficiency of data documentation and reporting.

Core Data Requirements Should be Established to Evaluate Job Initiatives

State entities confirm the benefits of having outcome data to relate performance/achievement, and to measure effectiveness. Despite activities underway to develop and implement such outcome data, we believe it would be beneficial for ACF to develop mandatory performance measures with which all State Councils must comply. We note that a beneficial tool in this effort may be the "Core Indicators" being developed by a workgroup of State Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities directors. While these performance measures are largely focused on State mental retardation issues, some of the measures may be valuable to apply to all persons with developmental disabilities.

AGENCY COMMENTS

The ACF concurred with recommendations in this report. We have made changes to the final report to reflect agency wording suggestions.