Publication

State, County, and Local ID/DD dollars are one of the largest sources of funds for day and employment services; additionally as a funding source that is directly controlled within each state it is one of the most flexible sources of dollars for day and employment services. As Figure 1 shows, the allocation of these funds varied based upon year and service category: integrated employment, community based non-work, facility based work, and facility based non-work.

Congress has enacted a number of work incentive programs for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients with disabilities after concluding additional incentives were necessary to help individuals become self-supporting.

Reporting meaningful indicators of labor market success for individuals with disabilities, particularly Intellectual Disabilities (ID), is challenging for a number of reasons. Measures that allow people to indicate specific disabilities like ID are uncommon in large national data sets. Additionally, the use of the “traditional” unemployment rate reported by the Department of Labor as an indicator of labor market success for people with disabilities leaves people who are not in the labor force, a significant group when it comes to subpopulations of people with disabilities, out of the calculation. In this data note, we discuss the implications of using the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) from the U.S. Census Bureau for indicators of labor market success, including for people with ID.

Completion of postsecondary education is commonly associated with better employment outcomes for the general population. There is increasing interest in postsecondary education as an opportunity for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). One role that vocational rehabilitation (VR) serves is to support postsecondary education in accordance with their Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE).

Data set: The 2007 National Survey of Day and Employment Programs Institute for Community Inclusion, State Data Project

This data note focuses on employment outcomes for individuals served by the One-Stop system through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult funding stream¹. Outcomes data include the rate of WIA customers entering employment and their employment retention rate. This data note compares outcomes among adults with reported disabilities to those without reported disabilities. Reporting of disabilities by One-Stop customers is voluntary. It is likely that some WIA Adult Services customers with disabilities do not disclose a disability and are therefore undercounted.

Employment rates in the general population and VR Rehabilitation rates DataNote 18 2008

Data set: FY2006 Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) Uniform

Data set: The National Survey of Day and Employment Programs

This data note explores how states vary in the number and percentage of job seekers with disabilities who register for services and identify as having a disability. In 2005, across all states and the District of Columbia, 3.1% of all job seekers were people who reported having a disability at registration (see table). The percentage of registered job seekers with a disability ranged from 0% in Washington D.C. to 8.3% in Delaware. The percentage of individuals identifying they have a disability has shown a steady increase over time, from 2.3% in 2002 to the 3.1% 2005 figure. In examining and interpreting this data, it is important to note that this data may not fully reflect the use of these services by people with disabilities, as it does not include individuals with non-apparent disabilities who have declined to identify that they have a disability.