Michelle Alford-Williams, Manager, Business Services, DOR 2 S T E - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Summer Training and Employment Program for Students

STEPS to

1

▪ Stewart Knox, Executive Director, ETP ▪ Mark Erlichman, Assistant Deputy Director, DOR ▪ Michelle Alford-Williams, Manager, Business Services, DOR

2

S T E P S

Innovative Partnerships to Serve Students with Disabilities

3

 Create a partnership between The

Employment Training Panel (ETP) and The California State Department of Rehabilitation (DOR)

 Provide federal funding to local Workforce

Boards to support training and paid work experiences

 Utilize resources to forge closer working

partnerships at the local level between Boards, AJCCs, DOR and LEAs

4

 An interagency agreement between DOR and ETP  Funds that ETP can distribute to local areas to

serve in-school youth with disabilities

 Local Boards request funding through a

competitive solicitation for proposals

 Awards support AJCCs working with partners to

support training and paid work experience

5

 Expect SFP to be released in January or early

February

 Applications would be accepted for about 21

days

 Award decisions would be made within 30

days of final application deadline

 Expect awards to be provided to local areas

for the current federal fiscal year (April – September 2018)

 Upon request, with an approval, funds could

be carried over beyond September

6

 $1.5 Million available  Awards from $100,000- $250,000  Expectation: no more than $5000 per youth

served

 $250,000 = 50 Student participants

7

 Awardee

rdees provide de:

• Paid work experience
• Job readiness training
• Career/job exploration

 Example:

ple:

• Youth receives 40 Hours of resume development,

interviewing and soft-skills training

• Youth then completes 200-230 hours of paid work

experience

8

 Only students with disabilities (SWD) can receive

services

A SWD is defined as:

• An in-school youth not younger than 16 years old and

not older than 21

• Have a condition or conditions that result in their having

an Individual Education plan (IPE) or be eligible for a 504 plan

 Basic information must be collected to verify the

youth is a student and has a disability

 Additionally, dates for start of training/WE and

end of training/WE need to be provided

9

 Work Experience to be paid. Must be paid at

• r above the state or local minimum wage (if

higher)

 Doesn’t have to be in the student’s specific

career goal, but it would be desirable

 Work can be in a public program or private

business, but avoid “hiring” students into the AJCC or placing all students in one business/location (should be integrated into the community)

10

 Need a letter of support from the local DOR

District Administrator or their designee

 DOR will provide a designated/assigned DOR

representative to collect information from and work with local staff to identify accommodation needs

 If an application for vocational rehabilitation

services is needed, DOR staff would take the application and open a case record

11

 Students with Disabilities can be Potentially

Eligible (PE)

 Because DOR can provide or fund Pre-

Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) to PE students with disabilities

 Unless significant individual supports are

needed, an application for rehab services is not required

 Most STEPS participants are expected to be PE  No application, eligibility, plan or closure are

required (these are reportable individuals for the rehabilitation program, not participants)

12

 Are all funds expected to be awarded?

• Yes, presently $1.5 Million is being made available

for the STEPS

 Could there be more funding available later?

• Possibly. DOR is evaluating its Pre-ETS budget to

determine if additional funds/awards could be made available

 If there aren’t enough applicants, could an

awardee get more than $250,000?

• Yes, up to an additional $250,000 could be

awarded should funds be available

13

 If more funds are made available, how will

those be awarded?

• Presently the plan would be to provide funding to

those LWDB applicants that submitted a competitive application and to award additional funds to those LWDBs who received an initial award

 Are these one-time funds or is the intent to

continue in future years?

• The goal is to continue in future years, provided

federal funds remain available, and DOR determines that there are sufficient funds to continue STEPS funding

14

 What if a LWDB can not spend the entire award?

• Unspent funds could either be carried over for a period
• f time after October 1, 2018 (if the expectation that all

funds would be expended) or reverted to ETP to be awarded to other LWDBs that indicate they could spend it

 What are the record-keeping requirements

• DOR will provide forms that must be completed (e.g.,

Student Services Request, Student Services Agreement, Release of Confidential Information.) and,

• a report to ETP indicating: students served, services

provided to each student and a per-student expenditure and totals

• Also, same record keeping requirements for ETP/EDD

funding

15

 Is a match required?

• Not required, but may be necessary. This could

include in-kind for administrative expenses (funds can only be used for direct services, like direct- service/training staff and training materials and wages/work expenses)

 Can the AJCC use other funds to supplement

the award?

• Yes. For example, if additional WE funds are

available, or if an employer is willing to pay some or all of a student’s wages, additional students could be served or more services could be provided.

16

Stewart Knox, Executive Director Employment Training Panel Stewart.Knox@etp.ca.gov (916) 327-5240 Mark Erlichman, Assistant Deputy Director Department of Rehabilitation Mark.Erlichman@dor.ca.gov (916) 558-5442 Michelle Alford-Williams, Manager Business Services Department of Rehabilitation Michelle.Alford-Williams@dor.ca.gov (916) 558-5404

17