REAUTHORIZATION OF THE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT (WIA)
Position Paper
The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 presently comprise Title IV of WIA, and were intended to link the public Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program, through the '98 Amendments, to the One-Stop centers with the significant caveat that public VR would always maintain its dedicated funding stream.
The Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Council respectfully recommends that the Public VR Program be maintained in its original status as a freestanding statute which, we believe, will best serve individuals with disabilities for whom the Public VR Program was and remains intended. Partnership at the One-Stops should continue and hopefully, in time with the requisite physical and programmatic accommodations and qualified personnel, be better able to serve individuals with disabilities.
Recommendations from the Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Council
- Public VR needs to have an independent funding stream to assure that there are funds to serve persons with disabilities.
- The Rehabilitation Act (which presently is a separate part of WIA) needs to be reauthorized with full funding of each of its individual titles.
- Public VR needs to remain a mandatory program for the states.
- Public VR should work with the One-Stops as an independent partner, to serve the needs of persons with the most significant disabilities and not the general population.
- All One-Stop partners (vocational rehabilitation, education, labor and welfare) should track customers and services on a common system or on systems that can interact with one another. This will yield a better understanding of how the whole workforce system is performing, reduce duplication, and highlight service gaps while maintaining confidentially for customers.
- Common performance measures should be defined across workforce programs (labor, education, vocational rehabilitation, and welfare). This will aid in coordinating services, measuring system performance, and reduce duplicative data entry.
- One-Stop Centers and One-Stop Partners should be located in close proximity to one another. (walking distance/bus route or same complex)
- Identification of at least two staff members in each One-Stop who would receive training to enable them to assist individuals with disabilities to effectively utilize the One-Stop system, including the use of adaptive equipment.
Dated: March 2004
Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Council
1902 Market Street Camp Hill, PA 17011
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email: racucpca@parac.org