Sneak Preview: ED To Provide Info on Allowable Expenditures
(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of Education (ED) plans to host at least two informational forums by the end of this year to help states understand which expenditures are allowable when providing pre-employment transition services under the State Vocational Rehabilitation program, in response to a recommendation in a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) (Pub. L. 113-128), states are required to reserve at least 15 percent of their total State Vocational Rehabilitation Services program funds to provide pre-employment transition services to help students with disabilities progress from high school into employment. Specifically, states are required to offer job exploration counseling and work-based learning experiences, which may include internships, exposures to local employment and other activities. In federal fiscal year (FY) 2017, ED awarded about $3.1 billion in grants to states for the State Vocational Rehabilitation Services program, $468 million of which went to pre-employment transition services.
WIOA requires each state to prepare a unified or combined state plan once every four years that describes the goals, services and objectives of its workforce development system. ED’s Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA) approves the vocational rehabilitation services portion of this plan, which must include information about formal interagency agreements between the state vocational rehabilitation agency and state educational agency (SEA) that explain procedures for identifying students with disabilities who need pre-employment transition services.
Since July 2014, when WIOA was enacted, ED has issued various regulations and guidance to implement pre-employment transition services requirements, including policy directives providing instructions on completing the Federal Financial Report (SF-425) and other reporting requirements, a technical assistance circular explaining WIOA’s overall objectives for the program, final regulations for the State Vocational Rehabilitation Services program and a transition guide to inform students with disabilities and their families about post-school transition. RSA also conducts periodic monitoring visits to assess the state vocational rehabilitation agency’s implementation of the program, including the pre-employment transition services.
After surveying 74 state vocational rehabilitation agencies, GAO found that most reported that they have expanded their pre-employment transition services since July 2014 to assist the program’s eligible students with disabilities. For example, while 57 agencies said they have served more students, only 13 said they are serving about the same number of students as before WIOA was enacted (the remaining agencies did not answer the question).
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