SSI Youth Solutions Conference

This proposal describes a framework for supporting youth receiving SSI and other youth with disabilities during the transition to adulthood using a registered youth apprenticeship training model and proposes a grant program to expand apprenticeship for youth with disabilities. Youth apprenticeships combine structured on-the-job training with career-relevant classroom instruction; success in both domains is necessary for the intervention to be effective. These apprenticeships can improve education and employment outcomes for youth SSI recipients and promote their eventual independence. The proposal describes best practices for supporting youth apprenticeships that would encourage innovative approaches and help build an infrastructure in which programs are organized to coordinate services, accommodations, training plans, and benefits for youth with disabilities by leveraging key apprenticeship partners.

Career technical education can help improve the education, employment, and self-efficacy outcomes of high school students with emotional disturbance who are at high risk of receiving SSI. The Translating Evidence to Support Transitions—Career and Technical Education (TEST-CTE) guidebook provides information and techniques for high school education staff to develop CTE programs for this population. The guide is fully developed and tested to ensure that staff can deliver the program with fidelity in a school setting and that students can create career goals and earn college credits. The program’s goals for students include: (1) establishing goal setting, interests, and expectations; (2) completing four CTE credits while in high school; and (3) securing a job or enrolling in education within six months of high school graduation.

This paper proposes that the Social Security Administration delay using substantial gainful activity as a criterion for adult SSI eligibility until age 22 for new applicants and child SSI recipients undergoing the age-18 redetermination. The delay would smooth the transition from education to employment by providing a stable income source during a period when youth are still developing the capacity to work and live independently, and in doing so, increase the proportion of youth receiving SSI who have jobs at age 22. The policy would be consistent with other federal programs and policies that allow youth with disabilities to remain eligible for services until age 22 (for example, special education and developmental disability agency services).

Residential Postsecondary Education and Career Training (ResPECT) combines elements of services provided by the Michigan Career & Technical Institute (MCTI) and the Postsecondary Education Rehabilitation Transition (PERT) program. MCTI has offered high quality postsecondary career and technical education for several decades. PERT provides career interest and aptitude assessments for youth in special education or with Section 504 plans at the high school level. The proposed intervention expands access to residential programs such as MCTI and PERT as a way of increasing the sustainable and satisfying lifetime careers and earnings of youth receiving SSI. The intervention achieves this goal through two intermediate outcomes: skills acquired through high quality career and technical education at the postsecondary education level and the self-efficacy gained through independent living and peer socialization.

A vital missing piece of disability employment policy in the U.S. is a focus on “employment empowerment.” Employment empowerment instruction gives individuals with disabilities the attitudes and knowledge to address their basic fears and enter the competitive labor market. Competitive employment success requires self-confident job seekers who can impress potential employers with their ambition and ability to get the job done. Yet, the disability experience often dampens the development of these traits. This proposal suggests adopting an employment empowerment approach throughout the disability employment policy arena, calls for a federal cross-agency working group to promote employment empowerment, and offers piloted, publicly-available materials designed to help build the employment self-confidence, ambition, focus, and workplace knowledge necessary for youth with disabilities to embrace and pursue their competitive employment potential.

FEAT is a two-part training for youth with disabilities transitioning from school to adulthood, their families, and the professionals who support them. The purpose of FEAT is to raise attendee expectations about youth with disabilities obtaining competitive, integrated employment and to increase their knowledge of how to access local, state, and federal resources to make employment a reality. FEAT targets transition-age youth ages 14-22 with significant support needs and their families. The training bridges the gap between secondary school and adulthood by organizing and simplifying transitional issues related to finding jobs and accessing services and supports and providing transition-age youth and those who support them with guidance to facilitate a successful school-to-employment transition. FEAT attendees learn about (a) new ways to think about employment; (b) others’ experiences with employment; (c) local resources; and (d) ways to maximize their resources through effective use of Social Security and other program provisions and asset development opportunities. Training attendees develop plans for employment with next steps focused on using what they learned about the resources. After the training, participants have access to technical assistance to support them in overcoming barriers they might encounter on the path to meaningful employment in the community. FEAT has been implemented in five states and demonstrated promising outcomes among youth with disabilities and their families.

The Family Empowerment Model is an approach that relies on three key elements for promoting the transitions of youth receiving SSI. First, targeted outreach to youth beginning at age 14 informs them and their families about job services, such as those offered by vocational rehabilitation agencies. Second, family empowerment specialists use trauma-informed approaches and evidence-based practices to engage and empower youth ages 14 to 18 and their families. Third, youth ages 18 and older work with integrated resource teams, made up of service providers, to connect to job services, SSA work incentives counseling, financial empowerment resources, and other programs. Combined, these elements create a robust and holistic approach to engaging and supporting youth receiving SSI and their families in meeting their long-term employment and other goals.

This proposed intervention would add case managers to the health care provider team that serves youth SSI recipients ages 14 to 17 at specialty health clinics. The case managers would join the integrated treatment team at the clinics and would coordinate care and communication across medical and nonmedical services. Case managers would provide referrals to vocational rehabilitation, benefits counseling, and potentially other existing support services deemed beneficial to the youth. The intervention leverages contacts with SSI youth that occur through regular medical visits to promote positive education and employment outcomes. Funding to support the case management function might be available through Medicaid waivers in some states.

The Youth and Family Systems Navigator (YFSN) can assist youth receiving SSI and their families in managing the transition process and obtaining better employment outcomes. The proposed intervention offers a potential pathway to address the array of needs that arise by allowing greater freedom on the part of the YFSN to address challenges that typically fall outside the realm of employment supports, yet are essential to overcoming obstacles and challenges to youth’s long-term success. Assigned at age 14 and continuing services through age 24, the YFSN encourages greater financial independence and self-sufficiency for youth by connecting them and their families to the existing scaffolding of transition supports and services that can help them attain improved employment, educational, and economic outcomes.

Progressive education is a comprehensive model for public vocational rehabilitation programs that is designed to increase participation in postsecondary education and training for students with disabilities. Progressive education builds on the premise that maximizing opportunities for students to experience post-secondary education in high school leads to higher participation rates in postsecondary education and training programs. The model offers a graduated series of activities for students to experience post-secondary opportunities well before high school exit: campus tours and informational interviews, career assessments, course auditing, work-based learning experiences linked to credentials, dual high school and college enrollment, contracted college classes that focus on college and career preparation, pre-apprenticeship programming, and enrollment in career and technical education courses. Progressive education also provides a menu of supports to promote youth’s success in post-secondary programming, such as coaching or tutoring, collaborations with school staff and agency partners, and access to assistive technology.

This paper proposes the phased development and testing of a Transition to Economic Self-Sufficiency (TESS) scholarship program that provides cash support (up to $10,000 per year) to youth from age 18 to 30, along with postsecondary education and training services, career coaching and planning, health and long-term services and supports, and help with managing finances. The TESS scholarship and associated supports represent a significant investment in the youth’s human capital development over an extended period that is expected to increase participant engagement in postsecondary education, improve employment, and foster economic independence. The scholarships would be funded and managed through a public-private partnership between a state agency and a foundation or other private sector sponsor. A rigorous, small-scale test of the effectiveness of the intervention would rely on a lottery system for awarding the scholarships. Vermont is currently planning to implement and test the model.

Secondary school students who are transitioning to adulthood interact with many governmental and private entities, each of which collect data on the services that students receive, but their staff cannot always communicate or coordinate with each other. The state of Maryland is developing and implementing the Maryland Transition Linkage Tool, a digital tool designed to share data across agencies and allow school and state agency personnel to systemically communicate and track the planning and delivery of transition services. The tool facilitates the collection, sharing, and analysis of key data points on transition-age students, including work-related services received, connections to post-school services, and the post-school outcomes they attain. The tool is not intended to be a case management system, but rather a tool to facilitate system accountability and collaboration.