Collaboration to Promote Self Determination
Advancing Economic Opportunities for Citizens with Significant Disabilities
May 26, 2011
U.S. Senator Tom Harkin
Chairman
Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP)
United States Senate
SD-428 Dirksen Senate Office Building (Committee Staff)
SH-731 Hart Senate Office Building (Personal Office/Staff)
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. Senator Mike Enzi
Ranking Member
Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP)
United States Senate
SD-428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Chairman
Senate HELP Subcommittee on
Employment and Workplace Safety
SD-428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson
Ranking Member
Senate HELP Subcommittee on
Employment and Workplace Safety
SD-428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
FAX: 202-228-5044/202-224-6020
Dear Senators:
As national partners of the Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination, we would like to thank you for your
continued leadership on behalf of the more than 54 million Americans currently living with a disability, including millions
of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities We would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate our
priorities for the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act and the Rehabilitation Act in the 112thCongress.
The Collaboration to Promote Self Determination (CPSD) seeks innovative public policy reform to promote
employment first policies, effective transition strategies, meaningful asset development, and strong long-term supports
and services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We believe that all citizens with disabilities,
including individuals with the most significant disability, are capable of being employed in integrated settings at the
same wage levels as their colleagues without disabilities in similar positions, and as such have advocated for a rigorous
national systems-change initiative focused on promoting Employment First strategies. Employment First is a service
delivery strategy regarding the use of public funding for persons with disabilities, including persons with the most
significant disabilities, which effectuates on a systemic basis the principles set out below. The strategy supports the
primary or preferred employment outcome of integrated employment for persons with disabilities including those with
the most significant disabilities. The strategy includes the issuance and implementation of policies, practices, and
procedures promulgated through federal and state statutes, regulations, and/or operational procedures, including
policies, practices, and procedures requiring that systems have a statutory responsibility to provide services that align
their reimbursement practices, policies and guidance to incent, encourage and fund services and supports that lead to
integrated employment.
CPSD has submitted extensive policy recommendations to the Senate HELP Committee related to both the
reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and Rehabilitation Act. As the Committee continues
deliberations on a legislative reauthorization package, we wish to highlight three of our thematic recommendations in
particular: strong realignment of transition supports to ensure ALL youth with significant disabilities are able to
successfully pursue post-secondary education and integrated employment opportunities; reforms to promote stronger
collaboration among public agencies and easier coordination and flexible use of public resources to effectuate preferred
outcomes of post-secondary education and integrated employment; and a national focus on aligning definitions,
objectives and preferred outcomes among both the vocational rehabilitation (VR) and generic workforce development
sector to strengthen both of these systems as viable options for individuals with the most significant disabilities.
We also want to reaffirm the premise that was reached among all stakeholders who attended the Disability
Employment Policy Summit hosted by Senator Harkin in the Fall of 2010, which called for a Federal commitment to
increase and improve integrated employment outcomes for individuals with the most significant disabilities through
federal policies that will lead to a significant and systematic reduction in the dependence on subminimum wages.
Additionally, we support the introduction of greater enforcement measures to prevent abuse of existing federal law and
ensure greater protections for individuals with significant disabilities.
There is great innovation among some states to promote meaningful employment opportunities of people with
significant disabilities, and any federal legislative proposals should incorporate support for expanding promising
practices that are currently being used with great success by these states. These state case-studies demonstrate that
given the right incentives, and strategies, states can significantly improve employment outcomes for individuals with
significant disabilities. While modifications of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are needed, it will not alone address
the employment needs of individuals with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities, who are all too often
restricted to limited choice and impoverishment. What is required is a firm directive in the WIA reauthorization package
that ensures that VR agencies exhaust every option to prepare and place ALL youth with the most significant disabilities
into post-secondary education or integrated employment. Tax dollars should not be prioritizing segregated outcomes
that stifle the potential and contributions of the next generation of individuals with significant disabilities – segregated
options can remain choices in the private market, but public dollars should focus on getting people living and working in
our communities. Any exceptions to this strong policy position will only undermine the principle that publicly-financed
supports should be focused on achieving the following outcomes: post-secondary education, integrated employment at
the greater of minimum or competitive wages, and economic advancement. As such, legislative language around the
presumption of eligibility must be strengthened so as to avoid the perpetual rejection of those youth considered the
most difficult to place in integrated employment. Further, any individual who is deemed incapable of benefiting in
terms of an employment outcome from vocational rehabilitation services due to the severity of the disability of the
individual must still have the right to request the provision of specific vocational rehabilitation services (including
customized employment strategies and/or supported employment services) for a period of not less than 24 months.
Additionally, both the public agencies charged with supporting youth with significant disabilities as well as the providers
of such supports should be held accountable for achieving these outcomes.
In these difficult fiscal times, the Federal government and Congress must make hard choices about where to
prioritize funds. As such, it is critically important that the Senate HELP Committee consider the tremendous savings to
be gained from an emphasis on supported employment and other transitional services that promote the advancement
of youth with the most significant impact of disability into the general workforce. First, research has continuously
demonstrated that regardless of type or severity of disability, supported employment costs less than segregated work.1
Second, supported employment is more cost-efficient to taxpayers, returning $1.21 back to the country in productivity
for every dollar invested, as opposed to a cost-deficiency for segregated employment.2 Third, supported employment is
also more cost-efficient to workers, as citizens with the most significant disabilities working in supported employment
earn four to eight times more than those that are placed in segregated workshops.3 Finally, research also confirms that
when youth with the most significant impact of disability are exposed to and engage in meaningful career-readiness and
1
Sheltered employment costs the government on average $19,388/person annually, in comparison to $6,619 annually per person
placed in supported employment. [Cimera, R.E. (2007). The cumulative cost-effectiveness of supported and sheltered employees
with mental retardation. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 32, 247-252.]
2
Cimera, R.E. (2010). The national cost-efficiency of supported employees with intellectual disabilities: 2002 to 2007. American
Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 115, 19-29.
3
Cimera, R.E. (2010). The national cost-efficiency of supported employees with intellectual disabilities: The worker’s perspective.
Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 33, 123-131.
transition programs in the community, they are 70% more likely to enter post-secondary education or integrated
employment after high school than youth who did not receive community-based career preparation and work
experiences.4
In addition to a strong commitment to ensure the successful transition of youth with significant disabilities into
the community, we strongly urge the Senate HELP Committee to also require stronger monitoring of individuals in
segregated work to determine that those individuals who desire something more for themselves have the opportunity
to realign public resources dedicated to their existing placement toward exhausting community-based employment and
living options.
To achieve these outcomes, we urge Congress to rise to the occasion and instill the strongest language possible
within the context of the WIA reauthorization to ensure a cross-systems focus on Employment First strategies, starting
with the VR sector as well as the generic workforce development system. The reauthorization package should focus on
establishing consistent definitions, objectives and intended outcomes of both the VR and generic workforce system that
are focused on promoting Employment First strategies. To achieve this, the reauthorization package should allow for
and aggressively promote the use of braiding and blending mechanisms as a way to further stimulate effective crosssystem coordination of efforts focused on integrated outcomes.
Citizens with complex intellectual and developmental disabilities deserve more in the way of opportunities to
live productive, economically self-sufficient, fulfilling lives in fully integrated community settings. We as a country can do
better to help support this vision. We acknowledge that the recommendations we are promoting will require
courageous leadership in the months to come to fully realize. The next generation deserves this focused and strong
approach and desire a system of supports that promote the highest expectations of all individuals, regardless of impact
of disability.
Sincerely,
Autism Society
APSE
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Center for Self-Determination
Institute for Educational Leadership
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services
National Disability Institute
National Disability Rights Network
National Down Syndrome Congress
National Down Syndrome Society
National Fragile X Foundation
National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities
Physician-Parent Caregivers
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
TASH
cc: All Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
4
Cimera, R.E. (2010). Can community-based high school transition programs improve the cost-efficiency of supported employment?
Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 33(1) 4-12.