6. Program Review & Reports

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 

(as it relates to Ed Code Topics):

When writing your program description, if you respond to each of these items, you will have included all of the information necessary for this component of your End of the Year Report.

• • What are the recruitment strategies used to encourage student participation?

  • What assessment tools are used and what is the delivery model?

  • What counseling is available to students as they participate in the WAI program?

  • What pre-employment skills training is provided and who is the provider?

  • What vocational training opportunities are available to students?

  • How do we provide students with opportunities to earn wages for try-out employment?

  • How do we offer placement in unsubsidized employment?

  • Describe your delivery model for offering other assistance with transition to a quality adult life.

  • Describe your utilization of an interdisciplinary advisory committee to enhance project goals.

Annual Program Requirements Report

 (Ed Code Rubrics)

Scoring Sheet Details- See the WorkAbility I Database (caworkability.org). The most recent Scoring Sheet Details will be under the CDE reporting tab. 

WORKABILITY I EDUCATION CODE REQUIREMENT REPORT

The primary resource for elements of the "WorkAbility I Education Code Requirement Report" is "Transition to Adult Living: An Information and Resource Guide" published by the CDE in 2008. Please reference this guide directly for further information on the the descriptions included below. 

Element: RECRUITMENT

The process to identify students who will receive WorkAbility I services in accordance with Education Code.

To serve students in your program, develop a clear process to identify potential WAI students and to encourage participation. Your process can include numerous strategies. Make it common knowledge for students, families, teachers, administrators, and other key partners by posting your Policies and Procedures with contact information in school environments.

Sample Processes:

• • Student Presentations - share information and solicit participation via spoken presentations, print, PowerPoint, word of mouth, etc.

  • Teacher/Staff Presentations - share information and request referrals for student participation via IEP meeting, staff meetings, email, forms, etc.

  • Parent Presentations - share WAI information and invite student participation via IEP meetings, print materials, mailings, surveys, questionnaires, training events, consent forms, etc.

Element: ASSESSMENT

Assessments may include:

• • Student Interview

  • Teacher Assessment

  • Psychologist's Report

  • Career Assessment

  • Interest Inventories

  • Learning Styles

  • Authentic Assessment/Portfolios

  • Situational Assessments

  • Self Advocacy

  • Diagnostic Vocational Testing

Training in Self-Advocacy and Self-Determination

• • Students should receive training in self-advocacy and decision making skills.

  • Students should know their learning styles and understand their disability. A student should know why they are in special education.

  • Students should be able to ask for modifications and accommodations necessary for their success in training and on the job.

Factors to Utilize to Evaluate an Assessment System

As you design your assessment system, it is important to consider your priorities for the assessment data. Evaluate each assessment strategies in terms of meeting your needs and expectations.

Issues to consider when developing a career assessment system are:

• 1. Is it age appropriate?

  2. Is it easy for student to use?

     • Is it easy to read and interpret?

     • Can the student relate to the questions?

     • Does it meet the needs of the individual student?

  3. Does it avoid stereotyping career choices?

  4. Is it easy to read and understand?

     • Does it assess interests and aptitudes or reading ability?

  5. Does it provide immediate feedback?

     • Assessments lose their meaningfulness to the student if the feedback is not timely.

  6. Does it lead to the next step in the decision-making process? 

  7. Next steps can include exploration, research or developing a plan of action to pursue a specific career. An assessment process should include closure for the student.

  8. Does it broaden the options that students are considering?

     • Many students have one or two stated interests. Special education students usually underestimate their abilities. The assessment process should help the student identify more potential options or be realistic.

  9. Does it provide the outcomes you expect?

     • Can you use it for career guidance, and transition planning? Does it provide sufficient information for school and other agencies?

  10. Is the assessment designed to be reviewed annually?

  11. Can the results be used by students, parents, teachers and counselors?

  12. Is it functional for students with various disabilities?

Students who are developmentally disabled may require experience based assessment. Students who have behavioral or emotional disorders require assessments that evaluate these potential barriers to employment. Students who experience learning disabilities require an assessment of how the disability impacts performance and the development of coping strategies on the job.

Resource: Transition to Adult Living: An Information and Resource Guide; CDE 2008 (See page 129 for further assessment resources.)

Element: COUNSELING

Few students enter our system with clear plans for their future. Counseling, individual or group, focuses on post-secondary planning and independent living while developing self-advocacy. It is ongoing work shared by school, WAI staff, and key stakeholders. Career counseling and guidance assists students to develop their personal career plan through activities including, but not limited to:

• • Referral to counselor or psychologist

  • Self-Advocacy training, goals in IEP

  • Job exploration with WAI staff guidance

  • Career classes

  • Online services

  • Interviews

  • Parent support through one-to-one meetings, IEP meetings, phone contacts, etc.

  • Grade level counseling programs

  • Staff support through meetings, emails, newsletters, and WAI regional meetings

  • Collaboration with agencies such as DOR or EDD

Element: PRE-EMPLOYMENT SKILLS TRAINING

Information that prepares the student for the workplace. Skills can be taught through classroom instruction, community-based instruction, field trips, WAI workshops/meetings, job shadowing opportunities, guest speakers, online media, etc. Communication with staff and parents is essential and may be accomplished via meetings, emails, etc. 

Useful Tips for Pre-employment and Student Support

Questions to consider when evaluating pre-employment training:

• • • Does your program use a transition curriculum to address students needs?

    • Are career awareness activities integrated into academic or non-academic courses?

    • Are you developing partnerships with local businesses for meaningful work experiences?

Stages of Working with an Individual Student:

• • • Get your referrals from teachers, students, counselors, etc. 

    • Meet with the student to see if he/she is interested. Explain program requirements and procedures.

    • Send letter home to parents. Get permission. Sometimes it's possible to meet with the parents in person. Not only can you get all of the paperwork done at once, you can find out a lot about the student's situation.

    • Do the appropriate paperwork. This means: a) a WORKABILITY application. b) District forms, and c) revising the IEP if necessary. While the IEP is not the responsibility of the placement specialists, they do need to be aware of and sometimes involved in the process.

    • Gather information about the student from the student, parents, teachers (special education, regular classroom, vocational and ROP), aides, counselors, and psychologists. It would be ideal to do this as part of the IEP process. Usually though we end up tracking down these folks one by one. If the student has worked before, we've received good information from taking with past employers. Your LEA may have a formal vocational assessment process; if so,you may make use of what the have already done with this student or refer the student to them now. If not there are some fairly quick assessment techniques that can point you in the right direction.

    • Make a preliminary decision about type of placement This will be based on all the Information you gathered above.

    • Take into account where the student lives and their transportation needs before seeking a work experience placement.

    • Make personal presentations to employers. When you find a good prospect, do more in depth presentations. Depending on the job and the student's abilities, you may need to do a formal job task analysis

    • Once a placement is found, everybody has to be prepared: the student, the employer, the parents and the school. Training agreements, emergency forms should be filled out. These forms can define the structure of the placement and explain how all issues will be handled.

    • Give lots of help and attention to the student and employer the first few days of work. You might need to make written or picture checklists for the students. Depending on the type of student disability ongoing support may be necessary.

    • Monitor job sites at least weekly to start. This may enable you to prevent many problems and catch others before they mushroom.

    • If the job becomes permanent, then you need to gradually phase out. If the job ends, such as subsidized employment placement and student wages are not picked up by the employer, you need to provide closure for both the student and the employer.

    Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)

• • Skills young Americans will need to succeed in the workplace. Defines workplace readiness as an individual's possession of workplace competencies built on a strong academic foundation.

  • This requires a set of developmental competencies and indicators for individual growth in self-knowledge, educational and occupational exploration and career planning.

  • The competencies are organized by area and level, describe the desired outcomes, and are the basis for program development.

  • The know-how identified by SCANS is made up of five competencies and a three-part foundation of skills and personal qualities that are needed for solid job performance.

Competencies-effective workers can productively use:

• • • Resources - allocating time, money, materials, space and staff

    • Interpersonal Skills - working on teams, teaching others, serving customers, leading, negotiating, and working well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds;

    • Information - acquiring and evaluating data, organizing and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating, and using computers to process information;

    • Systems - understanding social, organizational, and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, and designing or improving systems;

    • Technology - selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks, and maintaining and troubleshooting technologies.

The Foundation-competence requires:

• • • Basic Skills - reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening;

    • Thinking skills -thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind's eye, knowing how to team, and reasoning;

    • Personal qualifies - individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity.

Element: VOCATIONAL TRAINING

All students need to be prepared to do meaningful work as adults. Vocational training is defined as preparation to perform specific job skills in a variety of settings. Opportunities may include: ROP/CTE/vocational classes, school-based business, internships, volunteer or community service, unsubsidized/subsidized employment, supported employment, employment training experiences in partnerships with outside agencies, etc. Ideas for parent and school staff support may include sharing information through open houses, portfolios, department meetings, workshops, program brochures, etc.

Questions to consider when evaluating vocational training:

• • Is work tied to school-based training and vice versa? 

  • Does the family understand and support the work-based plan? 

  • Is there a natural support training component embedded in the curriculum or at the work site ?

  • Is the training keeping the Work in WorkAbility. 

Element: STUDENT WAGES FOR SUBSIDIZED EMPLOYMENT

Students with active IEPs are offered job training opportunities in a work setting where their wages are subsidized/paid by WAI grant funds or other agencies. Students are assessed for work readiness skills, assisted through an application and interview process, monitored and receive a work evaluation. Allotted training hours are determined by staff and staff is engaged in monitoring and supporting the student’s subsidized try-out employment. Staff and parents collaborate in selecting a work site/placement via parent permission packets, through communication with case managers and special education staff, IEP meetings, parent phone calls, emails, etc.

In combination with unsubsidized employment, make sure you are placing 25% of the students you required to serve. Your goal is always to meet or exceed 100% of your grant numbers. No students who work on their own school site should be counted as placed unless operating as a school-based enterprise with a clearly defined business plan. Each program must maintain evidence/dates for student placement in subsidized employment. 

Best Practices

• • Learn your district’s employment policies and procedures.

  • Adhere to work permit regulations and processes.

  • Make a priority list that identifies which students will be placed first. Priority can be based on grade level, disability, academic need, or other factors.

  • Establish student criteria for eligibility in the subsidized try-out employment. A checklist of topics such as grades, attendance, and behavior could be used.

  • Decide how vocational assessment would play a role in identification and screening students.

  • Establish who will be involved with the identification, recruitment, and screening process.

  • Establish a system for student intakes, placements, documentation, tracking allotted hours and wages.

  • Communicate with other agencies such as the Department of Rehabilitation, regional centers, Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs, and other sources to determine which student have or will receive subsidized try-out employment via their funding.

Participant Guideline Sample

Students must have an active IEP

The student contributes to his/her selection through the demonstration of consistency and mastery of the following characteristics:

• • Satisfactory attendance and academic performance in classes

  • Prompt completion of all necessary forms: work permit, time sheets, etc.

  • Demonstration of mature behavior and positive attitude toward employment

  • Reliable transportation to work site

  • Employment to coordinate with student's schedule and completion of secondary education

Employment Documents and Policies

As you prepare students for employment, it is important that you know and understand your district's policies and employment practices regarding the following:

• • Worker's Compensation

  • Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace

  • Sexual Harassment

  • Work Permits

  • TB testing

  • Social Security Card

  • Picture ID

  • Fingerprinting

  • Eligible Non-citizen requirements

  • I-9

  • W-4

Resources:

Transition to Adult Living: An Information and Resource Guide; CDE 2008 (See pages 52-55 for Work Based Learning and Placement ideas and resources.)

Sub minimum wage site

Element: PLACEMENT IN UNSUBSIDIZED EMPLOYMENT

Unsubsidized placement is WorkAbility I placement in which the employer pays the student’s wages. Related services could include assistance with job search, job applications, resumes, work permits, training support, on-site monitoring, job retention, exiting strategies, etc.

In combination with subsidized try-out employment, make sure you are placing 25% of the students you required to serve. Your goal is always to meet or exceed 100% of your grant numbers.

Best Practices

• • Students should build a portfolio of tasks that they enjoy and can accomplish with a high degree of independence at home and school

  • Families and adult service providers can use the portfolio information to develop appropriate jobs and find appropriate sites

Element: OTHER ASSISTANCE TO TRANSITION TO ADULT QUALITY OF LIFE

WorkAbility I, being one of many transition services provided by a district or SELPA, can play an effective role helping students and families link to essential support services, agencies, and post-school education opportunities. Services may include assisting the student plan for their future by linking them with: support agencies, social services, post-secondary education, jobs, community resources, mobility options, budgeting, health care, independent living, etc. To best assist the student and family with transition, learn about Community Colleges, Department of Rehabilitation, Employment Development Department, Regional Occupation Programs, Regional Centers and other support agencies.

Resource: Transition to Adult Living: An Information and Resource Guide; CDE 2008 (See pages 74-76 for a wide range of OTHER ASSISTANCE planning ideas and resources.)

Element: UTILIZATION OF INTERDISCIPLINARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO ENHANCE PROJECT GOALS

WAI programs will participate in a committee that consists of resources and key stakeholders in the community that will serve as advisors to the operation of the WAI program. Establish or join a local Community of Practice advisory group to gain insight to your program delivery and to strengthen connections with your students and partners.

The advisory committee could be unique to WAI, existing specifically to address WAI goals. The advisory committee could also be an already existing committee, for example, ROP Advisory, Community Collaborative Team, Youth Councils, School to Career Committees, or Chamber of Commerce committees, where WAI is a member and works to promote program goals, youth issues, and foster partnerships in the community.

Resource: Transition to Adult Living: An Information and Resource Guide; CDE 2008 (See pages 76-78 for a wide range of ADVISORY/COLLABORATION planning ideas and resources.)

WAI PROGRAM REVIEW / POLICIES & PROCEDURES

A program review is conducted by California Department of Education if there is a significant WAI program function that needs clarification or change. To assist with conducting a thorough program review, the following documentation should be available to help demonstrate a compliant and effective WAI program. The purpose of a review is to make your program stronger. In a review, contact your mentor and region manager to help you focus on issues and solutions.

To assist with conducting a thorough program review, the following documentation should be available to help demonstrate a compliant and effective WAI program:

• Policy and Procedure Document: This is a document that every site is required to have that illustrates your delivery model for each of the elements listed in the Education Code 56471 (d).

  • See "Guidelines for Completing the Policies and Procedures Document" below. 

• Eligibility Criteria: Written eligibility criteria for participation in WAI are determined and defined.

• Data Collection: Data is maintained by every program to demonstrate the number of students served and placed, as well as the types of services that were provided. Additionally, all Follow-Up data for school leavers is also collected and kept at each site.

• Student Documentation: This documentation provides evidence of which students received services, the date that the service was delivered, the name of the service provider and the type of service/activity that was received by that student. Additionally, all Follow-Up data for school leavers is collected and kept at each site.

• Staff and Parents: There must be evidence that show staff and parents are fully informed of project components, processes and procedures and how to access WAI services and be able to demonstrate at least minimal knowledge of the project.