Financial Director

OMB No.xxxxxxxx

Expires: 06/30/07

Technical Assistance Needs Assessment Questionnaire

For State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Agencies

The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) of the U.S. Department of Education has awarded a contract to Development Associates, Inc. to assess the technical assistance needs of State VR agencies and State Rehabilitation Councils (SRCs) and to determine the most effective means of providing assistance to address those needs. This questionnaire is designed to gather the opinions of staff members of State VR agencies on these questions. The results of this needs assessment will be used by RSA to design a technical assistance system that best meets technical assistance needs within existing resources.

The questionnaire consists of five modules. The first four modules are designed to assess the technical assistance needs of State VR agencies, while the fifth module is designed to assess the technical assistance needs of SRCs. These modules are designed to be completed by different members of the State VR agency. An additional sixth module is designed to assessed the technical assistance needs of the SRCs and is to be completed by the SRC Chairperson.

Module 1: State Agency Director

Module 2: Director of Financial Management for VR

Module 3: Director of Human Resources for VR

Module 4: Director of Field Services/ Counselor Supervision for VR

Module 5: Liaison to the State Rehabilitation Council

The State Agency Director should determine who will complete each of the modules based on individuals’ knowledge and experience with the topics addressed in the module. The goal is to have at least four different respondents providing responses. While there will be different respondents to the various modules, the State Agency Director should be sure that all of the questionnaire’s modules are submitted at the same time to Development Associates, and that this occurs within two weeks following this questionnaire’s receipt.

Paperwork Burden Statement

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1820-xxxx. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 180 minutes per agency response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202-4651. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of this form, write directly to:

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

Attn: Charles Sadler, Room 5002

400 Maryland Avenue, SW

Washington, D.C. 20202-2800

Module 2:

Director of Financial Management for VR

1. RSA’s goal in providing technical assistance to State VR agencies is to improve the performance of those agencies. Presented below is a list of potential topic areas for technical assistance. Please rate each of these topic areas of assistance in terms of the extent of need for assistance in the next two years in order to improve agency performance, using a scale from 1 (little need) to 5 (great need). Use a rating of 1 if the item is not relevant to your agency. Please try to use as many of the scale points as possible to illustrate the relative need for these topic areas of assistance.

Rating

Little Great

A. VR Act, Regulations, etc. Need Need

(1) Understanding of the Rehabilitation Act and current

regulatory language 1 2 3 4 5

(2) Developing VR policies consistent with law and

regulations 1 2 3 4 5

(3) Developing the State Plan 1 2 3 4 5

(4) How to participate in and benefit from RSA monitoring

and compliance reviews 1 2 3 4 5

(5) Title I Standards and Indicators 1 2 3 4 5

B. Financial Management

(1) Basic financial management practices 1 2 3 4 5

(2) Expenditure monitoring and tracking systems 1 2 3 4 5

(3) State matching requirements 1 2 3 4 5

(4) Maintenance of effort requirements 1 2 3 4 5

(5) Federal financial reporting requirements 1 2 3 4 5

(6) Cost allocation strategies 1 2 3 4 5

(7) Decreasing administrative expenses 1 2 3 4 5

(8) Performing financial cost analyses 1 2 3 4 5

(9) Assessing cost effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5

(10) Impact of Order of Selection on financial management 1 2 3 4 5

(11) Sharing resources under the Workforce Investment Act 1 2 3 4 5

(12) Financial management of the Business Enterprise

Program (BEP) 1 2 3 4 5

(13) Working within State-specific fiscal constraints 1 2 3 4 5

(14) Managing other State funding sources 1 2 3 4 5

Rating

Little Great

Need Need

C. Financial Agreements

(1) Provision of services through third party contracting 1 2 3 4 5

(2) Managing and evaluating third party funding 1 2 3 4 5

(3) Performance-based contracting 1 2 3 4 5

(4) Fee for service arrangements 1 2 3 4 5

2. Are there any other topic areas of technical assistance relating to the financial management of VR services that are of significant importance for improving the performance of your agency? (Please note that other modules of this questionnaire address technical assistance needs in the areas of management and administration, human resources, and services to consumers.)

a.

b.

c.

3. There are a variety of ways in which technical assistance can be provided to State VR agencies. Please indicate your perceptions of the effectiveness of various types of technical assistance using a scale from 1 (not very effective) to 5 (highly effective). Please try to use as many of the scale points as possible to illustrate the relative effectiveness of these types of assistance.

Rating

Not very Highly

Effective Effective

a. In-person visits 1 2 3 4 5

b. General conferences (e.g., CSAVR) 1 2 3 4 5

c. Specialized conferences (e.g., fiscal conference) 1 2 3 4 5

d. Videoconferences 1 2 3 4 5

e. Teleconferences 1 2 3 4 5

f. Personal e-mail 1 2 3 4 5

g. Telephone conversations 1 2 3 4 5

h. Website resources 1 2 3 4 5

i. Web-based training 1 2 3 4 5

j. Webcasts 1 2 3 4 5

k. Listservs 1 2 3 4 5

l. Information circulars or bulletins, policy directives 1 2 3 4 5

m. Information on CDs 1 2 3 4 5