As Assistant
Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor and a former business
owner, I know that a strong America depends on harnessing the
productivity of all its citizens, including people with
disabilities. But I have seen first hand the challenges our nation
faces in improving employment and economic self-sufficiency for
people with disabilities. The greatest challenges are not with
employers or people with disabilities themselves, but with our
public system of disability assistance. Limited coordination of
benefits and services across agencies and conflicting policies
make it more difficult for a youth or adult with a disability to
become self-sufficient and participate fully in all of the
benefits our nation has to offer.
These systemic
obstacles impact heavily on individuals with intellectual and
other significant disabilities and high support needs, who
continue to be considered unable to be integrated into the
community’s workforce and earn prevailing wages. Instead,
they are often placed in sheltered employment with sub-minimum
wages or non-work day activities.
Several states have
moved forward to implement policies that focus on integrated,
community-based employment earning at or above the minimum wage as
the first option for individuals with intellectual and other
developmental disabilities. Using these “Employment First”
policies, states are tapping the skills and contributions of these
individuals to match employer demand for a reliable, productive
workforce through customized employment opportunities. In these
Employment First states, sheltered employment with sub-minimum
wages and non-work “day activities” are no longer
acceptable employment outcomes. Through this renewed effort there
is the opportunity also to provide a path to economic empowerment
through asset development strategies for workers that enhance
employment profitability.
In October 2008, I brought
together key thought leaders from various sectors to discuss
integrated employment for individuals with intellectual
disabilities. I have attached to this memo a summary of those
discussions. It stresses the importance of the Employment First
activities being undertaken in the states, and the need to expand
those initiatives through a variety of actions in order to
establish integrated, productive employment as the primary goal
and service for individuals with intellectual and other complex
disabilities requiring high levels of support. I invite you to
read the summary and to share your suggestions with the Office of
Disability Employment Policy (www.dol.gov/odep)
about including people with disabilities in sustainable economic
growth initiatives with the active engagement of the employer
community. As government transitions to the leadership of a new
administration, it is an important time for all interested parties
to consider how to best advance this vision of individuals with
intellectual and other developmental disabilities as contributors
to renewed economic growth.
Executive
Summary
Advancing Employment and Economic
Self-Sufficiency:
A Roundtable on Employment for People with
Intellectual and Other Developmental
Disabilities
____________________
Thursday,
October 30, 2008 – Friday, October 31, 2008
Bureau of
Labor Statistics Conference Room
U.S. Department of Labor
2
Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington DC 20212
The
following individuals external to ODEP contributed to the
development of the Roundtable agenda as well as to the creation of
the Executive Summary and supporting materials: William Kiernan,
Serena Lowe, David Mank, Celane McWhorter, Michael Morris, Chas
Moseley, Sara Weir and Madeleine Will.
INTRODUCTION
To
consider the prevailing paradigm of isolation and segregation of
people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities from
integrated employment at minimum wage or above, and to develop a
focus that embraces new possibilities for employment and
self-sufficiency, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of
Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), under the leadership of
Assistant Secretary Neil Romano, hosted a two-day roundtable in
October 2008. The roundtable brought together key thought-leaders
from various sectors to discuss promoting integrated, competitive
and customized employment at minimum wage or above for individuals
with intellectual and other significant and complex disabilities
who have high support needs. The
Roundtable
focused on two primary objectives:
Identifying
the current barriers that lead to underemployment and lower wages
for persons with intellectual and other significant and complex
disabilities; and
Identifying
and discussing innovative strategies that can facilitate the goal
of integrated, competitive and customized employment for such
individuals, specifically in the areas of transition, asset
development and workforce development and employment.
The
dialogue centered around three key topics:
strengthening
support for the transition from high school;
increasing
meaningful, integrated and customized employment at minimum wage
or above as the central focus of service providers and government
authorities; and
optimizing
income and asset development for individuals with intellectual
and other significant, complex disabilities who have high support
needs so that such individuals can accrue assets through
employment.
BACKGROUND
The
majority of individuals with intellectual and other significant,
complex disabilities who have high support needs are unable to
achieve the American dream of a job, a family and financial
security. Instead, they are caught in a cycle of poverty by the
laws, regulations and policies of the public and private programs
providing their supports and services. Individuals with
significant disabilities and high support needs continue to be
considered “nonfeasible” for typical employment, often
relegated to institutions, day programs or sheltered work
environments at sub-minimum wages. Although public finance to
support adults living with intellectual disabilities in the U.S.
grew from $2.3 billion in 1955 to $82.6 billion in 2004, tens of
thousands of persons living with intellectual and other
developmental disabilities continue to live in institutions and
nursing homes or are relegated to segregated day programs. Family
supports and innovative employment programs receive limited
funding, waiting lists are growing rapidly, and family caregivers
are aging. When they are fortunate enough to live in the
community, earn a salary and accumulate savings, individuals with
intellectual and other developmental disabilities are likely to be
penalized by having cash and social insurance benefits reduced or
completely eliminated. This counterproductive conflict deters many
such individuals from even considering meaningful education or
employment opportunities.
Fortunately, innovative
strategies have emerged over the last few years that, if fully
implemented, would remove most of the existing barriers to
employment and self- sufficiency for individuals with intellectual
and other significant, complex disabilities. For example, ODEP’s
research has documented that such individuals are successfully
employed in typical work places with competitive salaries and
benefits through customized employment, a strategy of
individualizing employment tasks and supports for the person and
the employer in a way that meets the needs of both. Customized
employment has been advanced and supported through the Department
of Labor and is providing new meaning to daily life for
individuals who heretofore would be placed in segregated day
programs. In addition, through the evolution of the CMS supported
Medicaid Infrastructure Grants, states are now able to explore
employment strategies using Medicaid long term service
dollars.
Because of these and other new resources and
approaches, a handful of states have adopted policies that require
employment to be a prime consideration for Medicaid Waiver
dollars. These “Employment First” initiatives can
significantly increase employment opportunities for individuals
with intellectual and other developmental disabilities and high
support needs.
THE
ROUNDTABLE
The
Office of Disability Employment Policy convened a Roundtable
on Advancing Employment and Economic Self Sufficiency for People
with Intellectual and other Developmental Disabilities,
on October 30-31, 2008. Participants at the Roundtable spent two
days discussing barriers and facilitators specific to this broad
group of individuals, in order to develop a roadmap that, when
implemented, would create opportunity for people with intellectual
and other significant disabilities to have the choice to work in
integrated community jobs at minimum wage or above. Discussions
both at the roundtable and subsequently have focused on several
strategies for moving toward and finally achieving the systemic
changes needed. The foundation of these strategies is based on
initiatives underway in several states, commonly known as
“Employment First,” under which employment is
considered the first service provided to individuals with
intellectual disabilities and the goal for all.
A
synopsis of the key observations identified during the two-day
roundtable is available on the ODEP website (www.dol.gov/odep).
It provides information focused on maximizing self-sufficiency
among persons with intellectual and other developmental
disabilities through a strategic focus on Employment First
activities nationally. Interested persons are encouraged to visit
the ODEP website and review materials as they are posted, and to
determine what actions they can take within their own state or
agency in order to move to Employment First practices. For
additional information, contact ODEP at (202) 693-7880.
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