State: New Jersey

New Jersey Combined State Plan for WIOA (2020)

“New Jersey has chosen the option provided in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to submit a Combined State Plan. This plan includes several additional federal workforce programs administered by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL)….

According to the American Community Survey, there was an annual average of more than 410,000 individuals with disabilities between 2014 and 2018 residing in the Garden State.  Among this population, 44.7 percent participated in the workforce during the period with an unemployment rate of 13.5 percent. While this rate is 5.5 percentage points lower than the 2010-2014 annual average, it is still unacceptably high. Recognizing this, Governor Murphy included a $10M tax credit in his minimum wage law specifically to help individuals with disabilities join the workforce.”

 

Links:

New Jersey Combined State Plan for WIOA (2020,PDF)
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development About WIOA

New Jersey SB 973: Apprenticeship mentoring program (2020)

“This bill requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education and the Chief Diversity Officer of New Jersey, to establish a peer-to-peer Statewide apprenticeship mentoring program for women, minorities, and persons with disabilities. The purpose of the mentoring program is to provide mentoring and support services to women, minorities, and persons with disabilities throughout the State, as well as to establish a network of peers involved in apprenticeship groups among those groups.

The bill also requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development to analyze which groups of people are under-represented in industries throughout the State, and then form employee resource groups for apprentices involved in those industries.”

 

Links:

New Jersey SB 973: Bill Text

New Hampshire DVRS Services

“Any individual with a physical, mental, cognitive, or other form of disability who has a substantial impediment to employment may qualify for the following services through the New Jersey Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS).

The mission of the New Jersey Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services is to enable eligible individuals with disabilities to achieve an employment outcome consistent with their strengths, priorities, needs, abilities, and capabilities.”

This page provides information on career services provided by New Jersey’s Department of Rehabilitation Services (DVRS).

Links:

New Hampshire DVRS Services

New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities (NJCDD) Five-Year Planning

This page has the most recent five-year plan for NJCDD.

Excerpt from 2012-2017 report: “Goal: Advance New Jersey’s practices/performance as an Employment First state considering all individuals with developmental disabilities.

Implementation Targets:
• Evaluate New Jersey’s Employment First policies and practices compared to best practices across the county.
• Support pilot programs utilizing identified best practices to determine the effectiveness of these practices in New Jersey.
• Develop and implement advocacy strategies for employment from best practices.
• Develop and implement an advocacy plan to increase day programming opportunities for individuals unable to obtain competitive employment.”

~

Links:

New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities Five-Year Planning

NJ WorkAbility

~~NJ WorkAbility, one of the NJ FamilyCare Aged, Blind and Disabled Programs, offers people with disabilities who are working, and whose income would otherwise make them ineligible for Medicaid, the opportunity to receive full Medicaid coverage.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility Criteria
Must be between the ages of 16-64
Must be working (full or part time) and have proof of employment
Must have been determined “disabled” by the Social Security Administration OR the Disability Review Team at the Division of Medical Assistance & Health Services (to review for disability in spite of “gainful work activity”)

Links:

NJ WorkAbility

New Jersey Medicaid State Plan

The New Jersey Medicaid state plan details the agreement between the state and the Federal government. It describes how New Jersey administers its Medicaid program and explains how the state will abide by Federal rules.  It also explains how New Jersey may claim Federal matching funds for its program activities.

Links:

New Jersey Medicaid State Plan

Travel Training & Information Series

DiscoverAbility NJ partnered with the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University to pilot a travel/ training and information series is designed to inform job coaches/employment counselors of a variety of transportation options and how to access them. Progress to date includes the initiation of a review of federal, state, foundation/non-profit funding programs to determine additional opportunities for para-transit funding, planning for key informant listening sessions, and a data sharing agreement from NJ Transit. 

Links:

Travel Training & Information Series

Marketing & Training on Disability Benefits

DiscoverAbility NJ has partnered with the World Institute on Disability (WID) to improve the capacity to figure benefits and support for better employment outcomes by upgrading the current New Jersey Benefits Calculator (DB 101) and translating it into Spanish. DiscoverAbility NJ has partnered with the Family Resource Network to provide a NJ DB101 training program to 17 ARC Directors, 26 One Stop Directors, 9 Center for Independent Living Directors and 19 Vocational Rehabilitation offices. www.njdb101.org is a powerful internet based tool that can help job seekers with disabilities carefully plan for the transition to work through enhanced knowledge about health care coverage and other public benefits. DiscoverAbilty NJ supports this effort and is working to increase knowledge and use of the customized disability benefits website. 

Links:

Marketing & Training on Disability Benefits

New Jersey Department of Education

~~This page has resources for those who work with the Structured Learning Experiences (SLE) program.

All teachers supervising Structured Learning Experiences (SLEs) complete a training program required by DOE. This includes courses on federal and state child wage and hour laws, regulations and hazardous orders, the OSHA 10 general industry certificate program and a course on designing and implementing SLE student training plans. Nearly 1,000 teachers have participated in the required training.

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Links:

New Jersey Department of Education

DiscoverAbility Learning at Work Symposium

DiscoverAbility NJ is a living document that was built upon the state's longstanding efforts to improve the labor market participation of people with disabilities. At the same time it included contemporary thinking about what is needed to increase their work opportunities (for instance, better transportation services) and improve employment and economic outcomes.”

Links:

DiscoverAbility Learning at Work Symposium
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