County Best Practices
This web page contains several Employment Best Practice Documents that reference Customized Employment, Discovery, job carving, job negotiation, and transition programs, among other resources.
State: Washington
Washington State: Medicaid Infrastructure Grant “Pathways to Employment”
“Helping Washingtonians with a disability make informed decisions about going to work.”
By promoting the awareness and use of work incentives provided under Medicaid regulations and the Social Security Act, Pathways to Employment continues to foster an expectation of competitive employment and economic advancement for individuals with disabilities.
Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT)
“The DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center is dedicated to empowering people with disabilities through technology and education. It promotes awareness and accessibility—in both the classroom and the workplace—to maximize the potential of individuals with disabilities and make our communities more vibrant, diverse, and inclusive.”
Customized Employment
“Customized Employment is a unique approach to providing job development and job retention services through an individualized process that fits each person's particular needs. Services are provided by qualified staff who are ACRE Certified (The Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators) through the Rehabilitation Services Commission. All Customized Employment Services are funded through the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission (ORSC).”
Learn and Earn: Supporting Teens
“Parents, teachers, and mentors encourage teens with disabilities to participate in work-based learning experiences in this video presentation. It can be used as training for training these stakeholders so that they can more effectively promote work-based learning for young people with disabilities.”
WA Division of Developmental Disabilities, Jobs by 21 Partnership Project Report for FY 2009
“The Jobs by 21 Partnership Project was funded by the Washington State Legislature for the 2007–2009 biennium. The Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) was authorized to identify and demonstrate best practices in sustainable partnerships among Washington’s counties, school districts, employers, families, students with developmental disabilities, and adult service agencies. The focus of the collaborative relationships between Partnership Projects stakeholders was to obtain “Jobs by 21” for young adults with developmental disabilities.”
Washington Becoming Employed Starts Today (BEST) Program
“The Becoming Employed Starts Today (BEST) project is designed to transform service delivery by promoting sustainable access to evidence-based, supported employment. BEST provides consumers with meaningful choice and control of employment and support services. It uses peer counselors, reduces unemployment, and supports the recovery and resiliency of individuals with serious mental illness, including co-occurring substance use disorders.”
Washington SB 5284: Subminimum wage (2021)
Effective date 7/25/2021
“AN ACT Relating to eliminating subminimum wage certificates for persons with disabilities…”
Washington SB 5194: Equity and access in higher education (2021)
Effective 07/25/2021
“BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. INTENT. The legislature recognizes that student completion rates for workforce training certification and degree programs at community and technical colleges are far lower than desirable to ensure that students may utilize the opportunities of postsecondary education to lift themselves and their families out of poverty and to meet our state’s student achievement council road map goals, including for 70 percent of Washington residents to have a postsecondary certification or degree to meet workforce needs. The legislature recognizes that first-generation college-attending students, students with disabilities, and underrepresented minority students face far greater obstacles to apply, remain in school, and complete programs. This disparate impact greatly affects our state’s commitment to equity…”
Washington SB 5790: Strengthening critical community support services for individuals with IDD (2022)
Enacted. Version date: 3/24/22
“The department of social and health services shall:
(1) Establish a school to work program in all counties in the state to work with all students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are potentially eligible to receive adult support services from the developmental disabilities administration of the department and are receiving high school transition services in order to connect these students with supported employment services; and…
(5) To minimize gaps in services through the transition process, no later than three years before students receiving special education services leave the school system, the office of the superintendent of public instruction shall transmit a list of potentially eligible students to the department of social and health services, the counties, the department of services for the blind, and any other state agency working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that consent be obtained prior to the release of this information as required in accordance with state and federal requirements.”