Community Based Vocational Assessment

1. Virginia DRS Vocational Evaluator Conference April 3 – 4, 2008 Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center Fishersville, VA Community Based Vocational Assessment

2. Objectives Review the following: • National/universal definitions of transition, career and vocational assessment • National definitions and characteristics of community based vocational assessment (CBVA) • Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) related to assessment, exploration and training

3. Objectives Discuss the following: • Where and by whom CBVA is being provided currently? • Where and by whom will CBVA be provided in the future? Share the following: • Specific information on a process for conducting CBVA in transition, including instruction for completing the CBVA, questionnaire and associated forms. • Additional references and resource materials on CBVA.

4. National/Universal Definitions of Transition, Career and Vocational Assessment

5. Types of Assessment • Transition Assessment relates to all life roles and the supports needed before, during, and after transition to adult life; it serves as an umbrella for career and vocational assessment and evaluation. • Career Assessment relates to life-long career development, which affects life roles, and is ongoing throughout one’s life. • Vocational Assessment and Evaluation relate to the role of the potential worker (and employment).

6. What is Transition Assessment? “Transition assessment is an ongoing process of collecting information on the student’s strengths, needs, preferences, and interests as they relate to the demands of current and future living, learning and working environments” All stakeholders participate in the process of information-gathering and decision-making 2007 Corwin Press. Assess for Success: A Practitioner’s Handbook on Transition Assessment, 2nd ed., by Stillingtion, Neubert, Begun, Lombard, and Leconte

7. Domains/Content of Transition Assessment & Adulthood Home and Family Employment and Education Leisure and Pursuits Self Determination Personal Responsibility and Relationships Community Involvement Physical andEmotionalHealth Cronin, M. E. & Patton, J. R. (1993). Life skills instruction for all students with special needs: A practical guide for integrating real-life content into the curriculum. p 13. Austin TX: PRO-ED.

8. Domains/Content of Transition Assessment & Adulthood Conducted within a Career Development Context: Knowing Where to Begin Employment and Education Domain

9. What is Career Assessment? The on-going process of collecting information for career development and career planning. • Lifelong process • Addresses all aspects of life within career contexts • People come to understand themselves • Cyclical Process and Content: • Career Awareness • Career Exploration • Career Preparation • Career Assimilation and Change

10. Assess within a Career Development Context Career Journey

11. What is Vocational Assessment? • A comprehensive, informal process conducted over a period of time, usually involving a multidisciplinary team with the purpose of identifying individual characteristics, rehabilitation, education, training, and placement needs, serving as the basis for planning an individual’s rehabilitation, employment, career development, education, and/or transition program(s), and that provides the individual with insight into vocational and career potential.

12. What is Vocational Assessment? • Three levels: • Needs Assessment/Screening • Exploratory • Comprehensive Vocational Evaluation 30th Institute on Rehabilitation Issues

13. What is Vocational Evaluation? • A comprehensive process (with content) that systematically uses work, either real or simulated, as the focal point for assessment and vocational exploration, the purpose of which is to assist individuals with vocational development. Vocational evaluation incorporates medical, psychological, social, vocational, educational, cultural, and economic data into the process to attain the goals of evaluation. 30th Institute on Rehabilitation Issues

14. Levels of Transition, Career & Vocational Assessment Levels of Service • Level III: comprehensive career assessment/vocational evaluation. • LevelII: diagnostic and prognostic, exploration, go onto next level if more information is needed to make decisions. • Level I: make quick decisions; minimal assessment required, go on to next level if more information is required.

15. Who Provides Three Levels of Services? Vocational Evaluators Transition specialists Guidance Rehabilitation counselors Teachers Community service providers Employers or service learning supervisors Employment specialists Vocational Evaluators or Assessment Specialists Parents and family members Youth Others who have relevant experience, vested interest in the student, and have received some type of orientation or training.

16. For Vocational Assessment • Levels I and II assessment can be coordinated and collected by anyone, hopefully with the consultation or coordination from someone Certified in Vocational Evaluation (CVE) by the Commission on Certification of Work Adjustment and Vocational Evaluation Specialists (CCWAVES) • Level III assessment should be conducted and coordinated by a CVE. (They can provide all 3 levels of service, but are the only ones qualified to provide Level III: Comprehensive Vocational Evaluation.)

17. Framework for Transition and Career Assessment • Examples of an Individual’s Attributes • Interests • Level of Career Development • Level of Self Determination • Temperaments • Skills • Preferences • Needs • Strengths • Examples of Ecological Attributes • Environments • Circumstances • Relationships • Situations • Resources Individual + Ecology = Congruence

18. Environment Observations Interviews LMI Task Analysis Training Analysis Community Resource Survey Job Analysis Individual Observations Background Information Interviews Psychometric Testing Work Samples Work Tasks Transferable Skill Assessment Screening Congruence Behavioral Observation Assistive Technology Situational Assessment OJE OJT Vocational Profiling Follow-up Generalized Skill Assessment

19. Triangulation of Methods and Information Expressed Tested Current Relevant Valid Demonstrated

20. National Definitions and Characteristics of Community Based Vocational Assessment (CBVA)

22. Community Based Vocational Assessment • A holistic assessment of an individual’s interests, needs, and abilities in a job/worksite setting located in the community.

23. Situational Assessment The systematic observation process for identifying work-related behaviors and performances in a controlled work environment. Real work is most often used to add relevance. The element distinguishing situational assessment from other types of assessment is the capability of systematically varying demands in order to evaluate for work-related behaviors and performances (e.g. social skills, quantity of work, use of materials, work pace). (VEWAA/VECAP Glossary)

24. On-the-Job Evaluation An evaluation technique in which the individual performs actual job duties in a real work situation. Performance is supervised and evaluated by the employer in coordination with evaluation staff. There is a pre-determined beginning and ending date: it is not necessarily intended to result in employment. (VEWAA/VECAP Glossary)

25. Job Try-out (Shop Try-out) A temporary job placement or internship designed to provide the individual with real work experience and community contacts where the employer or coworkers assess the individual. Job tryouts: (a) expose the participant to new occupational experiences; (b) assess the individual’s work; (c) expose employers to the potential worker; (d) gather additional data useful for making job placement decisions; and (e) provide the individuals with references and work experience to be documented in a resume. (Neubert & Tilson)

26. Functional Skills Assessment The systematic process designed to assess individual skills, interests, values, behaviors and performance related to functioning in the community or home (e.g. money management skills, transportation skills, scheduling and organization), defining the level of support needed by the individual. Assessments and resulting recommendations regarding these skills should be based upon a clear analysis and understanding of the skills needed to function at varying levels of independence in the community and home.

27. Community Based Vocational Assessment

28. Triangulation in Community Based Vocational Assessment

29. What to Assess • Vocational Appraisal: Integrative Assessment of the Total Individual • Let’s review and discuss the handout • Secretaries’ Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)

30. Vocational Appraisal Values Behaviors Self Concept & Self Esteem Values Behaviors

31. SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) identifies the level of skills required to enter employment, including • define the skills needed for employment; • propose acceptable levels of proficiency; • suggest effective ways to assess proficiency. http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/

32. SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) • These workplace essential skills and the associated rating scales can be utilized to measure youth progress, thereby holding the standard expectation for youth with and without disabilities. • Workplace Essential Skills are identified as workplace competencies and foundations skills, also referred to as “Workplace Know-How.” Teaching the Scans Competencies: http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/teaching/

33. Workplace Know-How: 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 learn, and reasoning; • Personal Qualities: individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management and integrity.

34. Workplace Know-How: SCANS Competencies Effective workers can productively use: • Resources: allocating time, money, materials, space, 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;

35. Workplace Know-How: SCANS Competencies Effective workers can productively use: • 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.

37. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Work Based Learning (WBL) Related to Career Assessment, Career Exploration and Work Related Training Components

38. FLSA WBL Guidelines • The Departments of Labor and Education joined this statement of principle with Policy Guidelines governing the participation of youth with disabilities in employment settings for career exploration, career assessment, and work-related training. • Let’s review and discuss the handout National Center for Secondary Education & Transition, Handbook for Implementing Comprehensive Work-Based Learning Program According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/flsa/NCSET_EssentialTools_FLSA.pdf

39. FLSA WBL Guidelines • Youth with disabilities who engage in nonpaid career exploration, career assessment, and work-related training activities are not considered employees of the businesses in which they receive these services only if they can demonstrate compliance with all of the guidelines below. When schools and employers engaging in these WBL activities with youth with disabilities adhere to all of the following guidelines, they do not violate the provisions of the FLSA.

40. FLSA WBL Guidelines • Participants will be youth with physical and/or mental disabilities for whom competitive employment at or above the minimum wage level is not immediately obtainable and who, because of their disability, will need intensive ongoing support to perform in a work setting. • Participation will be for career exploration, career assessment, or work-related training at a worksite placement under the general supervision of public school personnel.

41. FLSA WBL Guidelines • Worksite placements will be clearly defined components of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) developed and designed for the benefit of each student. The statement of needed transition services established for the exploration, assessment, training, or cooperative work experience components will be included in the student’s IEP.

42. FLSA WBL Guidelines • Information contained in a student’s IEP will not have to be made available; however, documentation as to the student’s enrollment in the work-based learning program will be made available to the Departments of Labor and Education. The student and his or her parent(s) or guardian(s) must be fully informed of the IEP and the career exploration, career assessment, or work-related training components and have indicated voluntary participation with the understanding that participation in these components does not entitle the student participant to wages or other compensation for duties performed at the worksite placement.

43. FLSA WBL Guidelines • The activities of the student at the worksite do not result in an immediate advantage to the business. The Department of Labor looks at the following factors to determine if this guideline is being met: • There has been no displacement of employees, vacant positions have not been filled, employees have not been relieved of assigned duties, and the students are not performing services that, although not ordinarily performed by employees, clearly are of benefit to the business.

44. FLSA WBL Guidelines • The students are under continued and direct supervision by either representatives of the school or by employees of the business. The student receives ongoing instruction and close supervision at the worksite during the entire experience, resulting in any tasks the student performs being offset by the burden to the employer of providing ongoing training and supervision.

45. FSLA WBL Guidelines • Such placements are made according to the requirements of the student’s IEP and not to meet the labor needs of the business. • The periods of time spent by the students at any one site or in any clearly distinguishable job classification are specifically limited by the IEP.

46. FLSA WBL Guidelines • While the existence of an employment relationship will not be determined exclusively on the basis of number of hours, as a general rule, each component will not exceed the following limitation during any one school year:

47. FLSA WBL Guidelines • Students are not automatically entitled to employment at the business at the conclusion of their IEP. However, once a student has become an employee, the student cannot be considered a trainee at that particular worksite placement unless in a clearly different occupation.

48. Importance of Compliance with Guidelines • Schools and participating businesses are responsible for ensuring that all seven of these guidelines are met. If any of these guidelines are not met, an employment relationship exists, and participating businesses can be held responsible for full compliance with the FLSA.

49. Addressing Liability Concerns • One barrier to establishing work based learning is the issue of liability for non-paid experiences. • Provide Employer with basic Fact Sheet regarding Community Based Assessments • Include Purpose • Employer Expectations • Agency Responsibilities • Statement that the arrangement is “Not an Employer/Employee Relationship” and employment is not a requested outcome

50. Addressing Liability Concerns • Provide information to the employer regarding the Department of Labor Standards In compliance with IRS Revenue Ruling 65-165 and with standard insurance practice, the Employer-Employee relationship actually exists between your agency and the client who is participating in a Community Based Assessment experience with the following understanding: