hello and thank you for being with us
today. I'm Shauna Feine, training
coordinator at the Minnesota
organization alcohol syndrome and we are
here today for a training
"hello from other side employment-related
options for young adults transition age
youth with FASD" and i will now let our
presenters introduce themselves
hello I'm Anne Robertson. i am a staff
attorney at the Minnesota disability law
center where I have been for about 20
years now. and I'm Rochelle Chen and I am
legal advocate at the disability law center. I've been there 18
years and prior to that I was a social
worker specializing in mental health.
we're here to talk about getting kids
with FASD to the other side from school
to work. as a housekeeping matter we just
ask everybody to please fill out the mdlc
information form and priority
surveys as this helps us know how to
best focus our services. today during the
webinar will learn about the Minnesota
disability law center and what sort of
supports are available to help
individuals with fetal alcohol syndrome
get the transition services that they
need especially as that relates to
employment . the four main players in this
arena are the state vocational rehabilitation
services, school services, county-based
services and social security. and before
we get started really getting into this
material we want to do a shout-out to MOFAS
as this project presentation was
made possible by a grant from the
minnesota organization on fetal alcohol
syndrome so thank you very much.
minnesota disability law center is a
part of mid Minnesota legal aid. we are
Minnesota's designated protection and
advocacy or P&A system.
our services are free for individuals
with disabilities and we get federal
funds to provide these services..
our responsibilities include monitoring
of facilities, individual case advocacy,
and policy advocacy. our services are
free for individuals with disabilities.
we have some main topics today that we'd
like to discuss. the first one is how
fetal alcohol syndrome and employment,
how those two things combined together.
how to access services, also we're going
to talk about vocational rehabilitation
services, school-based transition age
youth services, county-based services and
how SSI and SSDI - those two benefits
we're going to talk about the basics of those
benefits and work incentives. Last, if we have
time permitting we will also talk about
reasonable accommodations and employment.
today we're first going to talk about
fetal alcohol syndrome characteristics
that impact employment. there are common
symptoms and behaviors that we want to
mention. the first is kids birth to five
years: speech and gross motor delays,
extreme physical sensitivity, erratic
sleeping and eating, anger or judgment,
failure to understand consequences. at
elementary age we have blaming, volatile
and impulsive, incorrect reasoning,
academic failure, social problems,
risk-taking, transitions that are hard
and can't organize. at teenage years we
have poor social boundaries, naïve and
suggestible, social problems, poor judgment
and memory, isolation, the person doesn't
change their poor behavior, lying and
people have been inflexible.
as young adults you see cumulative
effects of problems and missed
opportunities especially for education
and training, the FASD can be mistaken
for other disabilities such as autism,
ADHD, ADD, depression, trauma , other mental
health disorders, learning disabilities
and so on, there is stigma associated
with the behaviors,
now moving towards employment and
support. now that we know what FASD might
look like, what support services are
available? who might be eligible for them?
how can we try to get them? Thank you, Rochelle
It's Anne Robertson and let's start with
vocational rehabilitation services . in
Minnesota these services are provided by
vocational rehabilitation services and
state services for the blind in terms of
eligibility. there are legal criteria set
out and those criteria are that an
individual has to have a physical and/or
mental disability which results in a
substantial impediment to employment,
they must be able to benefit from VR
services to achieve an employment
outcome, and they have to need
rehabilitation services to get ready for
find or keep a job.
SSDI and SSI disability beneficiaries
are presumed eligible for VR services
and it's important to note at the outset
that something called "order of
selection" may apply.
what is VR order of selection? this is
very important nowadays as it can work
to delay services significantly. order of
selection or OOS goes into effect when
the state VR agency does not have the
resources to serve every eligible
individual here in Minnesota both VRS
and SSB currently (in 2017) have order of
selection. a way to understand the order
of selection is that it's the primary
way under federal law that state VR
agencies can manage their budget when
they don't have enough funding to serve
everyone. what order of selection is in terms
of vocational rehabilitation services
and that's the general VR agency here in
Minnesota. their first priority category
serves those with three or more of the
following functional limitations
mobility, self-direction, self-care,
interpersonal skills, communication, work
tolerance, and work skills and anyone who
can't show three or more of the serious
functional limitation are placed on a
waiting list.
with state services for the blind they
have an order of selection as well which
went into effect october first 2015 and
services for the blind currently serves
those with five or more functional
limitation and those with fewer than
those five are placed on a waiting list
while order of selection is in effect
it's important to understand that the VR
agency must continue to serve existing
consumers once the person with a
disability has established eligibility
and order of selection has been
determined, vocational rehabilitation
consumers work with an assigned VR
counselor, one-on-one, to develop an
employment plan and start services. the
employment plan must identify a specific
job goal and vocational rehabilitation
services can include anything that's
necessary for getting and keeping a job
consistent with interest and abilities. it
can include things like assessment, job
counseling, job placement , assistive
technology, supported employment
services , and transportation. it can also
include funding for post-secondary
training or school, like college or a
community college or technical schools.
it can also include the expenses of
starting a small business. again it's
very important to understand that both
the VR agency and the consumer must
approve the employment plan for it to go
into effect. now here are some
considerations for employment plan or
IPE development and "employment plan" is
the term that vocational rehabilitation
services uses IPE or individualized
employment plan is the term that state
services for the blind uses. some of
these considerations that folks should
keep in mind when the employment plan is
being developed, is that any assessment
or evaluation must be comprehensive and
individualized, the language on the plan
must be concrete and clear,
predictability and repetition will go
farthest to maximize success
and it's also very important at the same
time to work to build flexibility into
the plan as appropriate to the
individual and the work situation. there
should be a plan to transition to the
next activity, there should be
established routines, especially for this
consumer population of FASD, it's
important to keep things simple and
specific. it should work to create and
maintain structure and above all really
there should be a way to ensure
appropriate and responsive supervision.
and as consumers are going through this
process and going into employment and
changing employment it is important that
caregivers, parents, job coaches, etc keep
a record of what works and doesn't work.
there's a new federal law called a WIOA
that reauthorizes the Rehabilitation Act
and provides federal funding for vocational
rehabilitation services. that new federal
law prioritizes transition services so
that's a good news for parents of kids
with disabilities and FASD in particular.
so these days
VRS and SSB must now dedicate fifteen
percent of the federal funding that they
received for transition services. they
can provide what's called pre-employment
transition services to students that
aren't eligible for the VR services or
before VR starts so it provides more
flexibility in delivering transition
services to kids with disabilities. to
get the intensive one-on-one VR services
that we just talked about with the
employment plan, students with IEPs are
presumed impaired for eligibility
purposes in the VR process but they
still need to demonstrate the need for
services . VR funded transition
services for eligible students may
include things like work experience,
vocational training, assistive technology,
and supported employment services
and here we have listed some vrs
resources that are available online,
the two VR agencies here in Minnesota
vocational rehabilitation services and
state services for the blind. the
workforce centers and an important
program called disability benefits 101
that Rochelle will talk about a
little bit later.
now let's turn to school district
special education services for
transition age students, and if you have
a child with FASD you likely have some
familiarity with this already. Eligibily for
special ed is that a student must have a
diagnosed disability, you can include
things like autism, emotional behavioral
disorder, developmental disorder, physical
disabilities, someone who's hard of hearing or deaf,
one who is visually impaired or blind and and
other things, and these are just examples
of conditions that meet
eligibility criteria for special ed. in
Minnesota the student must be 14 to 21
years old for what they call transition
services and schools are required here
in Minnesota to provide transition
services once that child turns 14. the school
district determines eligibility for
services and at the same time parents
can request that their child to be
evaluated and determined eligible for
special education so they can initiate
that process as well.
schools must also evaluate student needs
in certain areas and these include
things like work, recreation, and leisure,
home living , community participation and
post-secondary education or training.
when developing an individualized
education plan or an IEP it is very
important that the IEP include
measurable transition goals as
appropriate to the students' needs and
this can include things like job
exploration, job skill training, visits and
trial periods with employers. job support
and other skill development and
accommodations so it can really include a
wide variety of things i have listed.
here some special education resources
that families can turn to when they're
having an issue with special ed and
first of all, of course, our school
districts, special ed departments,
counselors in the schools , social
workers, school principal and various folks who do
liaison work. The
minnesota department of education is a
great resource on special ed issues and
then of course we have a number of
advocacy groups working here in
Minnesota. pacer, the arc, nami and you can
access a list of disability advocacy
organizations at the link that's on the
slide.
now this is a very summary information
about special ED. for more information
there will be a separate MDLC webinar that is
focusing on special Ed and
school-based services for kids with FASD.
so please check out that webinar for
training on special ed issues and it
will go into much more detail than were
able to do here.
now a third player for funding for
transition services maybe county
services, our waiver programs. and there
are four main ones here in Minnesota the
community alternatives for disabled
individuals (CADI) second is
developmental disabilities or DD waiver and
there are also TBI and CAC waivers. these
programs have eligibility criteria of
their own. they are important for
individuals and families to know about
since they fund one-on-one job coaching
for individuals working in the community
at regular jobs so that things like
supported employment services are
crucial to make that happen and these
programs that find a variety of services
pre-vocational services , if not funded
through VR or through schools, and
also the DD waiver program for example
can fund things like assistive
technology, employment-related day
training and habilitation services again
pre-vocational services. lots of
different services can be funded through
the county. Now to get county services
again you have to develop a plan or an
individualized services plan
this includes a person's needs and
preferences for services including employment
goals as well as long and short-term
goals and ensures health, welfare,
supposed to be based on informed choice,
it lists service types, amount, costs , and
frequency and among other aspects.
includes service provider requirements
and responsibilities and they include
employment related support and options.
there are other county-based programs as
well and what we're really talking about
here are federally funded health
insurance programs like medical
assistance. For example there is medical
assistance for employees with
disabilities or MAEPD, this is a very
important program for folks that are
working, they have to be at least age 16,
state resident, certified as disabled,
they can have assets of twenty thousand
dollars, and they have to earn at least
sixty five dollars per month , and have
taxes withheld. a separate program is
also a good program for kids who are
under age 18, have to be a state
residents, again certified as disabled,
and MA income-eligible if the child is
not in the home, and social security
payments here are not counted. Now some
transition related services may be
covered by MA if they are medically
necessary and appropriate for medical
needs and support work and this might
include things like occupational therapy,
physical therapy, speech therapy, social
work services, psychological services,
personal care assistance, assistive
technology and things of that nature.
I've listed here several different links
for resources to access county program
funding . Now the county waiver programs
themselves mental health programs, ma epd
and TEFRA, so those are all good
links and resources for families
struggling with county services.
Now putting it all together we've got vocational
rehabilitation, special ed and a county
that's where things can get really
complicated and challenging . the good
news is that the employment plan for VR
or the IEP for special ed and the isp
for County funded services all can be
effective tools to help young adults
move toward competitive, integrated
employment either real jobs in the
community for a minimum wage or better
and these things can also be tools to
prevent problems and give young adults
support as they move towards
independence. as families go through this
process and kids go through this process
it's important to be aware of behaviors and
misperceptions which is a common
theme with kids with FASD. when I work
with kids and families there are certain
things to keep in mind when developing
any of these service plans and here are
some of the questions that I ask when
working with the family to get services.
first thing I asked are what are a
student's goals, second does the family
and other team members share these goals?
and third how much advocacy and
self-advocacy is going to be necessary
to get the services that will make these
goals happen? this is where the rubber
meets the road. if any of this isn't
realistic, individuals need to go back to
the planning process which can be
frustrating and the takeaway of all of
this is that for the best results
parents should really focus on getting
the team together to wrap services
around the student and work out
responsibility for funding.
Now, Rochelle can talk about how social
security programs enter into all of this.
that's a whole nother level of
complication and opportunity of the same
time. Thanks Anne. if you are a parent of
a child with alcohol syndrome
you may or may not be familiar with some
of the social security rules on
eligibility, so we're going to talk a
little bit about those programs and
about work incentives that apply
individually to those programs. so people
with fetal alcohol syndrome can be and
are eligible for Social Security
benefits and work incentive programs.
we're going to talk about what is social
security, SSDI and SSI, who's eligible and
what are the work incdentive. let's talk a
little bit first about SSI. people i think
commonly become confused about the
difference between SSI and SSDI and
simply call all those benefits Social
Security. in reality SSI is supplemental
security income . It's found specifically in
part of the federal law about who is
eligible for SSI . people who are aged,
blind or disabled and have limited
income and resources - two thousand
dollars for individuals and three thousand
dollars for a couple. some income and
resources are excluded. so we like to say
that SSI is the needs based program, that
means that people who are on ssi are
on it both because they have limited
income and because they need the
criteria of having a disability. in 2016
the federal benefit rate or FBR is 733
dollars for individuals and eleven
hundred dollars for a qualified couple.
let's talk about ssi definitions for
children. We consider for ssi a
person has to be under 18, or under 22
and attending school full time, they have
a medically determinable physical or
mental impairment which results in a
marked or severe functional limitations
and has lasted or is expected to last
for a continuous period of at least 12
months and we have here a
reference on the web to the social
security guidelines.
so we'll talk a little bit about SSI
income and resources and wage reporting.
It is very important that when people are
on ssi that they make sure that
they report wages and income, so they
must report monthly gross wages that is
the amount before taxes or other
deductions are subtracted. they must
report when they start or stop working
including starting or stopping an
additional job, they must report changes
of pay or income, they must report any
work expenses related to their
disability. also that includes if you
are blind, any work expenses. the
person can report by phone, fax, mail or
in person.
there's also a mobile wage reporting
application (app) that you can get through the
social security administration but you
have to check with them to see if you can use it.
let's talk a little bit about the other
program. social security disability
insurance (SSDI)
this is another program but it's a
little bit different than SSI.
typically over a lifetime when people
work they notice that on their
paychecks, amounts are taken out for
Social Security disability so that later
if they become disabled those funds are
used to provide them with an income. in
order to be eligible for SSDI a person
has to have a work history. this person
is unable to continue working at what's
called substantial gainful activity or
SGA because of the medically
determinable physical or mental
impairment that is expected to result in
death or has lasted or is expected to
last for a continuous period of at least
12 months. its designed to replace lost earnings due
to disability and insurance program. it
is not income or need-based.
so let's talk a little bit about the
amount of work that would be needed to
qualify for SSDI. so the amount of work
you need depends on your age of the time
your disability. if you start before age 24 you
would need one and one-half years of
work in a three-year period before
becoming disabled. between ages 24 and 31 you
would work during half the time between
21 and the time the disability began. if
you're age 31 or older, work during five of
the ten years before the disability
began. a little bit more about SSDI and
working: so when people are working,
there's a thing called a trial work
period. it is nine months, it can be
non-consecutive, full benefits are paid
and it's all within five years.
there's also an extended period of
eligibility or EPE - 36 consecutive months
after the trial work period, no benefits
after the first month or for next two
months at work is at or over SGA, SSDI is
terminated if your gross income earnings
in one month are at or over SGA. once you're
past the extended period of eligibility.
the SGA amount is currently is 1040 dollars per
month of gross, not net income. if you
are blind it is 1640 dollars per month
of gross income. again it's very
important that when people are working
and receiving SSDI that they report
their wages. so you must report when you
start or stop working, when you have a
change of your duties, pay, or hours . if you
start paying for impairment related work
expenses and impairment related work
expenses can be things like paying for
medication and might be paying for a van
to be able to get back and forth to your
job and things like that . you can report
by phone, fax, mail or in person .you can
report work efforts and any expenses
incurred for work as a result of your
disability. remember to ask for and get a
receipt showing reported earnings each
time.
so here are some other work incentive
programs. there's something called the
PASS plan, the Ticket to Work, the Earned
income exclusion for ssi recipients, and
student earned income exclusion for ssi
recipients. We will talk a little bit about
the PASS plan first. For a Plan to Achieve
Self-Support, you must be eligible for
SSI and SSDI to take advantage of this
work incentive. You may set aside non-SSI
income or resources for specific period
of time to pursue a work goal. the
set-aside amount is not counted for SSI
and may not be counted for other
government programs. this money must be
kept separate from your usual household
account. you can only set money aside for
expenses that will help you reduce
your dependency on government benefits.
and now we'll talk about the ticket to
work or TTW, this is for both SSDI and
SSI recipients. so the tickets to work
increases choice. you can choose to work
with an employment network or what's
called an EN, and EN's include the state
vocational rehabilitation services and
private organizations that help people
obtain and maintain work.
SSA (social security administration)does not review medical condition if
you make adequate progress with the use
of the ticket to work. people who are
ages 18 to 64 receive a ticket to work.
they automatically receive that in the
mail from the Social Security
Administration. there's more information
available at the website listed and also
define an employment Network. there's
another website of useful called "Choose Work"
ttw.net, you can click on that
and find help and search for employment
networks that serve people in the state
of Minnesota.
so there's also another work incentive
available but only for people that
receive SSI . it's called the
earned income exclusion calculating SSI
benefits. SSA will first exclude twenty
dollars per month as a general income
exclusion for any unearned income . in
other words money from SSI money from another
source. in addition SSA does not count the
first $65 of the earnings you receive in
a month plus one half of the remaining earning.
this means SSA counts less than
one-half of your earnings when SSA
figures your SSI payment amount.
there's also what they call a student
earned income exclusion for ssi
beneficiaries. if you are under age 22
and regularly attending school. SSA
does not count up to 1750 dollars of
earned income per month, when the SSI
payment is calculated for 2016 the
maximum yearly exclusion is 7180 dollars.
this is a really helpful and useful.
work incentive for students that are
trying to go back to work, or trying to try
for the first time because it really
lets you keep a lot of those earnings
and set them aside without it counting
against you. and one helpful resources
the folks can contact is the work
incentives liaison at their social
security office.
these are folks that are identified in
each social security office that know a lot
about work incentives that are there to help
people with going back to work
issues . there's also what's known as the work
incentive coordinator, she's in the St. Paul
office and is available to help anybody who
has a work incentives issue. you can also
ask for what called the BPQY or benefits
planning query. you can do that by going
to your local office or calling the
1-800 number.
there's also a booklet called the red
book. and those are available online to
order. there is also SSA wage reporting info,
and its talks a little bit about that website
and how you can go about doing
that.
in conclusion, there are so many programs
out there and it can be very confusing
and we understand that, but there's help
out there for you.
there's a benefit planning resource. one
of the things that we recommend that
people go to a website called disability
benefits 101
this is the website where you can put in
all of your benefits information
including other types of benefits not
just social security but things like
maybe you get a benefit through the county
maybe you're on MFIP, maybe you receive
some kind of subsidy for housing, that
sort of thing, you can put all that
information and learn about available
options on how to access employment. the
social security website is socialsecurity.gov
there's the Social Security Disability
Resource Center. there is also really helpful
nonprofit called the work incentives
connection , they're part of goodwill Easter
Seals, and they are very helpful in
assisting people who are trying to
understand the impact of work on
benefits . and then there's our office, we
are the disability law center and our
website is listed: mylegalaid.org
there are also advocacy groups that are
specific to disabilities such as the MS
Society.
this is Anne Robertson again and I'm going
to talk briefly about reasonable
accommodations and employment. the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act and the
state of Minnesota Human Rights Act
require employers to provide reasonable
accommodations to employees with
disabilities. now discrimination laws
have broader definitions about who is
covered than SSDI eligibility rules.
so it's important to keep that in mind
under the ADA and MHRA , an individual has
to have a record of or be regarded as
having a physical or mental impairment
that substantially limits one or more
major life activities
now what are reasonable accommodations? The ADA or
mhra applies to employers with 15 or
more employees so employers have less
than that are not covered by these laws.
examples of reasonable accommodations
are things like making facilities
accessible, job restructuring, modified
work schedules, modifying or adapting
equipment or devices, providing aides,
readers or interpreters and it is really
important to understand that especially
when employers are concerned that most
reasonable accommodations are not
expensive. now under the law employers
must do certain things to comply with
the Americans with Disabilities Act and
the Minnesota Human Rights Act and those
things that they must do our number-one:
have to ensure that reasonable
accommodations are available but again
the law does not require the employer to
take on what they call an undue hardship,
and now factors in what an undue
hardship are include the cost of the
accommodation, the overall business size,
type of operation in the workforce,
number of or structure of the workforce.
number two: the employer must engage in an
interactive process to determine what
the reasonable accommodation is when
it's going to be put into place, is going
to make sure that it happens you know
all those things are part of the back
and forth between the employer and the
employee and number three the employer
has to act in good faith at the
beginning of this process and throughout.
now what if an accommodation is refused?
an employee has come forth and said that
they need a reasonable accommodation for
disability. under the law the employer
has the burden to prove it considered
least restrictive or less expensive
alternatives and consulted with a
disabled person,
a claim or a legal case can be filed
but it is very important to watch out
for deadlines. an ADA claim must be
filed with the federal EEOC within 300
days of the discriminatory event and
this generally comes up a lot quicker
than you might expect. an MHRA claim must
be filed with the Minnesota Department
of Human Rights or in court within one
year of the discriminatory event so
these deadlines are very important to
keep track of and that we recommend that
you consult with an attorney as you are
deciding whether or not to file a claim.
is very important that you make sure
that you follow, that you watch and
follow the deadlines and ideally that
you consult with an attorney. now here
are some reasonable accommodation
resources to access. There's the job
accommodation Network, Minnesota
Department of Human Rights has a good
website and of course the Federal Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission . those
are all good resources to consult when you're
in the reasonable accommodation process.
Now Rochelle is going to talk about
how to access resources at the
disability law center and what kind of
intake process that we use. what you can
do next if you think that you need help
from our office, so after listening today
to all of the information we presented
you may have questions or wonder if
there's something that you would be able
to access services to our office , one way
that you can do that you can access our
website and there are fact sheets
available through the website called
lawhelpmn.org there are many
available fact sheets and they're not
just specific to disabilities but ours
are under the "issues / disability" area.
we also have an intake line and that is
quite simply the best and easiest way to
access our services. you can do that to
two different numbers is 1 800 2924150
or the local number is 612 334 5970
those phones are answered monday through
friday except over the lunch hour and we
have dedicated intake staff to answer
your questions and to take your
information down. they will ask many
different questions. if you're not ready
to answer those questions. they may set
up another time with you to do that. you
can also do an intake on our website. the
mdlc website is mylegalaid.org
just click on the area that's specific to
disability or you can look for more
information there as well. that's the ways to
get help, doing a phone call with a
client intake or are going to our
website are the easiest ways to get
assistance from our office. just talk a
little bit again in detail about the
intake process the phone numbers are
listed, there the website is listed there
you can click on get help you can do an
online application if you are unsure
whether you should refer someone to our
office, you can also contact staff
directly we have listed our email
addresses and phone numbers but i cannot
stress enough to be the best way to get
ahold of someone right away is by
calling our intake line listed at the
top.
although our individual addresses and
phone numbers are listed
of course we all have several cases
already that were working on so the best
way to get a live person you know
immediately on the phone is to call the intake
line. you can also attend
advanced training session to develop
your self advocacy skills. we will have
sessions that will be scheduled. you can
contact the disability Law Center for
more information and to sign up for
those. for legally complex situations that
meet our criteria MDLC can provide
free legal analysis, legal representation,
but in order to go that route , you'd would
need to contact our office to find out
how to request the free analysis .
Thank you Rochelle, This is Anne Robertson again, as
we close this webinar we want to thank
you so much for listening today and also
many thanks to our sponsors the
Minnesota organization for fetal alcohol
syndrome.
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