Carl,
What you describe is most horrifying to me because it is a cynical plan to
pretend to the public that programs exist to meet their needs when, in fact,
the programs exist in name only. I remember our village recreation program
which put out a brochure every six months, listing all of the programs that
they provided for children. But few of these were actdually in operation. In
the case that you describe, people are given hope, but you can't give them
what they need or what they've been told is available to them. It's really
like America's claims of Democracy. Amy Goodman says that it's reported that
100 million people will watch the debate tonight. Why? But they believe that
it's a real debate and that it has some relationship to what the candidates
think or will do. They think that if they vote, they'll actually have some
input into what their government will do. It's all fantasy.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 1:59 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Eligible but Got Nothing: Hundreds of
Thousands of People With Disabilities Blocked From College Aid
It's a grim and bleak landscape at the moment. Cathy and I are equally
frustrated by the lack of funding and the indifference from the people who
should care, and who could help make a difference if they tried.
The Independent Living Program serves a fast growing population of newly
blind and low vision seniors. But the funding has just been cut again, and
we now have included in our case load anyone over 24 years of age who is not
a Vocational Rehabilitation Client. We were allocated an additional $1,000
to serve this younger population. We raised questions, wondering how on
God's Green Earth we were supposed to stretch that small amount over an
entire year. We were told that past records show that on the entire Olympic
Peninsula there was only one person under 55 who received services last
year. But as soon as the word was out, announcing that the older and
younger programs would be combined, we were sent three clients under 55.
Since then we've received two more. Our program manager "found" enough
extra dollars to cover the original three clients, but the two new
applications have no money attached. We also have a woman who wants to
attend the Guide Dog school, but they told her she must be certified as a
competent traveler by an O&M instructor. Since Cathy and I are
rehabilitation teachers, we cannot sign off on this woman's ability, even
though we have trained her.
If she can get to Seattle, about two hours drive, and if she has $60 per
hour for the training, she might find an O&M instructor willing to work with
her after their regular day's work. I've written our program manager
requesting her advice on how to assist this client, but after three weeks I
think I am being ignored.
The clients who already have arranged assistance for in-home care, have had
pretty good success with the General Agency, the Department of Social and
Health Services.
But our services, assisting people to live independently, is almost
laughable. It's like putting a band-aid on an open wound.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/26/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have been attempting to negotiate the community medicaid system inservices.
order to have a home health aide since there's no way I can afford one
for the number of hours I think I need. I've had a law firm assist
with this. I have a daughter who is an attorney and I am a licensed
social worker. I will tell you from my personal experience that the
system, as described in writing, is a wonderful government service.
But in terms of actuality, it is a nightmare of bureaucracy,
improperly trained and over worked personnel, and incredible
incompetence. I don't know that private business enterprises work any
better because whether public or private, our world is bureaucratic,
fragmented, and impersonal. Funds are scarce, whether because of
government cuts or because of corporate emphasis on profit for stock
holders. My experience with government systems does not bode well for
how State Socialism might work. The total transformation which is
required for people to be treated humanely, seems rather unlikely.
Miriame
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 12:06 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Eligible but Got Nothing: Hundreds of
Thousands of People With Disabilities Blocked From College Aid
The Ruling Class has developed a tried and true method when it comes
to social service programs. The method is to first point out the
need, and then damns the agency responsible, for failing to provide the
Meanwhile, the pressure is on for cutting the budget.Stay:
The agency in question then becomes a road block, and the public can
be encouraged to condemn the agency as being a typical government
incompetence.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/26/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In most states, including Michigan VR is simply a scam. Our CAP is indisabilities.
the bag with the shelterred workshops.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2016 10:33 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Eligible but Got Nothing: Hundreds of
Thousands of People With Disabilities Blocked From College Aid
Eligible but Got Nothing: Hundreds of Thousands of People With
Disabilities Blocked From College Aid Sunday, 25 September 2016
00:00 By Meredith Kolodner , The Hechinger Report
| Report
Wendy Thompson always knew she wanted her son to go to college, but
she didn't realize so many people would disagree.
Her son was born with cerebral palsy, a disease that has him using a
wheelchair, but has little impact on his academic abilities. He
graduated from high school with a Regents diploma in 2013 -- a feat
accomplished by only 18 percent of students with disabilities in New
York City that year, compared to 70 percent of students without
federal data.But when Thompson met with a counselor from the state agency that is
supposed to help people with disabilities get training or a degree
that will lead to a job, the counselor refused to sign off on her
son's plan to go to community college. That meant he wouldn't get
wheelchair-accessible transportation, tuition help or
voice-activated software from the agency -- all of which he
qualified for under federal law.
"I know too many young men with all kinds of disabilities just
sitting around at home doing nothing," said Thompson, who raised her
son on her own.
"They're not even given a chance. I didn't want that for him."
Thompson's frustration is shared by people with disabilities and
their parents nationwide.
More than 800,000 people with disabilities found eligible for
services received no assistance between 2010 and 2014, according to
more counselors."More than a dozen states failed to provide services to over 40
percent of those they themselves deemed eligible. And many more
states have left people in limbo for months, despite laws that
expressly forbid that.
"It's happening across the country, and it's inexcusable," said Ron
Hager, senior staff attorney at the National Disability Rights
Network.
This despite $3 billion in tax dollars spent last year by the
agencies responsible, known as Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)
offices. Created by the Rehabilitation Act three decades ago, VRs
are supposed to help people with disabilities become independent.
Some people need a hearing aid, for example; others require
voice-activated note-taking software or screen-readers for college.
Studies have shown that people with disabilities benefit even more
than the general public from having a college degree, in terms of
employment and getting out of poverty -- people with disabilities
with a bachelor's degree are almost 50 percent more likely to have a
job than those with just a high school diploma. Yet, while 76
percent of people with disabilities have high school diplomas, only
12 percent have college degrees.
Some VR agencies work well; counselors respond promptly to
applications and help clients further their education and secure
employment. But in many states the VR offices are understaffed,
poorly run or hamstrung by political battles. Staff turnover is
high, successful job placement is fleeting and money is spent
without significant results.
Delays in service provision were so widespread that, in 2014,
Congress mandated that a person with a disability must receive a
plan for employment within 90 days of being deemed eligible for
assistance. In 20 states, more than one-third of cases stretched
past the 90-day limit in 2015. Close to 14,000 cases stretched past
a year.
Once an applicant gets an approved plan, the next step is to get the
services -- which often takes even longer. The delays lead to missed
job and educational opportunities and longer government dependence,
all at a cost
to
taxpayers.
Part of the problem, advocates say, is high caseloads. The situation
is most severe in urban centers. The recommended caseload per VR
counselor is between 80 and 100 clients. But in the Bronx, for
example, the average caseload rose to 270 in 2016, up from 222 in
2015. The current New York statewide average is 185, according to
state officials.
"VR is an underfunded ghetto for people with disabilities," said
Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center for Independence of
the Disabled, New York. "I don't understand why, given the large
cost of maintaining people with disabilities in poverty, in
institutions, the state doesn't invest more in VR services, but I
cannot remember the last time that an increase was proposed that
would allow the hiring of
abilities.Josh Greene, who has several learning disabilities, felt the impact
of those high caseloads firsthand. He lives in the Bronx, and in the
fall of 2014,
he
was brimming with hope. He had his first appointment with a
counselor at the Bronx VR agency. He was found eligible for services
and was accepted that spring to Guttman Community College in Manhattan.
It went downhill from there. Greene has dyslexia and needed software
to help him take notes without scrambling the letters. He also
needed an audio recorder so he could listen to lectures again at
home, and some extra help with writing.
He spent 10 months emailing, leaving messages and resubmitting
forms, but
by
the following September when he started classes, he still had
received none of the academic assistance for which he had been
approved.
A spokeswoman for the Education Department, which oversees New
York's VR office, said the agency could not comment on individual
cases, but acknowledged that turnover among Bronx counselors was
about 30 percent last year.
New York isn't the only place struggling with high caseloads.
The backup in Milwaukee is so severe that it is not uncommon for
people to wait six weeks to get a first appointment to begin the
eligibility process, said Cathy Steffke, an advocacy specialist at
Disability Rights Wisconsin.
"I feel very badly for a VR counselor stuck with a [high] caseload,"
said Steffke. "Can you imagine going to school to help people and
then find out you can't help anyone?"
By law, VR caseworkers must have a master's degree, but in most
states their pay is lower than that of their counterparts at the
veterans administration or the department of education. The private
sector pays even more, so many people leave after just a few years,
passing on their cases to less-experienced counselors who already
have their own loads.
"I think more people would stay, even with lower pay, if they felt
like they had the possibility of helping people," said a recently
retired caseworker who spent close to three decades at a Wisconsin
VR office and asked to remain anonymous because he still works with
the agency. Of the 22 co-workers when he left his office less than
two years ago, only two are left, he said.
Statewide, 30 percent of casework-related staff left between 2012
and 2015, according to a state audit.
"It's a caseload issue that's basically political," said Linda
Vegoe, the director of Wisconsin's client assistance program (CAP).
State CAPs are also federally funded and were established to help
people having difficulty getting services from the VR agencies.
"They don't want to increase the number of positions."
In 2013, Governor Scott Walker became the first Wisconsin governor
in more than a decade to put up the full amount of state matching
funds for Wisconsin's VR. Walker supported moving people from
government assistance
to
work. Nonetheless, the number of counselors in Wisconsin has stayed
flat since 2012, according to a state audit, although there has been
an increase in the number of counselors in training.
State officials say that new initiatives, including one that enlists
the counselors in training to handle some eligibility-related tasks,
allowed them to successfully close a record-number of cases last
fiscal year. The Wisconsin waiting list now averages only 150 people
at a time (down from 4,900 in 2013), according to John Dipko,
communications director at Wisconsin's Department of Workforce
Development, and the agency has streamlined its intake process.
But advocates say that some of the changes have only pushed people
off the waitlists and into the system, where the waiting time isn't
tracked but has increased. "Waiting for service inside the system
takes longer than waiting on the outside," said Vegoe, who has
worked at CAP for 25 years. "The external waitlist basically became
an internal one."
High caseloads translate into delays and lack of services for people
like Amy Kerzner.
Multiple sclerosis struck Kerzner relatively late in life, making it
impossible for her to keep working as a nurse.
"I knew one thing: I would never, ever live the rest of my life on
disability," said Kerzner, 49. "I would find a way to be a
productive citizen."
She met with a VR counselor in Calumet County, where she lived, who
approved her plan to attend Alverno College in Milwaukee so she
could get training
to
become a psychologist. She moved to Milwaukee in October 2010 and
called her new caseworker there -- repeatedly. Even though the
paperwork had been transferred and she was due to start classes in
January, she couldn't get
an
appointment until March. She began the program anyway.
"He kept making appointments and canceling, not returning emails,"
she recalled.
When she finally met with the caseworker, he told her that he was
denying her request to attend Alverno. She called an advocacy
hotline, appealed the decision and won, although it took several
more months before she was reimbursed.
Kerzner graduated four years later with a GPA of 4.0 and is now
working on
a
master's degree. "Movement is painful, you ache and throb all the
time, you just get used to that level of pain," she said. "But I
will take that pain all day long, as long as I can be independent."
Wisconsin VR officials dispute Kerzner's account of her treatment.
They say they have requested but have not received permission from
her that would allow them to make the details of her case public.
Steffke says Kerzner's experience is not an anomaly.
"These people just want to work, they just want a job, they're not
asking for cars and boats and property," she said.
Yet high caseloads are not the only reason that some people leave
the system without receiving services, according to a U.S.
Department of Education spokesman. In light of a shortfall of
funding, some states have created waiting lists to prioritize the
most disabled, so clients on the waitlist who have been found
eligible for VR services but whose needs are less "significant" may
be redirected to other agencies, such as a Veterans program if the
disability occurred due to military service.
"No one wants to say it, but I'll say it: funding, funding, funding,"
Steffke argued. "There's lots of people who can get off of social
security, or at least just partial social security, but the federal
government has never dealt with this well."
Federal funding for VR has dropped by 6 percent since 2009,
accounting for inflation. And 21 states did not put up enough state
money in 2015 to get the full amount of federal matching funds.
The failure to fund is shortsighted, say advocates. Not only does a
successful job placement reduce government assistance rolls, they
argue, but when services for clients are denied or delayed, the
agency is still spending time and money on those clients.
In 2012, VR agencies around the country spent close to $365 million
on people who left the system before they completed services, and
that's up from $326 million in 2009, according to a study from the
University of Montana.
In Louisiana, 44 percent of people found eligible for services never
received any in 2014. This year, statewide budget cuts forced an
even worse crisis -- the office ran out of money and stopped taking
new clients on February 29. In addition, hundreds of people who had
been found eligible but hadn't gotten approval for their employment
plan also had their cases put
on
hold. The office reopened its caseloads on June 1, and counselors
are now wading through the backlog.
"It's had a big impact on everyone," said David Gallegos, program
director at the Advocacy Center of Louisiana who has been working
there for 17 years.
Caseloads in New Orleans are now between 150 and 200 clients, said
Gallegos, who is also the state's CAP director.
Similarly, in January 2015, Tennessee's agency also temporarily
stopped taking new clients. Although it has opened its doors again,
a state report found that 100 of the 243 positions that provide
direct services to clients were vacant last year. The result has
been caseloads of up to 200 in Knoxville and elsewhere, and many
dropped clients, advocates say.
Tennessee is actively hiring, said Devin Stone, spokesperson for the
state Department of Human Services. Stone added that over the past
four years, the agency has increased the number of clients getting
jobs each year; advocates say things have gotten worse.
People with disabilities and their advocates in many states also say
that even when applicants do get plans and see counselors, the
results are disappointing due to the counselors' skepticism about
their
Loria Richardson, a project specialist from the nonprofit advocacy
group The Arc Tennessee, said she has seen this happen on numerous
occasions. She is currently working with a young man who was
accepted at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology. He visited
the school, met with instructors and decided to enroll in its HVAC
program. School officials said it was not a problem that he had
graduated high school with a special education diploma.
They assured him that others without regular diplomas had been
successful there, and that they would work with him to provide
accommodations, such as digital access to class readings so he could
use headphones to hear the required texts. Yet when he applied to
VR, although he was immediately found eligible for services, his
case manager said she did not think he would be able to complete the
HVAC class. She was not moved by the school officials'
opinion, the young man's successful four-year employment history, or
the fact that he had a driver's license and could already perform
basic car mechanic tasks. Richardson is now trying to help the young
man find other forms of financial aid so he can enroll at TCAT. An
HVAC assistant -- the job he aspires to -- starts at about $15 an
hour, which would be a big step up from his current job where he
makes minimum wage.
Similarly, in Ohio, a VR counselor determined that a woman with
spina bifida was incapable of handling college and refused her
request for assistance.
The woman managed to cobble together financial aid from other public
agencies and got her associate's degree. Yet when she returned to
the VR office to seek help for a bachelor's degree, she was again
deemed ineligible for college. It took a lengthy appeal, but she
eventually won and got the assistance she needed. She graduated two
years later and landed a job as a social worker.
Many people with disabilities say that such bias is not only
offensive but also threatens the independence they desperately seek.
"There is still a profound ignorance about what it means to have a
disability," said Hager of the National Disability Rights Network.
"The vast majority of learning disabilities do not affect a person's
ability to handle a college curriculum."
The poverty rate for people with disabilities is 30 percent, twice
that of people without a disability. But a college degree makes a
difference.
"Underemployment is a big problem for people with disabilities in VR,"
said
Gallegos, the CAP director in Louisiana. "College can help with
that, but
it
seems like we're having to advocate much harder for everything than
we ever have before."
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It
may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from
the source.
MEREDITH KOLODNER
Meredith Kolodner is a staff writer. She previously covered schools
for the New York Daily News and was an editor at InsideSchools.org
and for The Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute. She's also
covered housing, schools, and local government for the Press of
Atlantic City and The Chief-Leader newspaper and her work has
appeared in the New York Times and the American Prospect. Kolodner
is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University's Graduate
School of Journalism and an active New York City public school
parent. She is grateful to her 11th grade English teacher who
persistently gave her Cs on essays until she finally stopped burying
the lead.
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Eligible but Got Nothing: Hundreds of Thousands of People With
Disabilities Blocked From College Aid Sunday, 25 September 2016
00:00 By Meredith Kolodner , The Hechinger Report
| Report
. font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error!
Hyperlink
reference not valid.
. Wendy Thompson always knew she wanted her son to go to college,
but she didn't realize so many people would disagree.
. Her son was born with cerebral palsy, a disease that has him using
a wheelchair, but has little impact on his academic abilities. He
graduated from high school with a Regents diploma in 2013 -- a feat
accomplished by only 18 percent of students with disabilities in New
York City that year, compared to 70 percent of students without
federal data.But when Thompson met with a counselor from the state agency that is
supposed to help people with disabilities get training or a degree
that will lead to a job, the counselor refused to sign off on her
son's plan to go to community college. That meant he wouldn't get
wheelchair-accessible transportation, tuition help or
voice-activated software from the agency -- all of which he
qualified for under federal law.
"I know too many young men with all kinds of disabilities just
sitting around at home doing nothing," said Thompson, who raised her
son on her own.
"They're not even given a chance. I didn't want that for him."
Thompson's frustration is shared by people with disabilities and
their parents nationwide.
More than 800,000 people with disabilities found eligible for
services received no assistance between 2010 and 2014, according to
more counselors."More than a dozen states failed to provide services to over 40
percent of those they themselves deemed eligible. And many more
states have left people in limbo for months, despite laws that
expressly forbid that.
"It's happening across the country, and it's inexcusable," said Ron
Hager, senior staff attorney at the National Disability Rights
Network.
This despite $3 billion in tax dollars spent last year by the
agencies responsible, known as Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)
offices. Created by the Rehabilitation Act three decades ago, VRs
are supposed to help people with disabilities become independent.
Some people need a hearing aid, for example; others require
voice-activated note-taking software or screen-readers for college.
Studies have shown that people with disabilities benefit even more
than the general public from having a college degree, in terms of
employment and getting out of poverty -- people with disabilities
with a bachelor's degree are almost 50 percent more likely to have a
job than those with just a high school diploma. Yet, while 76
percent of people with disabilities have high school diplomas, only
12 percent have college degrees.
Some VR agencies work well; counselors respond promptly to
applications and help clients further their education and secure
employment. But in many states the VR offices are understaffed,
poorly run or hamstrung by political battles. Staff turnover is
high, successful job placement is fleeting and money is spent
without significant results.
Delays in service provision were so widespread that, in 2014,
Congress mandated that a person with a disability must receive a
plan for employment within 90 days of being deemed eligible for
assistance. In 20 states, more than one-third of cases stretched
past the 90-day limit in 2015. Close to 14,000 cases stretched past
a year.
Once an applicant gets an approved plan, the next step is to get the
services -- which often takes even longer. The delays lead to missed
job and educational opportunities and longer government dependence,
all at a cost
to
taxpayers.
Part of the problem, advocates say, is high caseloads. The situation
is most severe in urban centers. The recommended caseload per VR
counselor is between 80 and 100 clients. But in the Bronx, for
example, the average caseload rose to 270 in 2016, up from 222 in
2015. The current New York statewide average is 185, according to
state officials.
"VR is an underfunded ghetto for people with disabilities," said
Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center for Independence of
the Disabled, New York. "I don't understand why, given the large
cost of maintaining people with disabilities in poverty, in
institutions, the state doesn't invest more in VR services, but I
cannot remember the last time that an increase was proposed that
would allow the hiring of
abilities.Josh Greene, who has several learning disabilities, felt the impact
of those high caseloads firsthand. He lives in the Bronx, and in the
fall of 2014,
he
was brimming with hope. He had his first appointment with a
counselor at the Bronx VR agency. He was found eligible for services
and was accepted that spring to Guttman Community College in Manhattan.
It went downhill from there. Greene has dyslexia and needed software
to help him take notes without scrambling the letters. He also
needed an audio recorder so he could listen to lectures again at
home, and some extra help with writing.
He spent 10 months emailing, leaving messages and resubmitting
forms, but
by
the following September when he started classes, he still had
received none of the academic assistance for which he had been
approved.
A spokeswoman for the Education Department, which oversees New
York's VR office, said the agency could not comment on individual
cases, but acknowledged that turnover among Bronx counselors was
about 30 percent last year.
New York isn't the only place struggling with high caseloads.
The backup in Milwaukee is so severe that it is not uncommon for
people to wait six weeks to get a first appointment to begin the
eligibility process, said Cathy Steffke, an advocacy specialist at
Disability Rights Wisconsin.
"I feel very badly for a VR counselor stuck with a [high] caseload,"
said Steffke. "Can you imagine going to school to help people and
then find out you can't help anyone?"
By law, VR caseworkers must have a master's degree, but in most
states their pay is lower than that of their counterparts at the
veterans administration or the department of education. The private
sector pays even more, so many people leave after just a few years,
passing on their cases to less-experienced counselors who already
have their own loads.
"I think more people would stay, even with lower pay, if they felt
like they had the possibility of helping people," said a recently
retired caseworker who spent close to three decades at a Wisconsin
VR office and asked to remain anonymous because he still works with
the agency. Of the 22 co-workers when he left his office less than
two years ago, only two are left, he said.
Statewide, 30 percent of casework-related staff left between 2012
and 2015, according to a state audit.
"It's a caseload issue that's basically political," said Linda
Vegoe, the director of Wisconsin's client assistance program (CAP).
State CAPs are also federally funded and were established to help
people having difficulty getting services from the VR agencies.
"They don't want to increase the number of positions."
In 2013, Governor Scott Walker became the first Wisconsin governor
in more than a decade to put up the full amount of state matching
funds for Wisconsin's VR. Walker supported moving people from
government assistance
to
work. Nonetheless, the number of counselors in Wisconsin has stayed
flat since 2012, according to a state audit, although there has been
an increase in the number of counselors in training.
State officials say that new initiatives, including one that enlists
the counselors in training to handle some eligibility-related tasks,
allowed them to successfully close a record-number of cases last
fiscal year. The Wisconsin waiting list now averages only 150 people
at a time (down from 4,900 in 2013), according to John Dipko,
communications director at Wisconsin's Department of Workforce
Development, and the agency has streamlined its intake process.
But advocates say that some of the changes have only pushed people
off the waitlists and into the system, where the waiting time isn't
tracked but has increased. "Waiting for service inside the system
takes longer than waiting on the outside," said Vegoe, who has
worked at CAP for 25 years. "The external waitlist basically became
an internal one."
High caseloads translate into delays and lack of services for people
like Amy Kerzner.
Multiple sclerosis struck Kerzner relatively late in life, making it
impossible for her to keep working as a nurse.
"I knew one thing: I would never, ever live the rest of my life on
disability," said Kerzner, 49. "I would find a way to be a
productive citizen."
She met with a VR counselor in Calumet County, where she lived, who
approved her plan to attend Alverno College in Milwaukee so she
could get training
to
become a psychologist. She moved to Milwaukee in October 2010 and
called her new caseworker there -- repeatedly. Even though the
paperwork had been transferred and she was due to start classes in
January, she couldn't get
an
appointment until March. She began the program anyway.
"He kept making appointments and canceling, not returning emails,"
she recalled.
When she finally met with the caseworker, he told her that he was
denying her request to attend Alverno. She called an advocacy
hotline, appealed the decision and won, although it took several
more months before she was reimbursed.
Kerzner graduated four years later with a GPA of 4.0 and is now
working on
a
master's degree. "Movement is painful, you ache and throb all the
time, you just get used to that level of pain," she said. "But I
will take that pain all day long, as long as I can be independent."
Wisconsin VR officials dispute Kerzner's account of her treatment.
They say they have requested but have not received permission from
her that would allow them to make the details of her case public.
Steffke says Kerzner's experience is not an anomaly.
"These people just want to work, they just want a job, they're not
asking for cars and boats and property," she said.
Yet high caseloads are not the only reason that some people leave
the system without receiving services, according to a U.S.
Department of Education spokesman. In light of a shortfall of
funding, some states have created waiting lists to prioritize the
most disabled, so clients on the waitlist who have been found
eligible for VR services but whose needs are less "significant" may
be redirected to other agencies, such as a Veterans program if the
disability occurred due to military service.
"No one wants to say it, but I'll say it: funding, funding, funding,"
Steffke argued. "There's lots of people who can get off of social
security, or at least just partial social security, but the federal
government has never dealt with this well."
Federal funding for VR has dropped by 6 percent since 2009,
accounting for inflation. And 21 states did not put up enough state
money in 2015 to get the full amount of federal matching funds.
The failure to fund is shortsighted, say advocates. Not only does a
successful job placement reduce government assistance rolls, they
argue, but when services for clients are denied or delayed, the
agency is still spending time and money on those clients.
In 2012, VR agencies around the country spent close to $365 million
on people who left the system before they completed services, and
that's up from $326 million in 2009, according to a study from the
University of Montana.
In Louisiana, 44 percent of people found eligible for services never
received any in 2014. This year, statewide budget cuts forced an
even worse crisis -- the office ran out of money and stopped taking
new clients on February 29. In addition, hundreds of people who had
been found eligible but hadn't gotten approval for their employment
plan also had their cases put
on
hold. The office reopened its caseloads on June 1, and counselors
are now wading through the backlog.
"It's had a big impact on everyone," said David Gallegos, program
director at the Advocacy Center of Louisiana who has been working
there for 17 years.
Caseloads in New Orleans are now between 150 and 200 clients, said
Gallegos, who is also the state's CAP director.
Similarly, in January 2015, Tennessee's agency also temporarily
stopped taking new clients. Although it has opened its doors again,
a state report found that 100 of the 243 positions that provide
direct services to clients were vacant last year. The result has
been caseloads of up to 200 in Knoxville and elsewhere, and many
dropped clients, advocates say.
Tennessee is actively hiring, said Devin Stone, spokesperson for the
state Department of Human Services. Stone added that over the past
four years, the agency has increased the number of clients getting
jobs each year; advocates say things have gotten worse.
People with disabilities and their advocates in many states also say
that even when applicants do get plans and see counselors, the
results are disappointing due to the counselors' skepticism about
their
Loria Richardson, a project specialist from the nonprofit advocacy
group The Arc Tennessee, said she has seen this happen on numerous
occasions. She is currently working with a young man who was
accepted at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology. He visited
the school, met with instructors and decided to enroll in its HVAC
program. School officials said it was not a problem that he had
graduated high school with a special education diploma.
They assured him that others without regular diplomas had been
successful there, and that they would work with him to provide
accommodations, such as digital access to class readings so he could
use headphones to hear the required texts. Yet when he applied to
VR, although he was immediately found eligible for services, his
case manager said she did not think he would be able to complete the
HVAC class. She was not moved by the school officials'
opinion, the young man's successful four-year employment history, or
the fact that he had a driver's license and could already perform
basic car mechanic tasks. Richardson is now trying to help the young
man find other forms of financial aid so he can enroll at TCAT. An
HVAC assistant -- the job he aspires to -- starts at about $15 an
hour, which would be a big step up from his current job where he
makes minimum wage.
Similarly, in Ohio, a VR counselor determined that a woman with
spina bifida was incapable of handling college and refused her
request for assistance.
The woman managed to cobble together financial aid from other public
agencies and got her associate's degree. Yet when she returned to
the VR office to seek help for a bachelor's degree, she was again
deemed ineligible for college. It took a lengthy appeal, but she
eventually won and got the assistance she needed. She graduated two
years later and landed a job as a social worker.
Many people with disabilities say that such bias is not only
offensive but also threatens the independence they desperately seek.
"There is still a profound ignorance about what it means to have a
disability," said Hager of the National Disability Rights Network.
"The vast majority of learning disabilities do not affect a person's
ability to handle a college curriculum."
The poverty rate for people with disabilities is 30 percent, twice
that of people without a disability. But a college degree makes a
difference.
"Underemployment is a big problem for people with disabilities in VR,"
said
Gallegos, the CAP director in Louisiana. "College can help with
that, but
it
seems like we're having to advocate much harder for everything than
we ever have before."
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It
may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from
the source.
Meredith Kolodner
Meredith Kolodner is a staff writer. She previously covered schools
for the New York Daily News and was an editor at InsideSchools.org
and for The Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute. She's also
covered housing, schools, and local government for the Press of
Atlantic City and The Chief-Leader newspaper and her work has
appeared in the New York Times and the American Prospect. Kolodner
is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University's Graduate
School of Journalism and an active New York City public school
parent. She is grateful to her 11th grade English teacher who
persistently gave her Cs on essays until she finally stopped burying
the lead.
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