Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program (EFSLMP)

Report: Promoting Competitive Integrated Employment through MOU's and Other Interagency/Departmental Agreements

Cooperative Agreements

Pennsylvania: Data Sharing to Support Best Practices in School to Individual Competitive Integrated Employment

Pennsylvania offers a template for a regional or localized Agreement to share student data between the Local Education, the Administrative Entity, the County Mental Health/Intellectual Disability administrative entity, and the District Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in order to facilitate and expedite the effective transition of students from school to individual Competitive Integrated Employment. The intent is to align their efforts with the policies and mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (the Rehab Act), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Olmstead Decision, and the Pennsylvania State Employment First Policy. The sharing of data facilitated through this agreement in intended to reduce redundancy of effort in sharing information with the Parties, and to enable the flow of pertinent information to families and caregivers of students as staff from the Parties reach out to students and families to assist in service delivery, and to relay important time sensitive information.

Tennessee: Two-Party Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs)

Tennessee Division of Rehabilitation Services and Division of Health Care Finance & Administration, Bureau of TennCare, Division of Long Term Services and Supports

This MOU is in place to facilitate joint agency efforts related to the provision of employment services for persons enrolled in Employment and Community First CHOICES. CHOICES is a managed long-term services and supports program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities that offers home and community-based services focused on helping individuals achieve their employment and integrated living goals. The MOU strives to ensure that each agency provides those services to common customers in coordination with the other to ensure efficient use of resources and effective delivery of services.

Iowa: Vocational Rehabilitation Services and Iowa Department of Human Services

The purpose of this MOU is to establish a statewide system of coordinated employment services to commonly served individuals, maximize available resources of the respective agencies, and to clarify roles and responsibilities. The MOU identifies intent and parameters for data sharing and joint training of staff. The agreement is predicated on the jointly stated belief that all individuals with disabilities should be provided with vocational service options that prioritize Competitive Integrated Employment.

Super MOUs

Michigan: School-to-Work Transition

The purpose of this MOU is to specify the joint and individual state agency responsibilities for interagency collaboration so that students with disabilities exit school with Competitive Integrated Employment and/or connections to post-secondary education that leads to employment. Data sharing, coordinating mutual service provision, pursuing service innovation, and coordinating joint resource acquisition are among the focus areas included. Parties to the agreement include: Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, Michigan Bureau of Services to Blind Persons, Michigan Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Administration, Michigan Workforce Development Agency, and Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council.

Ohio: Employment Services

This MOU is between Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency, Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, and Ohio Department of Medicaid. The purpose is to improve Competitive Integrated Employment outcomes by regular sharing, multiple joint guidance documents, and joint technical assistance and training. It spells out roles for outreach and identification of individuals with developmental disabilities enrolled, or eligible for enrollment, in a home and community-based services waiver administered by the Department of Developmental Disabilities. It also reinforces the intent to ascribe to the tenets of Employment First.

Missouri: Employment First

This MOU reflects the implementation of the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program in the state. It focuses on shared training and information sharing so that the collaborating entities work in coordination to promote Competitive Integrated Employment for individuals with disabilities in the state who are served by multiple publicly funded employment and related services. The parties to the agreement include: Missouri Department of Mental Health, Divisions of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities; Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Adult Learning and Rehabilitation Services; Missouri Department of Economic Development, Division of Workforce Development; and Missouri Department of Social Services, MO Healthnet Division and Rehabilitation Services for the Blind.