A Vocational Training Program for Students With Disabilities

Takeaways

• Pre-employment transition services are available to help disabled students prepare for and successfully transition from school to work.

• Many eligible students do not receive these services due to lack of awareness and inconsistent implementation across states.

Having a disability can pose challenges when it comes to finding — and maintaining — gainful employment.

People with disabilities have much lower labor force participation than the general population. Many disabled people in the United States want to work and increase their independence but face barriers to entry to the workplace that include a lack of career planning specifically designed for them.

Job training can help young disabled people integrate into the community and support themselves. A half-billion-dollar federal program provides funding to states that is supposed to help students with disabilities enter the workforce when they leave high school. Although these services must be made available to all disabled students, most parents — and even some school personnel — aren’t aware of them.

The program is so unknown it’s been compared to a “secret society.” Here’s your initiation into pre-employment transition services, or pre-ETS, for disabled students.

Pre-ETS Services and State Vocational Rehab Agencies

Pre-ETS are meant to help students with disabilities prepare for and successfully transition from school to the working world. These services are federally funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and provided by state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies.

The idea of transition services for disabled students has been around for decades. Federal laws like the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975 started to address the need for support as these students moved from school to adult life.

Despite these measures, a gap remained between what schools were able to provide and the specialized training, counseling, and work experiences students with disabilities need to succeed in the workplace, as evidenced by stubbornly high unemployment rates among the disabled.

While 22.5 percent of the disabled population was employed in 2023, the unemployment rate for disabled persons is about twice that of persons without disabilities. The labor force participation rate for people with disabilities aged 16 to 64 is just 40 percent, compared with 77.7 percent for people without disabilities in the same age bracket who are not in the labor force.

WIOA, passed in 2014, recognized the importance of early and focused preparation for employment. It requires VR agencies to set aside at least 15 percent of their federal funds to provide pre-ETS to qualifying students with disabilities. (The amount dedicated to these services varies by state.) However, the WIOA does not require that all students eligible or potentially eligible for pre-ETS receive them — and many don’t.

According to an article co-published by the Hechinger Report and The New York Times, in 2023, only around 295,000 disabled students nationwide—fewer than 10 percent—received some form of pre-ETS out of an estimated 3.1 million who were eligible. In some states, such as New Jersey (2 percent) and New York (5 percent), even fewer eligible students received services.

Bridging the Pre-ETS Shortfall

Experts say that many unemployed people with disabilities are capable of working. About 3 percent of those currently not participating in the labor force want a job, BLS data show. But they include what BLS calls “discouraged workers,” or those who did not actively seek work in the prior four weeks for reasons that include a lack of schooling or training.

WIOA mandates five “required” activities through state VR agencies, such as job exploration counseling and counseling on postsecondary education opportunities, for students with disabilities.

Pre-ETS may begin once a student requests, or is recommended for, one or more services, and documentation of a disability is given to the state VR agency. Services may be provided in-school, but depending on the state, students are often referred to an outside service provider.

The Hechinger Report article describes parents who say their disabled child could have benefitted from pre-ETS but either didn’t know about them or received incorrect information about them.

For example, a counselor at a state VR agency told one mother that her child wasn’t eligible until he turned 18, when most states allow students to start receiving pre-ETS as early as age 14. Another mother said she only found out about pre-ETS via word of mouth and a friend’s Instagram post. She likened the lack of information and outreach surrounding these programs to a “secret society.”

The Hechinger Report describes the valuable but underutilized pre-ETS program as a “disjointed” and “confusing bureaucratic maze” that leaves “tens of thousands of students without services.”

How to Get Pre-ETS for Your Disabled Child

Your child may already be receiving career transition services that are considered special education. Pre-ETS provided by your state’s VR agency may not be available to them if they are getting comparable services from their school.

Students with disabilities aged 14 to 21 who are enrolled in school are generally eligible for pre-ETS, but eligibility criteria and the referral process may vary slightly from state to state, so check with your state VR agency. You can also talk to your child’s school counselor or special education teacher about how to access vocational rehabilitation services.

If your child is eligible, request a referral to the VR agency from the school. Familiarize yourself with the five core pre-ETS services: job exploration counseling, work-based learning experiences, counseling on postsecondary educational programs, workplace readiness training, and self-advocacy training.

A good place to start is the PACER National Parent Center on Transition and Employment, where parents can find more information about pre-ETS and other resources focused on helping youth with disabilities transition to adulthood and employment.

Parents may worry that working will affect their disabled child’s eligibility for government benefits such as disability payments through Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). This is a legitimate concern, but there are programs — including the Ticket to Work Program — that allow people on SSDI to work without losing their benefits. Some states also offer Medicaid buy-in programs for disabled workers.

With the right training and planning, students with disabilities can be set up for postgraduation success. A local special needs planner can help you explore pre-ETS and other available resources.