Alice L. Farrar, MS, CRC, is the Program Specialist for Transition Services with the North Carolina Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Alice graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor's Degree in Special Education and Master's Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling and Vocational Evaluation. After a short tenure as a special education teacher, she began working with the North Carolina Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in the capacity of vocational evaluator, counselor and later, Counselor-in Charge in both the Durham and Raleigh School Programs. Alice has experienced all facets of the rehabilitation process to include work in not only the state agency, but a community rehabilitation program and in the private rehabilitation sector as well. Alice has 24 years of experience in the rehabilitation profession; she brings expertise, commitment, and an excitement for serving the transition population.

VR and Transition in North Carolina

Based on an interview with Alice Farrar, MS, CRC, Program Specialist for Transition Services, NC Division of Vocational Rehabilitation

North Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation is not under an Order of Selection, so counselors can offer a wide variety of services to individuals with a wide range of needs...including transitioning youth 16-22 years old. (If a 15-year-old is at risk of dropping out of school, VR may assist the student but will not take a formal application until he or she turns 16.) While young adults receiving VR transition services are typically still attending high school, Transition Counselors may serve youth who are no longer enrolled in school. 

North Carolina has 111 Transition Counselors and 91 third-party agreements with school systems. Under the agreements, the schools provide 21% of the funding and VR provides the remaining 79%.   Most school systems make office space available for the Transition Counselors, generally in their administrative buildings but sometimes in the schools. (While ideally all the counselors would be collocated in the schools, this is impractical given staff numbers - the largest system has 9 Transition caseloads - and given the dearth of available space in many schools.) In those areas where no third-party agreement is in place, the VR Manager assigns a VR Counselor to serve students.

Each school system has its own take on transition services, but the common and overarching goal is for students to have employment before they exit school. Collaboration is considered a focus and VR staff can be found participating on Interagency Transition Teams and Special Education Advisory Teams, as well as working closely with teachers and Special Education staff. Typical services offered to transition-age students include:

·          Counseling and Guidance

·          Vocational Assessments: both paper-and-pencil and community-based assessments are used. North Carolina is not yet doing Discovery.

·          Career Exploration

·          Post-secondary Learning Accommodations

·          In-school Work Adjustment: this is for students on the occupational track who need paid and unpaid work hours to graduate. They can earn an $80 monthly stipend for up to 18 months as an incentive to continue working on their soft skills. Their time in the program counts toward their required unpaid work hours.  Counselors meet with the students monthly to talk about what went well that month, what didn't go so well, and what they need to focus on in the month ahead.

·          Work Adjustment/Job Coaching:  VR funds Community Rehabilitation Providers to offer these services to students no earlier than six months before their exit year of high school. It must be included as part of the student's Individual Plan for Employment.

·          Supported Employment: This is also through the Community Rehabilitation Providers and must be part of the student's IPE. Supported Employment can be accessed 18 months prior to the student's exit year.

·          Project SEARCH: Two areas of the state are entering into the second year of a pilot for this program. So far, four Project SEARCH students have been placed.

The State of North Carolina has three university programs and several community college programs for students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (ID/DD). VR supports students in the community college programs, which cost $178 per semester and are typically through compensatory or continuing education departments. Currently VR is piloting support of a two-year program at Western Carolina University for students with ID/DD.  Financially-eligible students receive VR funding for tuition, fees, room and board, and other postsecondary expenses.  VR supports eight students, four in year one and four in year two. The university program is in its fourth year and VR has supported students for the last two years. To date, two VR-funded graduates have become employed. VR is in the process of creating a Memorandum of Understanding to support up to 50 students in a four-year university program. The MOU will include clearly defined outcome expectations for student success and employment outcomes.

North Carolina VR boasts a number of strengths, including active communication and marketing in schools, resulting in high volume and appropriate referrals. In-school Work Adjustment is proving to be a great way to "rope kids in" to what VR can offer. The "dual customer" approach to job placement, involving a coordinated effort between all VR and CRP staff, consumers and employers, is effective at achieving successful closures.    

One area where coordination and collaboration could be improved is with the Transition Counselors across the state.  They don't currently have a forum, even regionally within the state, where they can come together to learn, share, troubleshoot and brainstorm. As this need is addressed and best practices are shared throughout North Carolina, transition services will undoubtedly continue to expand and improve. (Editor's note: the Southeast TACE Transition Services Network can provide a forum for information sharing between Transition Counselors. Please visit the website for more information.)

Transition:

The Institute for Community Inclusion has received grant funding for the Vocational Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (VR-RRTC) On Demand-Side Strategies, a national rehabilitation research and training center for improving VR responsiveness to employer needs. The project is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

In celebration of its 10^th anniversary, Benefits.gov has launched a YouTube channel. Currently the channel is featuring a tutorial for using Benefit Finder, a confidential pre-screening tool. 

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