Applications are now being accepted for the MYTransitions Project Web Site Steering Committee. Montanans are needed from the following groups: youth with disabilities, family members, teachers, service providers, tribal entities, Vocational Rehabilitation, Developmental Disabilities, and any other person/organization interested in ensuring the web site continues to address the issues of transition.  The committee meets four times per year by conference call. Applications are due January 15, 2013. (The mission of the MYTransitions Project is to create partnerships of Montana youth with disabilities, families, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies devoted to improving the quality of life for youth with disabilities by creating a seamless system of support through the transition process from high school to adult life.) 

The Montana Youth Transitions website features two new videos created by the Great Falls Regional Transition Committee.

The 2013 Montana Youth Leadership Forum (MYLF) will be held in Helena July 22-26. MYLF is a career and leadership training program for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors with disabilities. Delegate Applications, Staff Applications, and the Call for Presenters are posted on the MYLF website. 
 

Montana Vocational Rehabilitation/Blind and Low Vision Services conducted a series of public hearings on many of the Reservations during the summer of 2012. The discussions and comments of three of the hearings are summarized at MVR/BLV Documents in the Public Hearing Comments Section.

The Montana Disability Employment and Transitions Division invites public comment on the Vocational Rehabilitation Services State Plan and the State Plan for Independent Living. Comments may be provided using the division's website.

The Annual Report of the State Rehabilitation Council  [PDF] covers the recommendations and achievements of the Montana Vocational Rehabilitation Council, as well as the accomplishments of Montana Vocational Rehabilitation/Blind and Low Vision Services and other programs within the family of rehabilitation.

The LEAD Center is a new collaborative of disability, workforce and economic empowerment organizations led by the National Disability Institute with funding from ODEP. The center "is dedicated to advancing sustainable individual and systems level change to improve competitive, integrated employment and economic self-sufficiency for adults across the spectrum of disabilities." In addition to sharing best practices and policy solutions, the center will also provide training and technical assistance to the public and private sector players striving to fully integrate people with disabilities into the workforce. The LEAD Center recently published the first issue of its e-newsletter, which includes an article describing the center's planned work with the TASH Collaborative (TASH, Lisa Mills, Marc Gold & Associates, and Griffin & Hammis) on training and technical assistance around group discovery, customized and self-employment, and the bundling and braiding of resources.

Freelancing from home can be a viable employment option for workers who need flexibility. Megan Totka, the Editorial Director of ChamberofCommerce.com blogs about Working from Home: How to Get Started as a Freelancer.

The VR Autism National Advisory Panel has designated three additional employment programs as effective in providing supports to people with ASD. Triumph Services, Project SEARCH, and ACN Connections each demonstrated success in helping people with ASD find competitive employment. The Vocational Rehabilitation Service Models for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders website provides profiles of the programs.

The Workforce Recruitment Program database is a recruiting tool for employers that contains profiles of postsecondary students, recent graduates and veterans with disabilities.

Prevocational Services and Supported Employment Wages [PDF] by Zafar E. Nazarov, Thomas P. Golden and Sarah von Schrader, shares the findings of a study investigating the relationship between the receipt of prevocational services and subsequent hourly wages in supported employment programs. The researchers found a negative correlation between prevocational services and hourly wages of consumers, suggesting that prevocational services may have a detrimental effect on earnings due to providers' and consumers' expectations of consumers' work ability and productivity and employers' impressions of consumers' productivity.

The AAPD Summer Internship Program is now accepting applications from undergraduate and graduate students or recent graduates that self-identify as persons with any type of disability. For ten weeks, participants live in Washington, DC, work in either the public or private sector, and receive a stipend. Applications are due January 11, 2013.

Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity [PDF], a new Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, sounds the alarm that overall youth employment is at its lowest level since World War II, and 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are both out of school and out of work. A number of recommendations are offered to help connect youth and young adults to the workforce.

Don't Forget the Soft Skills - Employment Success Requires More than Just Opportunity describes soft skills and why they are essential. The blog post also provides links to videos showing what the six key soft skills look like in practice.

According to Best Jobs for the Disabled by Kyle Kensing, healthcare employers offer the best access to careers for people with disabilities of any industry. Job growth in healthcare has risen steadily even during tough economic times, and that growth is predicted to continue.

The Autism Advantage, an article from The New York Times Magazine, describes a Danish company with a unique approach to helping kids with autism transfer to employment.

America's Health Rankings for 2012 is now available online. The report includes Montana rankings for a variety of core health measures, including obesity, diabetes, air pollution, high school graduation, immunization coverage, occupational fatalities, binge drinking and more.

Comparison of Healthcare Experiences in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey [PDF], a study by researchers with the Academic Autistic Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE), including community partners from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), found that Autistic adults reported more unmet healthcare needs, more frequent use of the emergency department, less use of preventative services, lower satisfaction with provider communication, and less comfort in navigating the healthcare system or managing their health.

The Kaiser Family Foundation website offers a number of resources related to the deficit reduction debate and how Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs might be affected.

The Supreme Court ACA Decision: What Happens Now for Adolescents and Young Adults? [PDF] is an issue brief from the Center for Adolescent Health & the Law. The brief summarizes the current health insurance status of adolescents and young adults, discusses key elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) and how they will impact young people, and highlights implementation choices still to be made by the federal government and the states.

The Mathematica Policy Research 2012 Research in Review provides an overview of several studies and analyses from the year. Some of the reported findings include:

• Younger (under 40) SSI awardees are much more likely than older awardees to leave the SSI rolls because of work
• Certain youth summer jobs programs have the potential to reverse the decline in youth employment
• The cost-effectiveness and outcomes of Individual Job Training Accounts could be improved through changes to local workforce training programs

The Department of Education is requesting public input [PDF] on the future direction of the Rehabilitation Training Program. "The Department will use the information and data gathered in response to this notice to support the design and implementation of future training and TA that is aligned with the current and future economic trends, reflects the needs of vocational rehabilitation (VR) consumers and ensures that VR counselors are equipped with new and emerging skills. The goal of these training and TA activities is to increase the achievement of high-quality integrated employment for individuals with disabilities." Comments are due by January 7, 2013.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Participation Among College Students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder reports the results of a study that analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2. Among the findings:

• Young adults with an ASD who attend college are most likely to pursue majors in science, technology, engineering or math
• Young adults with an ASD have one of the lowest overall college enrollment rates of youth with disabilities
• Certain life skills (such as the ability to adapt to changes in routine and exposure to new and larger social dynamics) appear to be important in order for youth to transition from high school to college

Longitudinal Statistics for New Supplemental Security Income Beneficiaries [PDF]  presents findings from a longitudinal analysis of new SSI disability beneficiaries and the extent to which they returned to work and used SSI work incentives. Reported findings include:

• More than 8 percent of those first awarded benefits in 2001 had their benefits suspended due to work for at least a month by December 2007
• A substantial share of SSI beneficiaries receives Social Security Disability Insurance (though their initial DI and SSI awards may come at different times) (Editor's note - these individuals may qualify for a Plan to Achieve Self-Support, a Social Security work incentive.)
• Young beneficiaries were much more likely to work than older awardees
• The longitudinal statistics varied widely across states

The Work Experiences of New SSI Beneficiaries: A Longitudinal Perspective [PDF]   is an issue brief from the Center for Studying Disability Policy. Two key findings of the longitudinal analysis are that many beneficiaries work without having their SSI benefits suspended, and approximately 80 percent of benefi­ciaries who find work and forgo cash benefits never enrolled in SSA-funded employment services.

In a December 6^th news release [PDF], the Commissioner of Social Security announced 35 additional Compassionate Allowances conditions, which allow for expedited disability determination processing. 

Secondary Students with Moderate/Severe Intellectual Disability: Considerations of Curriculum and Post-School Outcomes from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 [PDF]   by E. C. Bouck and published in the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research (vol. 56, no. 12, 2012, pp. 1175-1186) reviews the findings of a secondary analysis of the NLTS2 data related to curriculum and educational programming, as well as the relationship between curriculum and post-school outcomes,  for students with moderate/severe intellectual disabilities. The analysis showed low student-reported rates for post-school outcomes (independent living, employment and post-secondary education) and that functional versus academic curriculum was not related to the post-school outcomes.

Are you interested in your state's high school graduation rates? The Department of Education recently released state-by-state graduation data [PDF] for the 2010-2011 school year. The information is broken down by subgroups, including students with disabilities.

The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, in partnership with the USBLN and other organizations, has launched a newly reorganized Youth to Work Coalition website. The site houses resources organized across eight work-based learning experience categories: career exploration, job shadowing, job sampling, service learning, internships, apprenticeships, paid employment, and mentoring.