(from the Rehabilitative Services Commission weekly newsletter FOCUS)

Note: The Autism Society of Ohio meets quarterly with Administrator Miller and this issue has been part of all of our discussions.  Happy to see that this is being addressed!

We had a great meeting at RSC this week with a team
from the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) led by
state Superintendent Stan Heffner. RSC and ODE are
teammates in the mission of assisting young people
with an individualized education plan to a successful
transition from school to work with an individualized plan
of employment. This joint mission is underlined by the
fact that our federal funding source, the Rehabilitation
Services Administration (RSA), is an agency of the U.S.
Department of Education. RSC BVR Deputy Director Susan Pugh and CFO Marc
Protsman recently spent time in Iowa, where the state
Vocational Rehabilitation Services Department receives
credit for spending on vocational rehabilitation for
students with Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) through
the state special education budget, enabling a federal
match from the RSA. Since Ohio RSC is millions of
dollars under our federal allocation of funds for lack of
matching dollars to draw down the funds, this is a high
priority opportunity for us.

If Ohio followed the same model, one dollar from
ODE funded local school special education budgets,
connected to creation of Individual Plans for
Employment (IPE’s) would allow RSC to draw $3.69
in matching federal funds from the RSA. Because a
successful school to work transition is the key launching
students with disabilities into a life of independence
through the self-sufficiency a job provides, this is a top
priority for RSA.

We have written to the RSA, notifying them of our
intention to partner like Iowa as a means of drawing
their matching dollars and have outlined some of the
collaboration on school to work we believe qualifies
for this draw down of our federal allocation of funds.
Moreover, we are exploring other projects we could take
directly to local schools, with the assistance of the ODE,
which would also qualify for the RSA matching funds.
I will detail the specifics of our joint program when we
have settled on the ideas that we want to develop. But,
the plan to partner with ODE and with local schools to
make the $610 million Ohio Special Education budget a
source of dollars that can draw the RSA match is even
more exciting than the specifics of the program we start.