The state program charged with integrating Minnesotans with disabilities into the mainstream workforce has quietly placed more than 1,000 people on indefinite waiting lists, the result of a surge in enrollments that could imperil new state efforts to expand disability hiring.
In addition, Minnesota's Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program has rationed services for hundreds of clients and could be forced to turn away new applicants as it struggles with a looming financial shortfall and new federal workforce mandates.
State officials have projected that, without millions of dollars in new funding, the program could reach capacity by late 2017 and then would be forced to cease providing services for new enrollees.
Those most affected would be young people with significant disabilities just out of high school, who are starting to transition into mainstream jobs, say vocational experts. Many would be left to fend for themselves in a state labor market regarded as unfriendly to people with disabilities, a population whose jobless rate is slightly more than twice that of the general population.
"Our credibility is at stake," said Kim Peck, the state's director of vocational rehabilitation services. "Our staff didn't sign up to put people on waiting lists."
Closing services for new enrollees, in Minnesota's only state-funded vocational program for people with disabilities, could also hamper new efforts by the administration of Gov. Mark Dayton to improve their integration into the broader community. An ambitious plan of integration, approved by a federal judge last year, calls for state agencies to move nearly 20,000 people with disabilities into the competitive labor force by mid-2020, while expanding vocational services for young people.
Attaining those goals will be difficult without a fully functional vocational program. Founded nearly a century ago, VR employs nearly 200 job counselors and placement specialists with deep connections to businesses across the state. Each year, it helps about 3,100 clients obtain jobs in the mainstream workforce, while providing thousands more with on-the-job skills training, assistive technology and other services.
'Only show in town'
Though little known outside government circles, the vocational rehabilitation program has long been viewed as cost effective. For every $1 in public money spent, participants earn $8.90 in wages, according to a state study that tracked 7,943 clients from 2003 to 2011. The federal government covers most of the cost, allocating nearly $4 for every $1 spent by the state.