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We evaluate the impact of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services on employment outcomes of adults with physical disabilities. Using detailed panel data from the Virginia Department of Aging and Rehabilitation Services in state fiscal year 2000, we estimate a structural model of participation that accounts for the potentially sudden onset of physic...
Citations
... The descriptive results from this article suggest that accounting for cross-state heterogeneity in client characteristics, services, and agency structure will be critical in order to draw credible inferences on the effect of vocational rehabilitation on labor market outcomes for people with visual impairments. Dean et al. (2015Dean et al. ( , 2017Dean et al. ( , 2018 and Schmidt et al. (2019) provided a modeling strategy that might be used to estimate the ROI for vocational rehabilitation for clients with visual impairments. Clapp et al. (2019) discussed the difficulties with performing a credible ROI analysis that provides causal effects of vocational rehabilitation services. ...
... As described previously, the literature evaluating vocational rehabilitation clients with visual impairments documented significant associations between employment and a wide range of demographic, health, and vocational rehabilitation agency-specific measures. More generally, the labor economics literature (e.g., Aakvik et al., 2005;Baldwin, 1999;Dean et al., 2015Dean et al., , 2017Dean et al., , 2018andStern, 1989, 1996) found a set of similar explanatory variables (e.g., demographics, education, health) that almost always has a significant effect on both employment and quarterly earnings. Most of the variables identified in these literatures are included in our data. ...
... A final explanatory variable is a pre-2007 employment indicator. Preservice employment and earnings played a critical role in the Dean et al. (2015Dean et al. ( , 2017Dean et al. ( , 2018 and Schmidt et al. (2019) ROI evaluations of vocational rehabilitation programs for clients with other impairments. The fraction of clients employed in at least one-quarter preapplication is similar for clients in all three states at around 52%. ...
Introduction
This study describes the characteristics of, services received by, and labor market outcomes of applicants with visual impairments to three state vocational rehabilitation programs. Our objective is to both document cross-state variation in vocational rehabilitation clientele and services and provide new insights on the longitudinal labor market outcomes of clients with visual impairments (i.e., blindness or low vision). This analysis is a first step in assessing the returns to vocational rehabilitation services for this population.
Methods
We first created a unique longitudinal data set by matching administrative records on applicants who are visually impaired in state fiscal year 2007 from three vocational rehabilitation agencies to 8 years of employment data from state Unemployment Insurance programs. Using these data, we examined cross-state variation in the descriptive statistics for important client explanatory variables and vocational rehabilitation service categories. We then compared the long-term labor market outcomes of clients receiving services (treated) to untreated individuals.
Results
We documented two important findings. First, there were substantial differences in client characteristics, services provided, and costs across the three states. Second, the long-run labor market analysis was consistent with vocational rehabilitation services having no employment effect but a positive earnings effect.
Discussion
Labor market results indicate vocational rehabilitation services provided persistent earnings benefits. Yet the substantial cross-state heterogeneity suggests these labor market results might not be generalizable and should be interpreted with caution. We explain what was missing from this analysis and why the results should not be thought of as causal.
Implications for Practitioners
This article gives practitioners a sense of a unique new data set on vocational rehabilitation and labor market variables for applicants with visual impairments. We highlight the importance of cross-state variation and linking vocational rehabilitation data to long-term employment measures. The question of how best to inform the efficacy of different vocational rehabilitation strategies for clients with visual impairments is left for future researchers to consider.
... 3 While the short-run impacts of transitioning youth programs are certainly important, there are good reasons to think that the shortand long-run e¤ects may di¤er. Long-run evaluations of intensive employment training for other at-risk populations -similar in many respects to the human capital development services provided transitioning youth with disabilities -imply di¤erent and, in some cases, much greater employment impacts in the period four to six years after assignment than in the initial three-year study period (Couch, 1992;Friedlander and Burtless, 1995;Hotz et al., 2006;Dean et al., 2015Dean et al., , 2017Dean et al., , 2018. This is especially true for transitioning youth where there is "considerable uncertainty about the persistence of training e¤ects" (Hotz et al., 2006). ...
... As such, PERT participation enters the model in three distinct ways: a direct e¤ect on employment and earnings, an indirect interaction e¤ect with schooling, and an indirect interaction e¤ect with VR services provided by DARS. To do this, we incorporate PERT in a modi…ed version of the Dean et al. (2015Dean et al. ( , 2017Dean et al. ( , 2018) multivariate discrete choice model where VR services are endogenously selected and allowed to have a direct e¤ect on labor market outcomes. Importantly, this structural approach allows us to account for the complex interactions between PERT, schooling and VR, to model the endogenous selection of VR and PERT services, and to fully assess counterfactual scenarios. ...
... This "slot constraint" is associated with the PERT participation probability but arguably uncorrelated with unobserved labor market factors. In addition, following Doyle (2007), Maestas et al. (2013), and Dean et al. (2015Dean et al. ( , 2017Dean et al. ( , 2018, we instrument for VR service provision using the propensity of an individual's VR counselor and …eld o¢ ce to assign clients to services. As discussed below, these counselor/…eld o¢ ce variables are related to VR service provision but have no direct e¤ect on labor market outcomes. ...
The process of “transitioning” to adulthood for youth with disabilities has long been recognized to be an important but understudied public policy concern. This paper evaluates the labor market effects of Virginia's school-to-work vocational evaluation program, PERT. Using a unique panel data set containing more than a decade of labor market and service information, we provide the first-ever assessment of the long-term employment impacts of a transitioning program for youth with disabilities. Overall, the estimated effects are substantial: PERT has an estimated median quarterly rate of return of nearly 30%.
... The signi…cant changes are in education which increases by 0:476 years of schooling, transportation availiability (0:068), # dependents (0.086), the prevalence of mental illness (0:110), and the mix of disability severity which changed from providing services to more clients with moderate, not signi…cant disabilities in 1988 to almost all clients with signi…cant or most signi…cant disabilities in 2000. 13 This latter change is most likely in response to the federal RSA mandate to serve persons with more signi…cant disabilities. In fact, starting in 2000, RSA performance standards established in the 1998 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required state agencies to serve certain minimum percentages of their caseloads with sig-ni…cant disabilities. ...
... ed by censored data, the selection problem, and unaccountedfor heterogeneity among clients and in the services provided. An evaluation of Utah's VR program, for example, found that the public bene…ts of the program, measured in dollars, exceed the cost by a factor of 5:64 (Wilhelm and Robinson, 2010). As in Dean et. al. (2013aDean et. al. ( , 2013bDean et. al. ( , 2013c, our analysis of the Virginia VR program addresses important limitations of these recent studies by evaluating a long panel of labor market outcomes before and after the provision of services; by formally accounting for the possibility that selection into the treatment is endogenous; by focusing on clients with a speci…c limitation, nam ...
... The disability severity measures work as expected: the more signi…cant the disability, the larger the negative e¤ect it has on both labor market outcomes.The measure of local labor market employment rate has a counterintuitive sign. In fact, inDean et al. (2013aDean et al. ( , 2013bDean et al. ( , 2013c, we have consistently found no meaningful e¤ect for local labor market conditions. ...
This article utilizes administrative data to examine both short- and long-term employment impacts for people with cognitive impairments who applied for vocational rehabilitation services in Virginia in 2000. These data provide long-term quarterly information on services and employment outcomes. We model behavior, allow for multiple service choices, use long-run labor market data, and use valid instruments. Results imply that services generally have positive long-run labor market outcome effects that appear to substantially exceed the cost of providing services.
Purpose:
Stable employment is essential for the health, psychosocial, and financial well-being of people with physical disabilities (PwPD). Unfortunately, the low employment rate for PwPD in the U.S. exposes them to adverse effects of unemployment, including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and physical pain. Helping PwPD find gainful employment will improve their general health and well-being. However, few empirical studies examine factors affecting the employment outcomes of PwPD. This study aims to examine the relationship between demographic covariates, vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, and employment outcomes of PwPD.
Materials and methods:
This secondary data analysis study includes 17,598 PwPD from the U.S. Department of Education's Rehabilitation Services Administration's Case Service Report (RSA-911) dataset. Our analysical approach was hierarchical logistic regression analysis.
Results:
For VR services, workplace support, technology support, job placement assistance, and VR counseling significantly contribute to predicting employment outcomes for PwPD. Even after entering VR services, the demographic variables (age, race, education, referral sources, low-income, long-term unemployment, and disability significancy) were still significant predictors of employment.
Conclusions:
Findings from this study can be used by state VR counselors and other disability service providers to plan and select effective employment-related interventions to improve the employment outcomes of PwPD.
In this study, we look at the experiences of rehabilitees participating in a work trial and their perceptions on seeking and planning vocational rehabilitation. We focus on how seeking and planning rehabilitation progresses, the content of the rehabilitation plan and how rehabilitees participate in and cooperate with various actors involved in the process. This study is the first part in a wider research project based on interviews with rehabilitees in which we follow the interviewed rehabilitees in the different stages of and after the completion of their rehabilitation process. The data of the survey consists of 30 semi-structured theme interviews. The interviews were conducted in the spring of 2023 with rehabilitees who had received a rehabilitation decision for a work trial in February and March that year (weeks 7–13) and whose rehabilitation was about to begin.
BACKGROUND: An important factor embedded within Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) delivery capacity relates to geography, such as distance from the VR office and availability of service providers or community rehabilitation programs. OBJECTIVE: We explored receipt of VR job search and placement services based on distance to an urban center, demographic, and disability variables after controlling for local employment conditions. METHODS: Using 2015 RSA-911 case services data, we used probit to produce estimates for each combination of service and service source (agency and purchased), and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and semi-parametric regression to estimate log expenditures for each service category. RESULTS: Being Black or living at a long distance from a metro area increased the probability of receiving agency-based services but lowered the probability of receiving purchased services. Conversely, being older and having less education lowered the probability of receiving agency services but increased the probability of receiving purchased services. Females, Blacks, and those living at a distance greater than 50 miles from a metro area received significantly lower expenditures. CONCLUSION: Systematic differences in the types of services provided call for more in-depth analysis to ensure that policies and procedures are in place to minimize sociodemographic disparities in service delivery and outcomes.
Using administrative data from Maine to quantify the effect of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services on employment outcomes for transition‐age youth with disabilities, we exploited the variation in VR counselors’ propensity to develop Individualized Plans for Employment (IPEs) for VR youth as an instrument for service receipt. We found that among the estimated 36 percent of VR clients on the margin of service receipt, having an IPE implemented increases quarterly employment rate by 15.4 percentage points and quarterly earnings by $1,442 (2018 dollars). We found heterogeneous program effects with individuals 18 or younger benefiting significantly more than those older than age 18 at the time of VR application. We estimate the annual real rate of return to be 10.2 percent for two years after VR case closure. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
