By Gina Macris

The state of Rhode Island has already met or surpassed the 2018 supported employment goals for adults with developmental disabilities who were in sheltered workshops or segregated day programs when a federal civil rights consent decree was signed more than four years ago.

But it appears the state will not meet a looming Sept. 30 employment deadline for young people seeking adult services for the first time; specifically, 426 individuals who left high school special education programs between 2013 and  2016.

The prospect of the missed deadline – itself a two-year extension of the original -  suggests a lack of underlying funding, if not for specific employment–related services, then for the entire package of supports that newcomers usually seek when they look for an adult service provider.

For years, representatives of the three dozen private agencies reimbursed by the state Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) have told legislators that the amounts they are paid do not cover the actual costs of providing services.

Taking on new clients often means taking on additional debt, they have testified.

To be sure, DDD has pressed forward with reforms on a number of fronts, most prominently a program of enhanced reimbursement rates to private providers for supported employment services and performance payments for job placement and retention. The program was launched in January, 2017. 

 One agency that extended itself to embrace the new program, because officials believed it was the right thing to do, nevertheless ended the year with debt in that account in the high five figures, according to several sources.

In January of this year, the rules were relaxed to allow agencies to spend from the supported employment program to look for jobs for clients already on their caseload, providers have said.  

In 2018, young adult participation in the performance-based employment program  “has not significantly increased despite the increase in available funds for this population,” according to a second quarter report from the state to an independent court monitor in the consent decree case. The report has been obtained by Developmental Disability News.

The General Assembly initially allocated a total of $6.8 million in federal-state Medicaid funding that financed the supported employment program from January, 2017 through June, 2018, but more than half the money was not spent. At the end of June, BHDDH was scheduled to return to the state about $4.1 million, according to a House fiscal report.  State revenue accounts for about $2 million of the total.

As of June 30, a total of 231 young adults were employed, a figure that slightly exceeds the requirement that 50 percent of “youth exit” members have part-time jobs by that date.  

But it has taken the state four years to reach the half-way mark as it works toward the consent decree goal of full employment for young adults, leaving only three months to find jobs for the remaining half of the “youth exit” population – nearly 200 individuals. 

By comparison, the state has found part-time jobs for a total of 334 adults in segregated day programs – more than double the target for Jan. 1, 2019. In addition, 203 individuals who once worked in sheltered workshops now work in the community.  Those placements slightly exceed the 200 the consent decree requires by New Year’s Day.  (Taken together, the employment figures in the various categories do not include 18 clients whose past placements count toward consent decree goals but who no longer receive state services.)

Among all those who got jobs through the supported employment program, 81 percent have remained employed for at least six months, according to the state.

The state also closed its last sheltered workshop, at the John E. Fogarty Center of North Providence, in the second quarter of the year, according to the state’s report. All participants moved either to competitive employment or day programs, a DDD spokeswoman said.  

While the supported employment program is only about jobs, young adults seeking a service provider for the first time tend to want something else that is more comprehensive, particularly since they work only an average of about 14 hours a week, according to the state’s figures.

They and their families generally want one provider to give them an array of work and non-work supports that take into account all their needs and preferences.

Some choose to bypass a service agency altogether and manage their own program of services, hiring staff and arranging schedules while a fiscal intermediary pays the bills from a funding authorization approved by the state.  Self-directed individuals have reported difficulties getting services from the supported employment program.

Of about 500 so-called “self-directed” individuals and families, it’s not clear how many run their own programs by choice and how many first sought and could not find an agency to provide services appropriate to their needs. The number of self-directed programs has grown in the last few years, by all accounts. In all, about 3,700 adults receive services funded by DDD.  

The impetus for the supported employment program came from an order issued in May, 2016, by  U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., who presides over the case.

But the supported employment program now in place does not address basic funding mechanisms for adults with developmental disabilities, which, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, incentivize a segregated system of day services. The DOJ criticized both the funding and regulatory structures in the 2014 findings that laid the groundwork for the consent decree.

During the past year, BHDDH has engaged providers, families and advocates in an effort to rewrite DDD regulations, with an eye toward giving consumers of services and their providers greater flexibility to individualize programs and help meet the “integration mandate” of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which the consent decree is meant to enforce.

The proposed changes were submitted late in 2017 to the Office of Regulatory Reform – part of the Office of Management and Budget – but the draft regulations have not yet been posted for public comment on the website of the Secretary of State. 

Kevin Savage, the licensing administrator at BHDDH, said August 21 he expects the Office of Regulatory Reform to complete its work and release the regulations any day.

The federal court monitor in the case, Charles Moseley, has often expressed concern about teenagers and young adults with developmental disabilities because, without appropriate supports, they are at risk for a life of isolation once they leave high school.

The 2014 consent decree originally required the state to find jobs for all members of the young adult, or “youth exit” category,  by July 1, 2016. When the deadline arrived, however, only 29 individuals had jobs in a group that, at that time, numbered 151. 

After the monitor,  Charles Moseley, ordered the state to make sure it counted all young adults who met eligibility requirements for adult services under state law, the size of the “youth exit” population ballooned. It is now 426.

McConnell, the presiding judge, extended the employment deadline for all young adults to 2018. He required half of them to have jobs by June 30 – a goal that has been met – and the remaining 50 percent to find work by Sept. 30.

Going forward, the state said in its report, DDD is planning amendments to contracts with providers to use unspent supported employment money from the first half of the year, as well as other strategies to improve service to the young adult group.

One promising initiative, say state officials, is a cooperative agreement involving the Department of Labor and Training (DLT) and as many as 11 providers of developmental disability services, the Sherlock Center on Developmental Disabilities at Rhode Island College, and the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council to forge relationships with business and generate at least 77 new jobs. The Business Innovation Factory will provide enhanced technical assistance for the overall project, financed through workforce development funds administrated by DLT.

DDD also raised the possibility that some young adults may ultimately choose not to work, a decision that must be documented in a “variance” to the state’s Employment First policy for adults with developmental disabilities. Employment – and the variance process – will be discussed at a public forum Sept. 11 at the East Providence Senior Activity Center, 610 Waterman Ave., East Providence, on Sept. 11.