<p> 1 Regional Distribution of Vocational Rehabilitation Reallotment Funding 2 Discussion Paper 3 4 Background 5 On September 29, 2017, TWC received $33M in Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2017 Vocational 6 Rehabilitation (VR) reallotment funds from the U.S. Department of Education’s Rehabilitation 7 Services Administration to offset Hurricane Harvey costs. Since these are FFY 2017 funds, they 8 must be expended in FFY 2018 as agencies are federally required to expend each VR grant 9 award within two years. 10 11 Issue 12 TWC must determine how to distribute these funds in a manner that will prioritize use of these 13 funds to assist current, former and new VR customers in the impacted areas. TWC estimates 14 serving approximately 1,000 new VR customers, including dislocated workers with disabilities, 15 who need VR services to maintain or regain employment. More than 16,200 current VR 16 customers reside in the 41 federal disaster declaration counties impacted by Hurricane Harvey. In 17 addition, in Fiscal Years 2014 – 2017, VR services assisted just over 16,100 former customers 18 residing in these counties to achieve their employment goal. 19 20 TWC VR staff contacted current customers during the month of September to gather initial 21 information on the degree of the kinds of services customers who were affected by the disaster 22 might need. Based on the information gathered from this process, TWC estimates that an 23 estimated 3200 current, former (successfully closed) and new customers were impacted by the 24 disaster. Collectively, they need approximately 6,800 services. However, there are important 25 caveats to this estimate: 26 27  As of September 30, TWC was only able to reach 68% of the current customers. If the 28 32% that TWC VR staff could not reach is not representative, of customers who were 29 most significantly impacted, then this estimate of services needed could be low. 30 31  In addition, Texas is still in the early weeks following the disaster, making it more 32 difficult to discern the VR needs of those who were impacted as many of our customers 33 are focused on meeting basic needs such as housing, transportation and food. 34 35 Staff estimated the full cost for potential new customers using the average cost for a successful 36 closure. To arrive at a recommendation for an initial distribution to field offices, staff used the 37 information gathered from the 68% of current customers responding to staff outreach efforts and 38 extrapolated those results to the former customers. Staff estimated full or partial costs, based on 39 the nature of the good or service, for VR goods and services that may be needed to assist those 40 customers with achieving their employment goal. For example, a lost or damaged piece of 41 assistive technology equipment is likely to require full replacement, while only certain Supported 42 Employment (SE) services may need to be repeated rather than all SE services. Based on this 43 information, staff recommends an initial distribution of $16.2M to the four regions within the 44 federal disaster declaration area. 45 46</p><p>DP- Regional Distribution of Vocational Rehabilitation Reallotment Funding Page 1 of 2 Agenda Items: 11/07/17 Commission Meeting 1 Distribution Decision Points 2 Staff proposes to distribute funds to the impacted regions based upon the proportion of current, 3 former and new customers that are projected to need services and the estimated number of 4 services that will be needed by each customer. Based on this information, staff recommends an 5 initial distribution of $16.2M to the four regions within the federal disaster declaration area as 6 follows: 7 Proposed Regional Distribution of VR Basic Support Funds Estimated # of Estimated # of Regional Customers Impacted Services Distribution Region 3 (Central 38 65 $203,972 Texas) Region 4 (East Texas) 666 1,303 $2,764,669 Region 5 (Gulf Coast) 1,659 3,265 $8,909,643 Region 6 (South 846 2,133 $4,348,215 Texas and the Valley) Totals 3,209 6,766 $16,226,500 8 9 The 15% reserve requirement for pre-employment transition services also applies to the federal 10 reallotment funding, which means that TWC must reserve and expend almost $5M of the $33M 11 on the provision of those services to students with disabilities. 12 13 Staff recommends retaining the $5M in pre-employment transition services funding and the 14 remaining $11.8M in VR Basic Support funds, and distributing these funds to the regions as they 15 demonstrate a need for additional funding or based upon the development and implementation of 16 additional strategies approved by the Commission.</p><p>DP- Regional Distribution of Vocational Rehabilitation Reallotment Funding Page 2 of 2 Agenda Items: 11/07/17 Commission Meeting</p>