6.7 Community Integration, Employment Models, and Adult Service Networks
Key Takeaways
- Objective 0011 requires knowledge of methods for identifying college, training, community, and vocational opportunities, including supported and competitive employment models, and for assessing entry-level skill requirements.
- Competitive integrated employment is the federal and Illinois presumed outcome: work in an integrated setting at or above minimum wage, at the same rate paid to workers without disabilities doing the same job.
- Supported employment provides job coaching and ongoing support inside a competitive integrated job; customized employment negotiates a job description built from a discovery process rather than from a posted vacancy.
- Employment First is Illinois policy, and Section 511 of WIOA bars subminimum wages for a youth 24 or younger unless pre-employment transition or IDEA transition services, a vocational rehabilitation application with a specified outcome, and career counseling and information and referral have all occurred first.
- A job analysis identifies the actual entry-level physical, cognitive, social, and endurance demands of a specific job, and the job-match process compares those demands to student data rather than to assumptions about disability.
The Employment Landscape and What Counts as a Real Job
Competitive Integrated Employment Is the Presumed Outcome
Federal law and Illinois policy both establish competitive integrated employment (CIE) as the expected result for youth with disabilities. CIE has three defined components:
- Competitive wages — at or above minimum wage, and at the same rate paid to employees without disabilities performing the same or similar work with similar training and experience.
- Integrated setting — a typical workplace where the employee interacts with coworkers, customers, and vendors without disabilities to the same extent as employees without disabilities in comparable positions.
- Comparable opportunity for advancement — the same access to promotion and benefits as other employees.
A sheltered workshop, an enclave of workers with disabilities inside a business, and a job where the only coworkers are other people with disabilities or paid staff do not meet the definition.
Employment Models
| Model | How it works | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive integrated employment | The individual applies, is hired, and works with the same supports available to any employee | Individuals who can meet the standard job requirements with accommodations |
| Supported employment | The individual holds a competitive integrated job with an employment specialist or job coach providing training and ongoing support, faded to natural workplace supports where possible | Individuals with significant disabilities who need on-the-job training and continuing support |
| Customized employment | A discovery process identifies the individual's specific contributions and conditions for success; a job description is then negotiated with an employer, often carved from tasks other employees do not have time for | Individuals for whom no existing posted job is a good match |
| Self-employment / micro-enterprise | A business built around the individual's skills, with business planning and support | Individuals with a marketable skill and interest in ownership |
| Group models (enclave, mobile crew) | Groups of workers with disabilities working together with a supervisor | Increasingly disfavored; not integrated, and not the presumed outcome |
| Sheltered / subminimum-wage work | Segregated setting; wages may be below minimum under a special certificate | Sharply restricted by WIOA Section 511; may not be the default plan for a transition-age youth |
Employment First and WIOA Section 511
Employment First is Illinois policy: competitive integrated employment is the first and preferred option for all working-age individuals with disabilities, including those with the most significant disabilities. Section 511 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) operationalizes it by prohibiting an employer from paying subminimum wages to a youth age 24 or younger unless the youth has first:
- received pre-employment transition services or transition services under IDEA;
- applied for vocational rehabilitation services and either been found ineligible, or been found eligible, had an approved Individualized Plan for Employment, been unable to achieve competitive integrated employment after a reasonable period, and had the case closed; and
- received career counseling and information and referral about competitive integrated employment opportunities.
The practical implication for a special educator is direct: planning a student's post-school life around a sheltered placement, without pursuing CIE first, conflicts with both federal law and Illinois policy.
Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS)
WIOA requires vocational rehabilitation agencies — in Illinois, the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) — to reserve funds for pre-employment transition services for students with disabilities who are potentially eligible, delivered in five required activity areas:
- Job exploration counseling
- Work-based learning experiences, including in-school or after-school opportunities and community-based experiences
- Counseling on opportunities for enrollment in comprehensive transition or postsecondary programs
- Workplace readiness training to develop social skills and independent living
- Instruction in self-advocacy, including peer mentoring
Special educators should know these five categories because they define what DRS can deliver while the student is still in high school, alongside programs such as Illinois's Secondary Transition Experience Program (STEP).
Assessing Entry-Level Requirements and Building Community Networks
Job Analysis
Objective 0011 asks for "the assessment of entry-level skill requirements for placements that align with individual students' needs." That is a job analysis: a systematic description of what a specific job actually requires, conducted on site rather than from a posting. It documents:
- Essential functions and the tasks that make them up, in sequence, with a task analysis of each
- Physical demands — lifting weights, standing duration, reach, fine motor precision, stamina across a full shift
- Cognitive demands — number of steps to hold, reading level of any required text, arithmetic, judgment calls, response to the unexpected
- Social demands — customer interaction, teamwork, tolerance for correction, supervision style and frequency
- Environmental conditions — noise, temperature, lighting, pace, hazards, shift and schedule
- Culture and unwritten rules — break behavior, dress, humor, and who a new employee is expected to ask for help
The last category is where placements most often fail. A student can perform every task correctly and lose the job over lunchroom norms or asking the wrong person a question.
Job Matching and Natural Supports
Matching compares job analysis data to student data — situational assessments, work samples, adaptive scales, stamina observations, transportation reality — and never to assumptions about what people with a given disability can do. Where a gap exists, the team chooses among teaching the skill, providing an accommodation, or negotiating a customized job description.
The long-term goal is always to fade paid support into natural supports: a coworker mentor, the employer's own training system, and normal supervisory feedback. A job coach who remains permanently attached becomes a barrier to the workplace relationships that keep people employed, and creates a support that disappears the moment funding does.
Postsecondary Education Options
Students and families need accurate information about what exists and what changes after graduation:
- Community college, including certificate and career-technical programs, developmental coursework, and transfer pathways.
- Four-year colleges and universities, with accommodations through a disability resource center.
- Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary (CTP) programs, inclusive postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disabilities; students in approved CTP programs may qualify for certain federal financial aid.
- Registered apprenticeships and trade programs.
- Adult and continuing education, and transition programs operated by districts for students who have not yet exited.
The legal shift is the most important thing to teach: IDEA does not follow the student to college. There is no IEP, no case manager, and no child find. Section 504 and the ADA apply, the student must self-identify, provide documentation, and request accommodations, and the institution provides reasonable accommodations rather than specially designed instruction or modified curriculum.
Collaborating with Community Members
Objective 0011 also asks about collaborating with community members to integrate students into social and learning environments. Practical strategies:
- Build a standing employer network rather than searching for a site each time a student needs one, and be the reliable partner: respond quickly, prepare students, and solve problems without leaving them to the employer.
- Prepare the setting, not only the student — brief coworkers with the student's consent on what helps, focusing on supports rather than diagnoses.
- Connect students to generic community resources everyone uses: park district programs, libraries, faith communities, gyms, volunteer organizations, and public transit training. Integration means using the same places as everyone else, not disability-specific parallel programs.
- Use a warm handoff rather than a referral list: introduce the family directly to the DRS counselor, the Independent Service Coordination agency, or the Center for Independent Living staff member before the student exits, so the relationship exists before the entitlement ends.
- Know the network: DRS for vocational rehabilitation, the Division of Developmental Disabilities and PUNS registration through an ISC agency for adult developmental disability services, Centers for Independent Living for peer support and skills training, and local workforce boards and American Job Centers for general employment services.
Which arrangement meets the federal definition of competitive integrated employment?
A student consistently performs every assigned task accurately at a job site but is at risk of losing the placement because of conflicts during breaks and because they repeatedly interrupt the wrong staff member with questions. What element of job analysis was most likely underdeveloped?
A team plans for a student with a significant disability to enter a sheltered workshop paying subminimum wages immediately after graduation, without pursuing competitive integrated employment. What is the problem under current law and Illinois policy?
A student and family expect the same case management and services at community college that the student received in high school. What must the special educator explain?