Developmental services: competitive integrated employment.

(1) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the capacity to provide transition services to individuals with exceptional needs and requires those transition services to include, among other things, systematic and longitudinal vocational education curriculum that includes instructional strategies that will prepare pupils with severe disabilities to make a successful transition to supported employment and the community. This bill would instead require those instructional strategies to prepare pupils with severe disabilities to make a successful transition to competitive integrated employment or supported employment. (2) Existing law requires the State Council on Developmental Disabilities to form a standing Employment First Committee to, among other responsibilities, identify strategies and recommend legislative, regulatory, and policy changes to increase integrated employment, self-employment, and microenterprises for persons with developmental disabilities, as specified. Existing law also establishes the Employment First Policy, which provides that opportunities for integrated, competitive employment be given the highest priority for working age individuals with developmental disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disabilities. Existing law defines "integrated employment" and "competitive employment" for these purposes. Existing federal law, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, provides federal funding to states that provide rehabilitation and vocational services to individuals with disabilities in accordance with guidelines established pursuant to the act. Existing state law establishes the Department of Rehabilitation in the California Health and Human Services Agency to provide vocational rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities. Existing law requires an individualized written rehabilitation program to be developed for each individual who has been determined to be eligible for these services and requires the individualized plan for employment to, among other things, include placement in integrated settings to the maximum extent appropriate. This bill would replace inconsistent terminology with the term "competitive integrated employment" and define "competitive integrated employment" for these purposes.