National Council on Disability

An independent federal agency making recommendations to the President and Congress 

to enhance the quality of life for all Americans with disabilities and their families.

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Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization 

National Council on Disability 

March 23, 2010 

TOPICAL BRIEF: Performance Indicators 

ISSUE 1: Reporting of employment outcomes of people with disabilities using 

One­Stop services

Recommendation:

Congress should require One­Stop Career Center partners to initiate collaborative 

data sharing and program evaluations to monitor, analyze, and annually report to

Congress regarding client employment outcomes during the three years 

following One­Stop case closure. 

Summary of Concern:

The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) 911 data system does an excellent

job of documenting the services provided to people with disabilities served through the 

federal/state vocational rehabilitation system, as well as the employment outcomes 

achieved by these individuals at the point of vocational rehabilitation closure. However,  RSA does not systematically collect post­closure employment information that would 

enable Congress to judge the long term success of the program. Neither do any other

workforce partner agencies. Utilization of earnings data, collected over a three­year

period after One­Stop service provision has ended, would be a more accurate and valid 

measure of service efficacy than a current case closure rate. Administrative data sets 

maintained by the Department of Labor (DOL) or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

contain the long range employment outcome data necessary to perform an analysis of 

long­term employment outcomes. This would be especially important for transitioning

youth who use VR funds for post secondary education to determine the increase in 

wages earned after graduation. Also, for people with disabilities who pursue selfemployment through the use of VR or other One­Stop partner agency funding, having a

three­year period to show increased earnings would allow for a more realistic period for

business start­up.

ISSUE 2: Reporting outcomes and costs of VR services for individuals served

multiple times over a period of time
Recommendation:

Congress should direct RSA to change its key performance indicator from the 

current case or closure model of outcome reporting to an individual client model 

of reporting that takes into account the amount and cost of ALL services

provided to an individual client over his or her lifetime. 

Summary of Concern:

The key performance indicator within the federal/state vocational rehabilitation system is 

the individual case closure. Outcomes and costs of service are evaluated at the 

individual case level, as opposed to the client level. As a result, the key performance 

measure for the program does not capture instances where an individual may be 

closed, or served multiple times, over a period of several years. Research exists to

indicate that in many instances, the majority of services provided to individuals may be 

delivered after the individual’s initial closure in the program. As a result, the overall 

amount and cost of services may be significantly underreported. For example, an

individual receives $2,500 in services during an initial period of service (closure) from

the vocational rehabilitation system, however, this same individual may subsequently 

receive one or more additional periods of services over the next several years. In the

current system, each of those periods of services would be counted as a new case, not 

an additional period of service for the same individual, thereby underreporting the 

amount and cost of service provided. The vocational rehabilitation program would be 

better served by using the individual, as opposed to the case, as the key performance 

indicator for the program. This would allow program administrators and Congress to 

obtain a more accurate view of the total outcomes and costs of services.

ISSUE 3: People with disabilities are underrepresented in One­Stop client data 

Recommendation:

Congress should require the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to

initiate data sharing agreements with the Social Security Administration (SSA) ,  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and RSA to determine the 

extent to which One­Stop Center clients are accessing other federal benefit,  health care, and employment services. 

Summary of Concern:

People with disabilities are not required to disclose their disabilities to establish eligibility 

for One­Stop Career Center Services core services. Data reveal that these individuals 

continue to be underrepresented in the overall One­Stop service population, but there is 

no way of knowing the accuracy of data currently collected when individuals choose not 

to disclose their disabilities. In the absence of a valid and reliable self­reported disability 

variable, DOL should explore alternative ways to determine the number of people with 

disabilities accessing and benefiting from One­Stop Center services. One approach is to

determine the extent to which individuals receiving services through the One­Stop

Center are accessing other services that require documentation of a disability as a 

requirement for program eligibility.
The National Council on Disability wishes to express its appreciation to Dr. Beth Bader

and Dr. John Kregel of Virginia Commonwealth University for their assistance in 

developing this brief.