Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated 

Employment for Individuals with Disabilities

(ACICIEID)

Minutes from Fifth Meeting

August 10, 2015

The fifth meeting of the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment 

for Individuals with Disabilities (“ACICIEID” or “the Committee”) was called to order by 

Committee Chairman David Mank at 1:02 p.m. on Monday, August 10, 2015. 

The meeting took place on a virtual platform at http://bitly.com/ACICIEID2. Through the virtual 

platform the public were able to view the presentations and hear the discussion.

The following members were present: 

Self-advocates for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities: 

 Patrick Hendry, Mental Health America 

 Karen McCulloh, McCulloh and Associates 

 Santa Perez, People First of Nevada 

Providers of employment services, including those who employ individuals with intellectual or 

developmental disabilities in competitive integrated employment: 

 Brian Itzkowitz, Goodwill Industries of Arkansas Inc. 

 Christine McMahon, Fedcap 

Representatives of national disability advocacy organizations for adults with intellectual or 

developmental disabilities: 

 Ruby Moore, National Disability Rights Network (Proxy for Alison Barkoff)

 Ari Ne’eman, Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Experts with a background in academia or research and expertise in employment and wage 

policy issues for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities: 

 Valerie Brooke, Virginia Commonwealth University 

 David Mank, Indiana Institute on Disability 

Community representatives from the employer community or national employer organizations: 

 Oswald (Oz) Mondejar, Partners Continuing Care 

 Jim Brett, The New England Council 
Other individuals or representatives of organizations with expertise on increasing opportunities 

for competitive integrated employment for individuals with disabilities: 

 Cesilee Coulson, Washington Initiative for Supported Employment 

 Sharyn Hancock, Workforce Essentials, Inc. 

 Rita Landgraf, Delaware State Department of Health and Social Services (by Phone)

 Lisa Pugh, Disability Rights Wisconsin 

 Fredric Schroeder, Interwork Institute at San Diego State University 

In addition, the following Federal officials were present: 

 Jennifer Sheehy, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy 

at the U.S. Department of Labor 

 Portia Wu, Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration at the 

U.S. Department of Labor 

 David Weil, Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of 

Labor

 John O’Brien, Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 

 Laura Fortman, Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. 

Department of Labor (participated for a portion of the meeting when David Weil was 

not available.)

 Sharon Lewis, Principal Deputy Administrator, Administration on Community Living 

(Commissioner of the U.S. Health and Human Services/Administration on Intellectual 

and Developmental Disabilities’ designee) 

 Janet LaBreck, Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration at the U.S. 

Department of Education 

Introductory Remarks/Administrative Updates 

Committee Chairman David Mank called the meeting to order at 1:02 p.m. and thanked the 

members of the Committee for their important work on the interim report of preliminary 

recommendations. Then, Chairman Mank facilitated self-introductions by the members present

and noted that Alison Barkoff and Steve Pemberton weren’t able to attend the meeting and 

that Ari Ne’eman and David Weil would join the meeting later that day. He provided an 

overview of the structure of the meeting which would consist of a high level summary of each 

subcommittee and a brief discussion on each subcommittee chapter recommendations. 

Chairman Mank acknowledged that more than 2000 emails have been received from the public 

in response to the Committee’s work. Some of these letters expressed concern regarding the 14 

(c) program and the AbilityOne discussion as well as general support for the work done by the 

Committee to date. He emphasized that these comments would be accessible to the committee 

members.

Jennifer Sheehy explained that today’s meeting would be an opportunity for Committee 

members to submit technical changes to the interim report. Then, the interim report will be 
submitted to the Secretary of Labor and Congress on September 15th. The public will have the 

opportunity to provide feedback and present testimony during the October 14 – 15, 2015 

meeting. Ms. Sheehy thanked the public for their on-going engagement.

Chairman Mank reminded the Committee that the purpose of the meeting is to move forward 

with the interim report. The interim report reflects the discussions to date and the ideas that 

have so far been developed. In the next year, the interim report recommendations will be 

refined, consolidated, prioritized, and reconsidered before being finalized. The charge of the 

Committee is to consider ways to increase competitive integrated employment opportunities 

for individuals with intellectual or development disabilities and/or other individuals with 

significant disabilities; the use of certificate programs carried out under Section 14(c) of the Fair 

Labor Standards Act for employment of individuals with IDD or other individuals with significant 

disabilities, and ways to improve oversight of such certificates. 

Full Committee Discussion of Transition Subcommittee Chapter 

Chairman Mank summarized the charge of the Transition subcommittee which included

increasing opportunities for early work experiences for all youth with disabilities, increasing 

nationwide opportunities for postsecondary education for youth with significant disabilities, 

addressing family expectations at early ages, creating seamless transition and systems 

integration, and policy and funding for transition across related federal agencies; and improving 

professional supports and incentives by improving school and provider competencies and 

providing technical assistance to states.

Valerie Brooke noted that they had over 24 recommendations. Early work experience and the 

transition systems integration area were focused on the most during their deliberations. Lisa 

Pugh added that they also talked a lot about access to career pathways and the role that the 

American Job Centers.

Chairman Mank turned the discussion over to the full Committee and called on John O’Brien to 

explain a technical concern he had with recommendation #21. Mr. O’Brien stated that the state 

Medicaid agency is responsible and not CMS. However, he agreed with the direction of the 

recommendation. Portia Wu suggested that in recommendation they don’t say the same 

orientation as all students attending PSE since most students attending postsecondary 

education don't get any of that. Ms. Sheehy noted that in recommendation 18 would require 

congressional action which is a statutory issue. Ms. Sheehy also mentioned the need to include 

HHS in recommendation 19 on assistive technology. Janet LaBreck also emphasized the 

importance of listing specific programs within agencies when discussing oversight issues.

The Interim Report Chapters may be accessed on the meeting agenda webpage at 

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/date/20150808.htm
Full Committee Discussion of Complexity Subcommittee Chapter

The Charge of the Complexity subcommittee includes aligning policies and practices to prioritize 

competitive integrated employment across federal agencies, providing opportunities for people 

currently in segregated work and non-work day programs, addressing real and perceived 

disincentives to employment caused by concerns about loss of healthcare benefits and/or cash 

benefits, addressing systemic low expectations around employment, improving accountability, 

and ensuring quality to the development or a uniform definition and uniform requirements for 

collecting data and outcome measures at federal and state levels. 

Ruby Moore noted that their subcommittee spent time untangling the complexity of the 

funding structures across entities and made some very practical suggestions around creating 

incentives for competitive integrated employment. They also stressed some very specific 

recommendations around starting early with youth. Ms. Moore remarked that their 

subcommittee members have both policy and operational experience which had been helpful 

in drafting the interim recommendations. 

Mr. O’Brien had one technical note for recommendation #1 which would require a statutory 

change.

The Interim Report Chapters may be accessed on the meeting agenda webpage at 

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/date/20150808.htm

Full Committee Discussion of Marketplace Subcommittee Chapter

The charge of the Marketplace subcommittee includes changing the narrative about hiring 

people with significant disabilities, creating a sustainable culture of inclusion and diversity 

through business to business communications, building better business partnerships between 

businesses, providers of employment services, and government programs, addressing training 

issues, as well as addressing the complex issues of transportation in urban, suburban and rural 

America.

Karen McCulloh explained that their subcommittee looked at ways businesses could enhance 

the opportunity to employ people with significant disabilities, the need for better quality 

services, and building better business partnerships under American Job Centers and workforce 

development boards. She also noted the importance of public input in drafting the interim 

recommendations.

Ms. Sheehy remarked that recommendation #7 and #8 would require statutory change. Cesilee 

Coulson also noted several similarities between Marketplace and Capacity Building’s interim 

recommendations and the need to collaborate more moving forward. Then, Ms. McCulloh 

emphasized the importance of having disability awareness training in one centralized online 

location.
The Interim Report Chapters may be accessed on the meeting agenda webpage at 

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/date/20150808.htm

Full Committee Discussion of Building State and Local Capacity 

Subcommittee Chapter

The charge of the Building State and Local Capacity subcommittee includes, emphasizing 

expanded use of waiver programs for competitive integrated employment, aligning and 

improving data systems on outcomes, promoting and funding innovations in new and existing 

provider organizations, creating and funding professional development to improve provider 

competencies, and providing funding for provider transformation. 

Ms. Coulson explained that most of the subcommittee’s time has been devoted to defining 

what you remodel and what you build to build capacity in the future. They anticipate spending 

more time in the coming months on defining what we mean by having states have some 

development money and flexibility around innovation and designing and defining what capacity 

building means for them as well going forward.

Mr. O’Brien offered some technical edits including differentiating between CMS and Medicaid 

program responsibilities. He also noted that in the recommendation on expanding the use of 

HCBS waiver funds would require statutory change. 

The Interim Report Chapters may be accessed on the meeting agenda webpage at 

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/date/20150808.htm

Full Committee Discussion of 14(c) Chapter

Chairman Mank explained that the Committee formed two ad hoc committees, one on 14(c), 

subminimum wage certificate program, and number two on AbilityOne which includes a 

compilation of all four subcommittee recommendations. 

The Chapter on 14 (c) subminimum wage certificates includes the need for better data on the 

use of this program and its outcomes, improving monitoring and oversight of the program,

aligning the use of the program with modern federal disabilities policies, considering a welldesigned phase-out as a result of increasing competitive integrated employment, providing 

technical assistance to states and providers to reduce the use of the program, and addressing 

concerns about unintended consequences by ensuring quality alternative. 

Chairman Mank called on Laura Fortman from Wage & Hour to explain their technical edits. Ms. 

Fortman noted that Wage & Hour has not been participating in the subcommittee drafting in 

order to ensure the integrity of the subcommittee process but that they are happy to offer 

technical edits to the interim report. First, she suggested that the Committee be more specific 

when using the following terms: center-based, facility-based, and sheltered workshop. In 

regards to SWEP Certificates, Ms. Fortman noted the importance of understanding how SWEP 

and CRPs are used and remarked that several recommendations would require statutory 
changes and were beyond the purview of the Wage & Hour Division. She also mentioned that a 

list of certificate holders is available on the Wage & Hour website.

The Interim Report Chapters may be accessed on the meeting agenda webpage at 

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/date/20150808.htm

Full Committee Discussion of AbilityOne Chapter

The AbilityOne chapter focused on, amending the act to align with modern federal disability 

policies, emphasizing inclusion of people with significant disabilities along non-disabled peers in 

competitive integrated workplaces, creating an expectation that AbilityOne programs establish 

competitive integrated employment as the expected and priority outcome, improved oversight, 

and improving data systems.

Ms. McCulloh thanked the Committee members who worked on this chapter for their hard 

work in a short period of time. She called on Fred Schroeder to elaborate on the purpose of the 

chapter. Mr. Schroeder explained that nearly $3 billion in non-competitive federal contracts go 

to facilities that employ individuals with disabilities. Their ad-hoc subcommittee tried to find 

ways to leverage that enormous buying power from the federal government to promote 

integrated competitive employment for people with disabilities. Mr. Schroeder noted that this 

is not a criticism of the work, but that the model perpetuates segregation of people with 

disabilities. 

Ms. Sheehy stated that they haven’t received any technical edits to date on this chapter but 

that they will consider any submitted prior to the dissemination of the interim report. 

The Interim Report Chapters may be accessed on the meeting agenda webpage at 

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/date/20150808.htm

Closing Remarks and Next Steps

Ms. Sheehy explained that they will forward the comments to the policy team before finalizing 

the interim report. Once the report is finalized, the report will be sent to David Mank, the Chair, 

who will submit it officially on September 15th, 2015 to the Secretary of Labor. In addition,

ODEP will ensure the report is hand-delivered and electronically send it to the members of the 

relevant House and Senate Committees in Congress.

Ms. Sheehy reminded the Committee that he next meeting will take place on October 14th and 

15th, 2015 in Washington, D.C. She noted that the public will have the opportunity to submit 

comments and provide public testimony at the October meeting. Further, she added that the

public will have an opportunity to submit written comments prior to the October meeting.

After Ms. Sheehy finished speaking, Dr. David Weil, the Administrator of the Wage and Hour 

Division, announced that he had joined the meeting.
Chairman Mank reminded the Committee that the changes made today were technical in 

nature and that the substance and direction of the interim report would not change before 

being finalized. Chairman Mank then asked the Committee members whether they would like 

to move forward with the interim report as it was presented today. In response, none of the 

Committee members objected to moving forward with the Interim Report.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:41 p.m.

Certification

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and 

complete.

_________________________

ACICIEID Chairman David Mank