Hawaii Administrative Rules › Title 17 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES › Department of Human Services › Chapter 401.1 - VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION SERVICES › Section 17-401.1-26 - Occupational licenses, tools, equipment, and initial stocks and supplies

Current through June, 2024
(a) The division may provide an applicant in
				a trial work experience or extended evaluation, or an individual determined
				eligible for VR services with an occupational license, tools, equipment,
				initial stocks, and supplies for employment or self-employment, consistent with
				the individual's needs and, as appropriate, the individual's informed choice in
				accordance with section 17-401.1-12, when necessary to determine the
				applicant's eligibility for VR services or when necessary for the eligible
				individual to achieve an employment outcome.
(1) "Occupational licenses" are any license,
				permit or other written authority required by a state, city, or other
				government unit to be obtained in order to enter an occupation or a small
				business such as a chauffeur license, food service license, realtor license, or
				business license.
(2) "Tools" shall
				be limited to those types needed or required by the VR applicant or eligible
				individual during training or for entry into employment and customarily
				required for the job and normally possessed by workers in the same or similar
				trade or profession. Special tools may be provided in cases where they are
				required by the individual to perform normal tasks because of the individual's
				disability or functional limitations.
(3) "Equipment" refers to pieces of
				occupational fixtures normally found in places of business for use in carrying
				out the requirements of the particular business and which are needed to provide
				for an efficient operation.
(A) Generally,
				equipment includes apparatus, machinery, and appliances that are usually of a
				stationary nature during the time of use.
(B) Equipment which have no connection with
				the actual functions of a business, trade, or profession but are required
				because of the nature of the individual's disability may be provided.
(C) "Shelter" to house a self-employment
				business venture is included as equipment if customarily furnished by an
				operator of a like undertaking, occupying premises under a short-term lease.
				Shelters which are normally portable, easily dismantled, moved, and reassembled
				with a minimum loss of value, are differentiated from buildings, which are
				excluded as rehabilitation service to individuals based on permanency of
				structure.
(D) Automobiles, trucks,
				vans and other like vehicles shall not be considered as equipment.
(4) "Initial stocks and supplies"
				may be provided only to individuals entering self-employment.
(A) "Initial stock" includes the initial
				inventory of merchandise or goods necessary for direct resale or for further
				preparation for direct resale either on a wholesale or retail basis.
(i) The amount of such goods to be provided
				as an initial stock shall be determined by the amount considered necessary to
				enable the individual to initially open business. When a turnover of the
				primary operation stock occurs, the individual should have adequate income to
				replenish the depleted stock for the first time in addition to having the
				necessary income to meet daily living needs.
(ii) The initial purchase of livestock
				necessary for the establishment of a base stock of animals or the purchase of
				initial supplies of seed, fertilizer, fuel, and other supplies for a farming or
				agricultural self-employment venture may be provided as a rehabilitation
				service.
(B) "Supplies"
				are expendable items necessary to enable the individual to carry out the
				day-to-day operations of the self-employment business and are consumed on the
				premises such as:
(i) Stationery, pencils,
				pens, stamps, and other office supplies for a business office;
(ii) Soap, shampoo, hair tonic, and other
				barber supplies for a barber shop; and
(iii) Wrapping paper, string, stationery, and
				other supplies for a retail store.