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As the effects of the economic recession continue to trickle down, state budget cuts are affecting the education of college students with disabilities. Here in Georgia, the state’s Vocational Rehabilitation (Voc Rehab or VR) department cut out payment for summer college courses and for transportation and personal care services related to attending college in the summer months. We wait to see if more cuts will follow and we know some other states are in even tighter binds.
So this is a good time to explain to prospective college students how Voc Rehab works, how it helps and how it sometimes limits its clients’ choice of colleges. Unless a student with a disability is the recipient of some impressive scholarship assistance or is able to finance her college education herself, chances are that she will rely on at least some of the services offered by her state’s Vocational Rehabilitation agency. Established by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, VR is funded at the state and federal level. The purpose of the act, which is laudable, is to “empower individuals with disabilities to maximize employment, economic self-sufficiency, independence, and inclusion and integration into society.” Always bear in mind, however, that the bottom line at VR is going to be focused on getting the client employed. If VR finances your education, it will be in order to get you a job, not for the love of learning.
And VR programs do help students with career counseling, vocational assessment, assistive technology evaluation, vocational training, financing of college, transportation and more. VR counselors usually begin working with people a couple of years before the client’s high school graduation or when they become disabled, if that happens later in life.
Because VR is a mixed bag of state and federal funding, each state has its own VR program. If you have a disability and need VR’s financial assistance to attend college, this state-by-state approach can work against you. An example of this can occur if you have chosen a private or out-of-state college to attend because many state VR agencies set specific limits on the amount of funding they will provide. Often these limits will include paying your tuition if you attend a school in your own state. But if you don’t, they will pay only the amount out-of-state that an “equivalent” in-state school would charge. They decide what is “equivalent.” Henry Ford used to tell customers they could have a Model T in any color as long as it was black. Voc Rehab tells clients they will help them go to the college of their choice as long as it’s in the state where they live.
A real world example should make clear why this is a problem. Let’s suppose a student lives in Georgia (actually one of the more liberal states when it comes to funding out-of-state education) and wishes to attend Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Edinboro is one of the schools which provide dormitories with 24-hour personal care, van transportation for wheelchairs, wheelchair repair, meal aides, independent living training, and many other services needed by students with disabilities.
Our hypothetical student will find that, while Georgia VR will pay for many of the special services, books, meals, and housing, they will pay tuition only at the level of what they refer to as a comparable school in Georgia. The Catch-22 here is, of course, that only four schools in the entire US provide the types of services available at Edinboro and none is in Georgia. So there are no truly comparable schools in Georgia from the perspective of someone looking for a disability friendly college. But the VR will select a school with somewhat similar degree programs and say that the school is comparable, ignoring the obvious fact that if a comparable school existed, the student with a disability would probably not choose to travel 800 miles from home to study the very same thing.
Now while this poses problems for those Georgia college students with disabilities, and does nothing to encourage Georgia to provide these services to her own residents, most states are even less helpful to students with disabilities. There are, too, a very few which seem to be quite helpful. So sometimes, whether you can attend the disability-friendly school of your choice out-of-state depends entirely upon what state you happen to live in right now and what their VR tuition policy covers. Not exactly the American Dream in action. Next time: How Does Your State VR Rate?
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