In part one of this blog, we pointed out that sometimes, whether you can attend the disablity friendly school of your choice out of state depends entirely upon what state you happen to live in right now. This is because many, if not most, state Vocational Rehabilitation (Voc Rehab or VR) agencies will pay full tuition only within that state. If a student decides to go out of state to college VR will likely have a payment policy based somehow on what they would pay for the student in their home state. (If this sounds confusing, refer to the example in the previous blog, about a Georgia student attending school in Pennsylvania.)

So, how does your state stack up? To help students determine how lucky they are in the state they call home, we surveyed every state VR office in the country, contacting them via the “contact us” box on their websites. This is certainly no substitute for working with one’s own Voc Rehab counselor, but it may give a better idea of the questions to ask when talking with her. Remember, it is the student’s home state that in most cases determines how much of the cost of college VR will subsidize. And each state has different rules. We asked three questions: 

• Does your agency pay tuition, school fees, housing, and meals at approved state, private, or out-of-state post secondary schools?
• Does your agency pay the fees, etc. that the other state charges, or only what they would pay for in-state fees? Do you make exceptions?
• Does your agency make exception for a case where a student wants to attend an out-of-state school, to which he has been accepted, which provides services unavailable in your state, such as personal care, van service and wheelchair repair as is provided at schools like Edinboro and Wright State universities?

We contacted 49 states and the District of Columbia in this survey. as the preceding example illustrated, we already had intimate knowledge of the VR system in Georgia, because we reside there. Of the 49 states contacted via the “contact VR” box on their website, only 29 responded at all.  Let’s set aside, for the purposes of this survey, the implications of the failure of 20 states to even respond to a question directed to their contact box. Out of the 29 that did respond, four refused to answer the questions, three referring us to a local counselor. New Jersey indicated they had forwarded our request to someone at the state office, but no one ever responded.

Of the 25 states left that actually answered the questions, all said they do payments for out-of-state tuition. However, most said they encourage in-state education for students with disabilities, when feasible. Based upon their responses, the 25 states rarely pay for all of one’s out-of-state courses, fees, and other expenses. Most say they pay tuition only at the level of what one would pay in state. A few (Iowa and South Carolina are two) have a fixed scale (say $1850 per semester). Most say they will look out of state only if the “training” or academic program isn’t available in state. Get used to that “training” terminology. Because their focus is on getting a paying job, they are likely to refer to education as training, whether a student is studying to be a cosmetologist, psychologist, or nuclear physicist.

• Missouri said it is all very “individual.”
• Montana said “you must choose the school the department determines is most cost effective.” But Montana will consider a “nationally recognized program designed and staffed for persons with significant disabilties” for “cost of tuition.”
• Maryland said they pay for personal care services “if required.”
• Oklahoma said they consider “if severity of disability precludes use of in-state schools”
• Rhode Island said it pays at RI state level unless in-state choice “denies a necessary service.”
• The state of Washington said it pays at the in-state rate except in “special circumstances (such as deafness) that requires a specialized school.”
• Wisconsin said “based on disability an out-of-state school may be more appropriate.”

• Add New
• Search

Comments (2)

• |174.252.136.xxx |2011-08-09 13:05:14 Denise
  My young son has a C2 incomplete Spinal Cord Injury. We live in the state of Florida. Unfortunatly for us, Gov. Rick Scott is making it very difficult to get any type of financial help as far as providing him with an education or any type of support system. Given we live in the Palm Beach Area, it's saddening when one drives by thousands of multi-million dollar mansions yet there never seems to be any money left over for the disabled. My son is eligible for OVR, however when we turn in the necessary documents, there is always and excuse why the "money didn't come through". The disabled are the ones who don't have the physical means to get up and fight as they struggle each day just to get out of bed. Sad to think, but it appears they are the easy target. The old saying goes, "the squeeky tire gets the oil." Lets support each other and fight for the disabled. If we don't, programs will continue to be cut, I've seen it here in Florida.
  • 5
  • 0

  Reply | Quote

• |69.134.46.xxx |2011-11-05 17:27:22 Richard  - school gets paid twice from me and the GOV
  I am a student in DEVRY and using VR to help pay for my education. I am in a situation that I have to pay the school for my classes and VR is paying for my classes in full. There must be a policy that I can look up to find how should the school should be paid if you are under VR. If anybody can help me out please do.
  
  thanks
  Richard
  • 0
  • 1

  Reply | Quote

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Website:

Comment:

Title:

UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge

Message:

Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta1

!joomlacomment 4.0 Copyright (C) 2009 Compojoom.com . All rights reserved."