The transition exploration demonstration (TED) will be a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an employment intervention for youth with disabilities who are transitioning into the adult workforce

Compared to their peers without disabilities, fewer work or enroll in postsecondary school many of them enroll in public welfare and disability programs and often go on to receive disability benefits as adults.mathematica, the pennsylvania office of vocational rehabilitation (OVR), and the university of marylands center for transition and career innovation (ctci) have collaborated to develop the TED intervention. In brief, a transition explorer (TE)a specially trained OVR counselorwill deliver enhanced services in addition to those from a standard OVR counselor. The TE will help the youth formulate clear career objectives. If the youths career goals are consistent with enrolling in an intensive training program such as job corps, TES will connect the youth to those programs. TES will also proactively refer youth to other employment services needed to achieve their career goalswhether provided by OVR or external partnersand to non-employment supports and services. By fostering close connections with external partners and with the social security administration (SSA), the TED will promote systems change and reduce service fragmentation. This change will help referrals, coordination, and data sharing between programs become routine. The TED will enroll about 700 youth with disabilities who are ages 16 to 24, live in philadelphia, and have never had an open case with OVR. Half will receive enhanced services from a TE (the treatment group), and the other half will be eligible for standard OVR services (the control group). Outreach and recruitment efforts will prioritize assisting youth from underserved communities, recruiting primarily among youth who have received pre-employment transition services from OVR and those who have individual education programs (ieps) or 504 plans with the school district of philadelphia. About 87 percent of students with ieps in the district are non-white and 71 percent are economically disadvantaged. The proposed demonstration addresses four of ssas priorities. IT aims to (1) eliminate structural barriers in the labor market that lead to youth with disabilities, including those from underserved communities, applying to federal disability programs (2) promote self-sufficiency and independence through improved employment outcomes (3) improve administration and effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation (VR) for youth with disabilities by coordinating planning between OVR and external partners and (4) conduct outreach to children with disabilities who might be eligible to receive supplemental security income (SSI).the TED builds on strong evidence from a variety of sources. For example, job corps provides extensive and comprehensive work-focused education, training, and employment supports to transition-age youth. Analysis of RCT data from the national job corps study found job corps increased earnings by 30 percent and reduced SSI recipients by about 50 percent for youth reporting medical limitations. Other supportive evidence comes from the promoting readiness of minors in supplemental security income evaluation, a VR demonstration for high school students with disabilities in vermont, and research on proactive referrals to non-employment services and supports. The TED intervention builds on lessons learned from these and other youth employment programs to help youth with disabilities achieve their career goals. The TED evaluation will use a random assignment design that supports unbiased estimation of impacts and will generate highly rated causal evidence. If successful, IT will provide SSA with a more robust evidence base the agency can expand to other state VR agencies and external partners, such as state departments of education and local school districts.