Supported Employment

Supported Employment (SE) is a person-centered, evidence-based strategy that supports people with the most significant disabilities in obtaining and maintaining competitive integrated employment. SE services often include job coaching, workplace accommodations, and ongoing support to help maintain employment or support career advancement. SE offers opportunities for independence, community participation, skill development, and financial stability. SE services help remove barriers that might otherwise prevent individuals with significant disabilities from accessing these opportunities.

What is Supported Employment?

Definition of Supported Employment (34 CFR §361.5(c)(53))

Competitive integrated employment, including customized employment, or employment in an integrated work setting in which individuals with the most significant disabilities are working toward competitive integrated employment, that is consistent with the unique strengths, abilities, interests, and informed choice of the individual with a most significant disability, including with ongoing support services for individuals with the most significant disabilities.

What are Supported Employment Services?

SE services help individuals with the most significant disabilities maintain competitive integrated employment in the community. These services may begin at job placement and provide individualized supports that enable people to learn job tasks, adapt to workplace expectations, and succeed in a job that matches their strengths, interests, and support needs.

SE is designed for individuals who require intensive services and ongoing supports to achieve and maintain employment. Services are typically provided by vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies in partnership with community rehabilitation providers and employers.

SE services may include:

Discovery and assessment to identify the individual’s strengths, interests, skills, and support needs
Job coaching and skills training at the workplace to help the individual learn job tasks and expectations
Training employers, supervisors and co-workers on effective workplace supports
Workplace accommodations or assistive technology to support job performance
Social and workplace communication support to help navigate workplace relationships
Assistive Technology or adaptive tools
Ongoing support services, such as regular follow-up with the individual and employer to maintain job stability
Coordination with other service systems to ensure long-term supports are available when needed

These services continue until the individual becomes stable in employment. At that point, long-term or extended services may be provided by other partners or natural supports to help the individual maintain employment over time. SE services and funding can be provided by VR for a period of time not to exceed 24 months, unless the individual and the rehabilitation counselor agree to extend the time to achieve the employment outcome as outlined on the individualized plan for employment.

SE services focus on helping individuals work in competitive integrated employment, meaning jobs in typical workplaces where people with disabilities work alongside coworkers without disabilities and earn wages comparable to others performing similar work with opportunities for advancement.

Who are Supported Employment Services Designed For?

SE services are designed for individuals with the most significant disabilities who need intensive job coaching and VR services to obtain and maintain competitive integrated employment.

What classifies as a Significant Disability?

Individual with a significant disability means an individual with a disability—

Who has a severe physical or mental impairment that seriously limits one or more functional capacities (such as mobility, communication, self-care, self-direction, interpersonal skills, work tolerance, or work skills) in terms of an employment outcome;
Whose vocational rehabilitation can be expected to require multiple vocational rehabilitation services over an extended period of time; and
Who has one or more physical or mental disabilities resulting from amputation, arthritis, autism, blindness, burn injury, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, deafness, head injury, heart disease, hemiplegia, hemophilia, respiratory or pulmonary dysfunction, mental illness, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, musculo-skeletal disorders, neurological disorders (including stroke and epilepsy), spinal cord conditions (including paraplegia and quadriplegia), sickle cell anemia, intellectual disability, specific learning disability, end-stage renal disease, or another disability or combination of disabilities determined on the basis of an assessment for determining eligibility and vocational rehabilitation needs to cause comparable substantial functional limitation.

What Classifies as a Most Significant Disability?

Individual with a most significant disability means an individual with a significant disability who meets the designated State unit's criteria for an individual with a most significant disability. These criteria must be consistent with the requirements in § 361.36(d)(1) and (2) These services begin at the time of job placement and may include individualized support such as job coaching, workplace training, and employer consultation to help the individual succeed in their job.

After the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) case is closed, ongoing supports, known as extended services, are provided through other funding sources to help the individual maintain long-term employment. Exceptions do apply for Extended Services for Youth.

SE services are designed for individuals with the most significant disabilities who will benefit from and need intensive job coaching support and VR services upon job placement into competitive integrated employment and ongoing supports and extended services after case closure to maintain competitive integrated employment.

What are Ongoing Support Services in SE?

Ongoing support services are individualized services provided to individuals with the most significant disabilities to help them maintain competitive integrated employment. These supports begin after job placement and continue as the individual learns job tasks, adjusts to the workplace, and works toward stability and independence on the job.

Ongoing support may be provided at the worksite or, in certain circumstances, offsite at the request of the individual. Services include regular monitoring of the employment situation and coordination of support needed to maintain employment. Federal regulations require that contact related to ongoing support occur at least twice per month unless the individual and counselor agree that a different schedule is appropriate.

Examples of ongoing support services may include:

Job coaching and intensive job skills training at the worksite
Job development, job retention, and placement services
Regular observation or supervision of job performance
Social skills or workplace communication training
Follow-up with the individual, employer, and support network to reinforce job stability
Development and facilitation of natural supports in the workplace
Coordination of services and other supports needed to maintain employment

Ongoing supports are typically provided by VR or community rehabilitation providers until the individual reaches stability in employment which is an individualized timeframe. At that point, supports may transition to extended services, which are provided by other funding sources or through natural workplace supports to help the individual maintain employment over time.

When is Job Stability Determined?

Job stability is an important milestone in SE. It shows that an individual with the most significant disabilities is successfully performing their job, meeting employer expectations, and maintaining competitive integrated employment.

SE services begin at the time of job placement and provide support such as job coaching, workplace accommodations, and employer consultation while the individual learns job tasks and adjusts to workplace routines. Initial stabilization occurs when the employee demonstrates consistent performance and begins to need less direct support.

Once the individual maintains stable performance, supports transition to extended services to ensure long-term success. These services, provided by community or agency partners, help the individual continue to maintain employment after the VR case is closed. Together, these steps ensure individuals have the support they need to achieve lasting success in the workplace.

Extended Services

Extended services are a critical part of the SE model, helping ensure individuals with the most significant disabilities can maintain meaningful employment and remain successful in the workforce over time. Extended services ensure that individuals who require ongoing support to maintain employment continue to receive assistance after VR services end.

Under 34 CFR §361.5(c)(19), extended services are defined as:

Ongoing support services and other appropriate services that are needed to support and maintain an individual with a most significant disability in supported employment and that are provided by a source other than the designated State unit (VR) after the individual has achieved an employment outcome and the VR case has been closed.

When do Extended Services Begin?

Extended services begin after the individual has stabilized in employment and also after the VR case is closed. During the VR case, SE services help the individual learn the job, develop skills, and succeed in the workplace. Once stability is achieved, responsibility for ongoing support transitions to extended service providers.

For youth with the most significant disabilities, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) allows VR agencies to provide extended services directly for up to four years or until the individual reaches age 25, whichever occurs first, if another long-term funding source is not yet available.

Who Provides Extended Services?

Extended services are funded and delivered by community partners and long-term service systems, rather than the VR agency. These supports may be provided through:

Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs
State developmental disability agencies
Behavioral health or mental health service systems
Community rehabilitation providers
Employment networks
Natural supports in the workplace, such as coworkers or supervisors

Extended Services for Youth

WIOA expanded opportunities for youth with the most significant disabilities to pursue meaningful careers in competitive integrated employment. These supports help young people gain real work experience, earn competitive wages, and build the skills needed for long-term success in the workforce.

Through extended supports, youth have additional time to strengthen job skills, build confidence, and develop independence while long-term support systems are identified and established. This approach helps ensure that young people are not only able to obtain a job, but also have the support they need to remain employed over time.

When other long-term supports are not available, the VR program may provide extended services directly for youths for up to four years, or until they turn age 25, whichever comes first.

How can VRTAC Help you Build or Strengthen your SE program and service?

The national landscape of SE shows that VR agencies are actively implementing SE services across states, but approaches vary widely. The VRTAC team is available to provide technical assistance to support yourSE programs. Some examples of technical assistance areas are:

Resource organization and access: Organizing and curating SE guidance, tools, and training resources so VR agencies can more easily locate and apply existing information.
Policy-to-practice translation: Helping VR agencies translate Federal SE requirements into practical implementation strategies, including service delivery models, documentation, and case management practices.
Provider network development: Supporting VR agencies in strengthening provider capacity, expectations, training, and performance management for community-based SE services.
Cross-system coordination: Helping states improve collaboration between VR and systems responsible for extended services, including developmental disability, behavioral health, Medicaid, and education partners.
Youth Supported Employment strategies: Supporting agencies in expanding SE opportunities for youth with the most significant disabilities, including effective use of extended services for youth.
Peer learning and knowledge sharing: Facilitating communities of practice, peer exchanges, and sharing of state examples to support learning across VR systems.
Implementation tools and practical guidance: Developing tools such as implementation checklists, self-assessments, and planning guides to help agencies strengthen SE systems.