1 LIGHTLY EDITED FILE VRS Staff and Community Partner Forum Vocational Rehabilitation Services Remote CART April 1, 2025 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. * * * * * This text is being provided in a lightly edited draft format, and is the work product of the CART captioner. Any reproduction, publication, or other use of this CART file without the express written consent of the captioner is strictly prohibited. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility, and this lightly edited CART file may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Due to the live nature of the event, some names and/or terms may be misspelled. This text may also contain phonetic attempts at sounds and words that were spoken and environmental sounds that occurred during the event. * * * * * CART Provided by Jayne Carriker, RPR, CRR, CRC Paradigm Reporting & Captioning, a Veritext Company 612.339.0545 captioning-paradigm@veritext.com CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 2 >> Hello. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Just letting people in, so thank you for your patience. We really appreciate that. My name is Lori Thorpe and I'm the director of contracts and partnerships here at DEED VRS, and so glad you could join us today. And here as we continue to face a challenging year ahead. As we've been sharing the last several months, we have some budget concerns similar to what we're seeing here in Minnesota and across other vocational rehab programs nationally. And so today we're here to provide updates, and I'm glad to welcome Dee Torgerson, our VRS director. >> Dee: Thanks, Lori. Dee Torgerson, and good morning, happy to see all of you here today. I just have some actually pretty brief budget updates. Go ahead to the next slide. So again VRS like we've been working and continuing to work on forecasting and working our cost savings plan that we have previously shared with a focus specifically through the end of this federal fiscal year, which ends CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 3 in the end of September of 2025. But we're also forecasting beyond that, five years beyond that into federal fiscal year 30. And of course, our goal is to maintain a balanced budget while also planning for long-term sustainability of the program. Go ahead to the next one. I do have some good news and many of you may have heard this or seen this. Despite a statewide February forecast that was actually a bid less positive than the previous November statewide forecast, we have been working very closely with the governor's office, and his recent revised budget that he has submitted to the legislature did include an additional $5 million added into the state base match for VRS, so we were pleased about that. It is yet to be determined, you know, if that will actually come to fruition, and we will not know that final state budget results until the state budget is determined. So not exactly sure when that would be yet. Legislation of course will wrap up towards the end of May, but there could be special sessions beyond that. So it's unknown if and when we might get that additional funding but again we were pleased to see it in the CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 4 revised governor's budget. We did send out a GovDelivery notice again around order of selections and categories closing. We've been talking with everyone a while about this and continue working towards our same cost savings plan that we have shared previously. And effective Monday April 7 we are going to be going into an order of selection for categories 2 through 4. So priority category 1 is going to remain open at this time, and, you know, we will make adjustments or changes that if we need to depending on future funding. But for now we're confident that we can continue with priority category 1 open. So again hopefully that is good news for most people. About 83% of who is currently applying for services does end up being in priority category 1. I think it's also important to note even though they're closing some categories of services, we want to make sure that all potential or new applicants continue to proceed with our virtual or regular intake process and complete an application as appropriate. You know, even while we have some categories of service closed because of course what we end up doing is establishing a wait list for services for people in those categories. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 5 And that wait list is managed by the actual application date and within the priority category being opened. So as we progress and as we're working on our fiscal forecasting or if we get additional funding into the program, we typically then are able to move people into services and take them off the wait list. So important to continue to refer people as you always have. And I think that's it for me. I'm going to send it back to Lori to talk about current services. >> Lori: Great. Thank you, Dee. So with these changes coming up April 7 with the order of selection, please note that there will not be changes to the services available for those individuals who are already participating in VRS, so if they're already working with us, they already have an employment plan, they're good to go. So that's a bit of good news. And always recall please that our commitment to maintaining the support for those already receiving services remains a top priority. And just a note for today, we are using the MS office form so if you have any questions or comments as we go CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 6 through our PowerPoints or as you think of things, please enter those. Now I'm going to turn it over to Amanda Jensen-Stahl to talk a little bit about how E1 Minnesota might intermingle with the order of selection. Thank you, Amanda. >> Hi, everyone. Good morning. Amanda Jensen-Stahl. I wanted to talk briefly about people who have a waiver and what that means with VRS closing some of our categories. And so this is actually guidance pulled directly from the CBSM around like when find phase, when VR services might not be available. So this is, you know, on the CBSM website. And I think it's important to know that, you know, it says here VRS provides similar services and that a case manager can only authorize employment development services find if they determine that VRS services are unavailable and then it outlines here not being part of the priority status. So if we determine that somebody is either ineligible or they don't meet an open priority of service category, they will be placed on a wait list maintained by VRS, CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 7 which we just talked about. Next slide, please. And then that means that the case manager may then -- because we don't want people to not get the services that they need, so the case manager may go ahead and authorize those services, and they just need to indicate the reason, and then they just need that documentation, the ineligibility or the VRS closed priority category letter that the person received. So we wanted to make sure that that was clear as we move towards closing categories 2 through 4 if individuals on a Medicaid waiver fall into a closed priority category, the waiver may then go ahead and authorize for find services moving forward. You may have questions about this. I would direct you to the E1MN request form so that questions can come to our interagency team. DHS and us as VRS so we can work through questions especially once April 7 comes up and if there are cases that need to be consulted on. Thank you. Next slide. >> Great. Thank you, Amanda. This is Lori, and I just wanted to say a few things CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 8 about individual placement and support, which is IPS here in Minnesota. And you probably know but individual placement support, it's a very specific program and it utilizes a mental health agency along with one of our community partners that works with IPS, and they provide services, employment services to individuals with very severe and persistent mental health -- >> Recording in process. >> -- mental health diagnoses. And IPS referrals for the most part will not be affected by the current changes to priority categories, which are going to be implemented April 7 because most of the individuals served under IPS actually have three or more functional limitations, so that should go on as usual. And same with when VRS is working with someone in IPS, we will continue to use of course our IPS providers for those services. So next slide. And communication, you know, we understand that these -- there are so many changes going right now in Minnesota and the U.S., and all these changes have really significant implications, so we just want to assure you that we remain committed to keeping all stakeholders informed throughout the process. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 9 We do send out frequent e-mails via GovDelivery with updates about what's going on at VRS. If you need the link to that, feel free to e-mail me directly, and I can get you hooked up with that. And please know that all of you, your support and the collaboration and the way we're able to work together ensure that VRS continues to serve individuals with the most significant disabilities, and we want to do that efficiently and effectively, and again, these are just really challenging times and we're aware of that. And yeah, we just need to collaborate more than ever, so thank you for that. And next I'm going to introduce Meghan Hanson. She is our extended employment specialist here at VRS, and she's got some ideas to share as well. So thank you, Meghan. >> Yeah, hello everybody. I just wanted to talk in light of the potential, you know, closures and we'll be primarily serving category 1. A lot of the individuals in category 1 are going to be eligible for extended employment assuming they don't have a waiver. And EE provides for those that aren't familiar provides the long-term supports for individuals who fall within CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 10 that category, and so EE can be a really great resource to refer people who are working maybe struggling with the job that they currently hold and, you know, allowing EE to provide some supports to help them maintain that employment and possibly continue with VR enrollment as if they come off a wait list or whatever it might be as long as they're eligible, but in the meantime EE is a great resource to serve individuals who are waiting for services or maybe just need some light touch supports to continue with the job they do have. And I want to stress that the collaboration between our current VRS partners it would be very beneficial to all individuals in category 1 receiving EE, so if you're not an EE provider building that relationship with the EE provider in your area, and if you're not sure who that is or you need more information on extended employment as we move forward whether it be internal VR staff or our community partners, please don't hesitate to reach out to me because I'm happy to help kind of bridge those relationships and partnerships and kind of help navigate that process so we can support these individuals as we move forward. >> Thank you. And Meghan has been really open and willing to come and talk with any of you, whether it's a VR team, whether CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 11 it's a community partner. She would love to come to a team meeting and talk more about extended employment and if you're not a provider as she mentioned Meghan would be super happy to help you with one of our 26 EE providers here in Minnesota. She's been helping make brochures and getting the word out and especially as we go into category closures. It's really a wonderful program that can be underutilized sometimes. So thank you, Megan. Next up I'm going to turn it over to Jess Outhwaite who is going to talk about Workforce One access for our partners. Take it away, Jess. >> Good morning, everyone. Jess Outhwaite with the community partnerships team. I've been working on Workforce One partner access for what seems like a very long time but we are definitely making some headway. So if you feel like you've heard this message before, you definitely have. Right now when we share information with our partners, we share it via e-mail, which includes very private data about our participants. So we wanted to come up with a way that we can share CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 12 information in a more secured way. And so our case management system is Workforce One, and so what we're doing is we're allowing partners access to Workforce One so we can share referral information, medical documentation, occupations, releases of information all within this database. And then in the same way our partners can then share reports and invoices as well. And so all of that information stays in a private secure location. So the current way of doing business is we send referrals and then our partners send invoices and reports via e-mail and we're going to switch that over to Workforce One. At this time northern Minnesota is done. We have people trained, all of our partners are trained. We've got partners that are doing two systems for some of our offices because we don't have the metro done yet, and so it's just kind of a neat collaboration that's happening with our partners right now. Northern Minnesota like I said partners are trained and ready to go. We are now in southern Minnesota and getting our southern offices trained in Workforce One and getting those partners updated and ready to go. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 13 The biggest thing that I think everybody always asked for timeline on the metro and the biggest thing is we are flexible. We realize this is a new process for our partners. It's a new system for our partners to learn. So we've been very flexible in what that timeline looks like for our partners. We've been very flexible in when they want to start the process and also how long training takes and access and things like that. So it's always hard to say a timeline because we're very flexible based on our partners since they are learning a new system and a new process. Moving forward we do hope to move to the metro soon hopefully within the next six months or so. Our goal is probably summer. Our goal is summer but hopefully we can get the metro up and running within the next six months and we will go from there. We're always moving forward as we're getting new partners coming on board and getting them trained into Workforce One access. I think that's all I've got, Lori >> Great. Thank you, Jess. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 14 And that brings us to the ends of our presentation today but we wanted to leave a lot of time for questions, things that are on your mind. So please use the link. It's in chat. To submit your questions or comments and then we'll have people available here from VRS to answer those questions. >> All right. This is Sara Sundeen and I'll just facilitate the questions that I'm seeing on our forum. As Lori said, use the link for the Microsoft form questions, and we will go forward. One of the first questions in here is what would you use the additional 5 million in budget for if it is approved? And I think this refers back to the state budget. >> Dee: Yeah, great question. Essentially because we're forecasting like our budget for this year looks okay, it's the years ahead that we're more concerned about, so it will help bridge the gap for the years ahead. So potentially what we would be using it for frankly is to continue to keep category 1 open hopefully if we were to get the funding and also to continue our staffing CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 15 levels where they are right now, or at least avoid any further reductions. >> Thank you, Dee. Another question that's come in is with VRS placement coordinators being laid off will you approve for authorization for partner services like PBA? >> Dee: I'm going to answer that more in general form. But for those of you who have not heard, yesterday was a difficult day for VRS. So we have been talking about and working on our cost saving plan which unfortunately did include some staff reduction. So let me give an update around that first, and then I will tie into the question around those placement pieces. So one of the things that we did roll out internally to our staff is an early retirement incentive. So we did have 26 VRS staff choose that, that incentive. And most of them will be retiring by the end -- by mid April. Yesterday was an incredibly difficult day for I would say pretty much everyone at VRS, those impacted -- actually everybody is a bit impacted by this, but we did have to provide 41 notices of layoffs yesterday to a variety of staff all around the state and in essentially CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 16 all different positions. And so we're recovering a bit from that news and working through what that might look like within VRS and for partners. So I think, you know, as I have said all along, we continue to need our partners, and we will continue to need our partners for those Pre-ETS services and for placement services. I've talked a little bit about our anticipated, you know, shrinking of internal staff, and you know, we certainly are not going to be adding to the staff. We continue in a hiring freeze at this point. And hopefully we'll be stabilized at this point, but again, we're watching closely future both state and federal funding that is on the horizon. >> Thank you, Dee. Another question related to services how is job coach funding being determined? It seems that we are supporting individuals to find paid jobs or internships but job coaching hours are being limited. >> Lori, I see Chris had to hop off so I'm not sure that she's on. >> Yeah, if someone could -- >> It seems like a Chris question. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 17 >> Yeah, Chris and then her camera. Chris and I met with a few partners that have expressed concerns about the way that job coaching is being funded for especially individuals with pretty substantial needs, and so we've asked that you -- you know, if you feel like an individual you're working with needs more hours than you're being granted we would hope you would start with the counselor and a RAM and if you still feel like more hours are being needed, we would ask that you contact the regional director which would be Becky Sunder or Jeri Werner or Chris too because we have heard from several providers that do feel as though the job coaching has been too limited and that's not setting the person up for success on the job. >> Chris: Lori, thank you. Well said. What I do want to just let everyone know is that despite budget challenges, the people that we're serving, our participants, if they are in an active plan and they're accepted for services, we should be providing the services that they need. And so it is really important from the very beginning even of a PBA, a performance-based agreement, where there is any discussion that starts at that time about the anticipated needs of an individual once they're in CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 18 a -- you know, once they start a job what's anticipated regarding job coaching hours. It is true as Lori said that if there are challenges where the counselor maybe saying, no, I don't agree, I don't think the person needs more than those 20 hours, that would be something that we encourage you to elevate to the RAM. And so it really is about the needs of that individual. And you as a -- I'm talking to the community partners here, please provide very clear evidence as to why the individual needs those additional hours, what's not working, what's not sinking in, what are they hearing from the supervisor. Those are all very important elements that you really need to articulate to that counselor about why those additional hours are needed, and I'm very hopeful that that would make the difference. If not, please do reach out to that RAM, and then if that's not working either, I do encourage you to reach out to the regional director. Yeah, so I think that's what I want to say there. And just know that our participants should have no idea that VRS is having budgetary problems. You know, they're in a plan. They're getting the services that they need, and we CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 19 should not be curtailing the services that a person needs based on we're trying to save funds. That should not be part of anything they need to know anything about. So I really encourage everyone in this case, I know there's a lot of stress going on but that we just really need to be putting our person-centered eyes on the individual and really looking at what it is that they need to reach their employment goals. One other note, everyone, yesterday Lisa Hats who was our southern regional director, was laid off. Yesterday was her last day. So I want to let everyone know that as of today two regional directors, the remaining regional directors, Rebecca Sunder and Jeri Werner will be taking over the southern region teams that Lisa left behind. So we'll have more about this at future VRS meetings, but for your information Becky Sunder will be leading the seven-county metro area which now includes Woodbury, Apple Valley and Burnsville Shakopee teams. Jeri Werner will be covering both the northern teams as well as the southern teams that reach all the way from southeast, south central and southwest. So just wanting to make that clear to everyone about that change, so if there is a need to speak to one of CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 20 the regional directors, Jeri Werner covers greater Minnesota and Becky Sunder who is covering all of the metro. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chris. Another question in our form is are people who are on a waiver ever not in category 1? >> This is Amanda. I'll take that one. That's a good question. I mean I think generally speaking most people on a waiver are likely to fall into category 1. However, you know, we kind of take individuals on a case-by-case basis, so it's going to be based on their own individual needs and circumstances, so -- but like I said, generally speaking, most will be in category 1 which will remain open. So I hope that answers that question. >> Thank you, Amanda. Another question that's come in is when do you anticipate referrals will increase to partners? >> I'll take it. This is Chris McVey. We continue to serve 13,000, over 13,000 people within our services. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 21 Those are full service transition students all the way through adults, and, you know, up to their retirement age. I mean we serve people across all ages. We have had as Dee has said some reduction in force that will require potentially for our providers to offer more of the services that we had been providing previously. In addition to the existing authorizations that had been developed and encumbered for people with disabilities that are VRS participants all along. In terms of our Pre-ETS services, we're also seeing a production in force there. What's very true and will not change as we go into additional weeks and months here is a need for our staff to carefully consider the needed services for every individual that we do serve no matter what their age or what the need for service is. I believe that part of what we had previously, like let's say even the last three to six months is that we were authorizing for services and in a way that was really more than what we could afford, and especially on the Pre-ETS side. And we know that not all Pre-ETS students need all five services, and I think that that's what we were doing, and we had also been filling the needs of the services CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 22 that could have been provided or should have been provided by school districts. VRS is always a gap filler, and goes beyond, and I so appreciate that our staff and our community partners were delivering that, but it just was not sustainable. So what has not changed from yesterday to today or last week is that every month our VRS RAMs, our rehab area managers, will be connecting with our Pre-ETS reps and our counselors and looking at the needed services for Pre-ETS especially each month. And that is something that we have to continue to carefully review on a month-by-month basis. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chris. Here's a question about project search. And it says, how or if any changes or impacts to locations or services with project search? >> I can speak to that. It's Chris McVey again. We have all of our project searches up and running and going full motion. For individuals that are currently receiving VRS services that are in plans, the services are not going to stop. I know that we also have dedicated community partners CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 23 that are delivering those services as well as some of our internal staff. We have no plans to curtail or discontinue any of the project searches that we are in partnership with. I think where a challenge could come in is when we do implement the waiting list starting April 7. For any new project search students coming in, individuals that were in categories 2, 3 and 4 would go on a waiting list. My knowledge about project search is is that the vast majority of the students that are selected for project searches are those category 1's, individuals who are on waivers typically. So we do not anticipate that the project searches in future like for starting in the fall would likely be affected by the current waiting list that we're planning for April 1 given that we're looking at closing categories 2, 3 and 4. So just want to provide that assurance to the project search teams that as of this time there is no impact on those project search sites and locations and staff. Thank you. Or participants. >> Thank you, Chris. Another question is that you mentioned there would be no CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 24 changes to services for current eligible participants but this does not match with what's been shared with community partners. Could you please clarify. Specifically when a student can get services, we have been told that students in the final year of transition will be eligible for work experience. >> Thank you for that question, and I know that it's -- it's really a challenge for us to determine what the needs of the individual are regarding the services that are required. Okay. Great. We've got the interpreter back on. Sorry about that. So really it's a counselor decision. I'll be honest. You know, the regulation, the rehab act requires that the VRS counselor is the decision maker about the services, and it is something that should be and absolutely is informed by the individuals that are being served, by the families, by the team that supports that student, for example. We are trying to be thoughtful about when the timing of when services should occur. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 25 While there is no limit or, you know, the -- it can only occur in this year, it has to be based on the student's needs. We are looking at, we have to as part of the work that we do about the timing of when a service or opportunity should occur. If we're working with students starting at age 14, let's say all the way through age 22 if they go into a transition program, we have to be thinking about the timing of when services should be occurring. So previous to the last six months let's say, we may have been able to offer work experience, multiple work experiences within the period of time that we were serving an individual. I think that, again, because of our budget situation it has to -- it has to factor into the timing of when services are provided. I think the other -- and that's a counselor decision. And that's in tandem and in concert with their VRS RAM in making those determinations. Yes, again, the participant has a say. The family has a say. Other stakeholders in that student's life have -- we want to hear from them and we want to factor that in as we're making decisions. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 26 But ultimately it is the counselor decision around that and again we can't keep doing work as we had been in the past providing those over, you know, multiple, multiple experiences. It's not just not feasible. So, again, bringing it down to what the student needs as opposed to what would be nice to have or what the student or the team wants for that individual. I think that's the most basic way I can share that. >> Sara: Thank you, Chris. Another question is how long does an individual stay on internal job placement wait list before they can be referred to a community partner for services? >> Chris: I can respond to that question. Again, it's Chris McVey. What I will say is in terms of internal placement coordinators and our specialists that are working with individuals on job search, the manager of the team and the placement staff on the team make determinations of when that referral comes in and the timing of when that person can be served. If it seems as though it is going to be a long wait, we are not going to keep them on an internal placement waiting list for many months. We want to help that person move forward. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 27 We recognize and appreciate that rapid engagement is a very important component to helping people move forward. So I hope that answers the question. I know our regional directors, both of them are on the call today. I don't know that they're able to unmute. But at any point from a VRS field perspective, I welcome their input as well. Thank you. >> Sara: I'm just going to give Jeri and Becky permissions here in case they do want to. >> Yeah, this is Jeri. I apologize. My power just came back up and I honestly didn't hear the question, Chris. I apologize. So I just jumped in with you opening it up and I'm not quite sure what to answer. >> Chris: Okay, Jeri. The question was -- thank you so much for articulating it so well but the question is about our internal placement coordinators and lounge individuals that are referred to our internal placement staff for job search services, what is the waiting time that is typical for someone to receive those services internally versus CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 28 being vendored out to our community partners? It looks like Becky has her hand up. >> Yeah, this is Becky Sunder, and I think I will just answer it that because of what took place yesterday with some of the layoffs, this is probably going to change and we will need to revisit this question but I think up until yesterday we were looking at probably a week to two weeks. And I will speak to the areas that I cover. Based on what the RAMs have been telling me and the conversations we've had, probably a week to two weeks is what that wait time has looked like. Thank you. >> Chris: Thanks, Becky. >> This is Jeri. I concur with Becky. No further information from me. >> Sara: Okay. Thank you. A question about the wait list. Will students served under ICS go on a wait list if referred to full VR? >> Chris: I think this question, this is Chris McVey, is probably best answered by Heather Kosec or someone else on the team. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 29 I know the answer but I'm not going to be the most articulate about it. So I'm looking to someone else on the leadership team sharing. >> Hi, this is Heather Kosec. Sara, can you repeat the question again. I want to ensure that I got the last part correct. >> Absolutely, Heather Will students served under ICS go onto a waiting list if referred for full VR services? >> Heather: That's a great question. So students who are receiving our ICS if they're referred on to full VR services, they'll go through the same eligibility process as anybody being determined eligible for full VR services. And so their category will be determined at that time. So it's difficult to say if a student is receiving ICS, it depends on which category they're placed in if they would be placed in categories 2 through 4, then, yes, they would go on a wait list. During that time because they had previously been receiving some of the those light touch services through ICS, they would be able to continue receiving what's necessary for them in terms of light touch services until they came off the wait list. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 30 Now, if they were determined eligible in category 1, they would not be put on a wait list given that we don't have category 1 closed. I think that probably answers the question, Sara. >> Sara: Thank you, Heather. Another question that we have is how is VR communicating out who is leaving or has been laid off? Community partners are not being told for office personnel or partnering. >> Hello. This is Dee. That is probably a me question. We have to maintain confidentiality of all of our staff, so we're not able to share those names out. That really is all I can say about that right now. >> Sara: Thank you, Dee. How do VRS counselors and managers balance providing services in-house versus referring to a community partner? Can you talk a little bit about client choice of a community partner and is there a process defined to be used by all the offices for consistency across the state? >> This is Chris. There's a lot to unpack in that question. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 31 Maybe repeating that first piece because I think I heard -- >> Sara: Yep, there's like three questions in there. So the first one is how are VR counselors and managers balancing provide services in-house versus referring to community partners? And then there's the question about how consumer choice plays into that. >> Chris: Thank you so much. Yes, so -- and I'm hoping that if Jennifer Koski is our quality assurance director as well as staff development is on, again, I want to be the most articulate and on point about informed choice. So when we as a team, each VRS team has a complement of staff. In some cases we have placement coordinators and other places we have Pre-ETS reps. Counselors of course are doing their work and they're not vendoring out their counseling services. We look at our internal capacity first before considering vendoring out or referring to a community partner. This is not a deep pool within a VRS team of available internal staff to do that work. And as we indicated yesterday with a very difficult day CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 32 of layoffs that each VRS team is now more challenged to provide services internally whether it's placement or whether it's Pre-ETS services. And so it is something that we are able to do as a VR agency that receives the federal funding, state funding. We need to look at how we can manage our resources in a way that is the most thoughtful about the use of those resources and when we have internal capacity we do leverage that. However, we're going to be more challenged as we move forward with that. The likelihood is we will be seeing more referrals made to our community partners really throughout the state, so that's my answer to the first question. >> Sara: Yeah, and then the other question had to do with consumer choice and then if there's a process defined to be used across the state for consistency. >> Chris: Right, okay. Thank you. So in terms of consumer choice when we are talking about leveraging our internal capacity, we're going to talk to the individual about the availability of a staff within that team to help support them in reaching their goals or to get specific supports such as job placement services. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 33 In the event that an individual is specifically asking to work with a specific provider, it does happen, I recognize that. And for the most part we're not saying no to that. So it is possible for a person to make that specific request. We also know that a number of months ago that if an individual is in a current PBA at the time that we made a change where we were leveraging more of our internal resources first, that that person could continue with that provider through the job search process and the initial work site supports that that person needed. So, again, going forward we do anticipate that there will be additional authorizations made to our community partners as we have reduced our workforce. And then the final piece, I think I may have answered both, though, Sara. >> Sara: Thank you. Jennifer, did you have anything you wanted to add? I saw you came on camera. >> Thanks, Sara, this is Jennifer. I did come off camera because Chris had mentioned me. But Chris, I think that you explained this beautifully, and our staff are constantly having those informed choice conversations with each individual that they're CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 34 serving really to understand their needs, the priorities they have in their life, the reasons that those things are needed. And so that's happening throughout the entire process. Chris, you did answer everything. Thank you. >> Sara: Thank you, both. Another question that has come in is where does the budget stand as of now? Do we anticipate any more layoffs and what will communication look like moving forward with this budget? >> Dee: So the -- this is Dee. I'll answer that question. There really have not been any significant changes since we last shared budget updates. We are working the plan as anticipated. Really the only significant change is the potential for some additional that 5 million state funds that was in the governor's budget. But we will see where that lands, so having that in the -- as a potential money available to us as I've said has allowed us to for now keep category 1 open and move forward actually with less staff reductions than we originally had anticipated. So we are stable at this time. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 35 If we don't see any funding increases at the end of this federal fiscal year then we'll look at our forecasts again and make decisions at that point. And once those decisions become more clear, we will share that information. >> Sara: Thank you, Dee. Another question is, is VRS small business program still active as a service? >> Chris: I can speak to that. It's Chris McVey. Yes, we do still have a very robust small business program or a specialist by the name of Josh who is continuing to do his work. We have no plans to stop those services or -- it's one of those areas that we see as a viable and very appropriate way that people can gain employment, and so really appreciate the expertise that we have in VRS. And then we know that there's expertise with some of our community partners as well. Thank you. >> Sara: Thanks, Chris. Regarding April 7 and the changes in categories, do people need to be in a plan by April 7 to avoid a wait list or just through the eligibility process by April 7? >> Chris: It's even simpler than that. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 36 It's applied for services on or after April 7. So if an individual has already had -- has already applied for services, this will not impact them. It's individuals who apply for services on or after April 7, 2025. >> Sara: Thank you. Along the same lines of that, if VRS is determining a person who meets the areas of functional limitation, what happens if VR says the person only has one or two areas of functional limitation and yet a community partner who is supporting them finds three areas, what would a community partner do? >> Chris: I'll start, and then I didn't know maybe Jennifer or others from VRS want to respond to this. So this is -- I mean making a determining about eligibility and priority for services truly is a counselor decision. Okay. And that counselor takes in a number of factors including the initial interview that they have with the individual, any of the medical or psychological documentation of disability, so having access to all of the possible information regarding diagnosis is part of that review. Certainly if that individual has a team of people that CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 37 is supporting them, of course we are interested in hearing from individuals that have a close touch point with that person such as a family member and maybe in some cases a case manager. It's with all that information that a counselor makes a determination of eligibility and priority for services, and that work cannot be delegated to anybody else. It's in the Rehab Act, it's in our regulations. So what would need to happen is if the individual felt like they did not have -- or their advocate felt that they did not -- all of the parts of the puzzle were not considered, that they feel as though there are additional areas of functional limitation that should be considered reach out first to the counselor. I mean every individual is provided information if they disagree with the decision made by the counselor. And there is a rereview of all of the factors, all of the information typically done by the rehab area manager. And I know that there are some additional options that people have including contacting the client assistance project. We have good relationship with the client assistance project. We understand that people aren't going to always agree CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 38 with what the decisions that we make, and we welcome when there's an opportunity to have a third party such as the client assistance project asked to be part of a review of decisions that have been made or services that have been provided. I'm wondering if Jennifer Koski or others want to add to what I just said. >> This is Jennifer. Thanks, Chris. Your answer was really very thorough. I would just continue to say the same thing that Chris does. Encourage folks to talk to the counselor so the counselor can have a thorough view of what the situation is, help them to provide information that would be needed if that's the case to help that counselor understand the full functional limitations that that person may have. And like Chris said, there is an appeal process if that's necessary. But sometimes what happens is we make a decision and then we learn new information or new information is provided, so we can be updating those functional limitation decisions as needed. >> Sara: Thank you. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 39 Here's another question about PBAs. If participants are already being served and they're supposed to receive services, why are there wait lists for PBAs for internal placements and why are they not able to be served through the ESARP? >> Chris: I will respond to that. From my understanding as well as the understanding of the two regional directors that I supervise and support that waiting lists are not happening on VRS teams for more than a short period of time, which is less than two to three weeks, and this that's happening, I know that the regional directors and I would like to hear about that. We do want to help people move forward as quickly as possible but there are circumstances where we're identifying the internal capacity. If we know that that's happening, and we also know that the individual is fine with that wait, then that's what we're doing. It's my understanding that those waits are not significantly long and as Jeri in fact just shared, it's not more than one to two weeks. So it would be helpful to know what areas we're talking about. >> Sara: Thanks, Chris. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 40 Another question is, are you seeing schools take on the funding towards more of our Pre-ETS services that VRS was previously funding? >> Chris: I can speak to this, Chris. And I will hand it off to Heather Kosec or others. We welcome and appreciate and need our school districts to step into what their responsibilities are during a school day. We know that in the E1MN framework for individuals who are on waivers, the school is responsible during the school day. It's in IDEA. And so we need the schools to step in and do their part in order to help those students move forward. VRS, and we're not the only supporter of individuals, students that are still in school to help them reach their employment goals. So we welcome this and we do believe that we've made some progress in many school districts where we've helped them to understand what their responsibilities are in their own legislation, IDEA, and that we should not be taking over where a school district may be falling short. And so I think there has been progress made. I'll stop there. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 41 Don't know if anybody else wants to add in whether it's Heather Kosec, regional directors or Lori, anyone. Thank you. >> Hi, everybody. This is Heather Kosec again and Chris, I think your answer was really thorough as well. The only thing that I would add is that there's a lot of E1MN interagency work going on around our work-based learning opportunities for students in the state of Minnesota. So an interagency team of our VRS folks and folks at MDE have been working together, and there will be shortly a summary of work-based learning survey results that will be sent out with some findings and some ideas about next steps for how schools can start supporting if they're not already, you know, start and continue supporting their students and learning work skills during the school day and how that programming and funding options can work and flow through that. So I think we are on a journey with our school partners, and we're all working together to build a system that's stronger for students, and VRS is just a part of that plan. And so as we know we work together, we can create systems that support students through that transition CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 42 into those years after graduation, and we really want to promote that competitive integrated employment for all of our students with disabilities throughout the state. So there is work being done there and reports that should be coming out shortly. >> Sara: Thank you. I think this is a question relating to kind of consistency across the state and referrals again. And says northern offices have issued very few authorizations yet other offices have. How is it being determined what areas get authorizations to community partners? >> Chris: I'll start off by saying that it comes down to our managers and counselors and Pre-ETS reps having conversations about every single student that is being served whether it's through introductory career services or full services, and it's a focus on what that student needs, what the school districts can provide because, again, we are in a place where we're not going to be providing services that the school or the school district or the transition program should already be providing. I do appreciate where we can have that consistency. At the same time too it is about the individual participant, and I do believe that everybody on this CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 43 call has in mind the participant first, part and their needs above any of our other needs. And so I ask every single person whether you are a VRS counselor, Pre-ETS rep, RAM, community partner, to be thinking about and considering every single time the person and what their needs are as we move forward and also about existing resources that help meet that need. VRS is not everything. We don't have all the funds to deliver all the services to students. And so with all those factors in mind, I think that's how we're approaching this work. So also let our community partners know and staff know that we have very close connection with all 23 RAMs across the state. We do a lot of work around consistency. We do a lot of work around supporting them and their teams to provide consistency in services, to provide high-level support, to focusing in a person-centered way on every individual. And so that work also will not stop. But anyway, that's what I have for that response. I don't know if anybody else wants to chime in. >> Sara: Thank you, Chris. Another question that's come in is, is there or can CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 44 there be a rubric for the decision of, and it's in quotes, needed services, so how the decisions are made for services. >> Chris: This is Chris McVey again, and I would say that in terms of a rubric, our staff, our VRS counselors, our Pre-ETS reps, placement staff, they understands what their responsibilities are. And they go about it. And in terms of understanding what the need of each individual is, we have counselors that have masters degrees in vocational counseling and other types of related degrees, and specific vocational training and a passion for the people that they're serving and supporting. At the same time we are looking at and identifying those services that only VRS can provide or fund and the timing at which those should be occurring. And that is not done in a vacuum, and there is no decision tree for that. We have people with teams of people around them. At times we have people with nobody there to support them. And we're doing our best to provide the services that we as professionals believe are needed to help that person move forward to reach their employment goals. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 45 I don't know if anybody else wants to add in on the VR side. >> This is Lori and I'd like to add too that, you know, all of our counselors as Chris said, they have a masters degree typically in voc rehab and they go through extensive training around eligibility, priority for services, looking deeply at these seven areas of limitation and getting to know that person and their support network and determining together with the family and with their support systems, you know, what do they need, what would help them to succeed, and so, you know, I know Jennifer Koski and her team, they lead the training division to on board or new staff. And same with our placement coordinators, they receive training and our rehab reps. Jen, I see you too. Thank you. >> This is Jennifer Koski again. And I just wanted to mention, and Chris alluded to it, so did you, Lori. Each person who comes in and is determined eligible for services, the counselor then does an assessment of their needs, and so they do a thorough assessment in looking at the full picture of that person and what it is that they need to move forward to achieve their employment CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 46 goals, and that assessment continues throughout the time that our counselors are working with the individuals. And that really is a big component of the decision making that happens about what gets included in their plans, which is kind of where we're going when we talk about what services are being provided to folks. >> Dee: I'm just going to add one more piece to that. You guys did such a nice job of laying that out. We also have to follow -- again when Chris and Jen are alluding to the training that counselors receive in addition to the masters degree in counseling and other things we also are trained in how those services are determined and implemented and we refer to DRAN but looking at whether the services are necessary allow and necessary to follow the requirements and that is layered on all the other things that Chris and Jen have talked about. >> Sara: Thank you, Dee. Earlier this year there was an e-mail that went out about suspending CARF. This is likely to continue into 2026? >> This is Lori and I can share that Anne Paulson and our community partnerships team are working at looking for an alternative to CARF. Now, that will not supersede with Megan's program the CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 47 extended employment you do need to be CARF accredited. And it won't necessarily help our large CRPs or CRPs that earn a lot of money because to the State of Minnesota there does come a risk with that level of money being exchanged between the state and a partner. So those are in works and Brad Westerlund and Meghan Hanson have been helping Anne as well in developing questions, and we would like to plan to roll this out before our contracts are due next summer for our LUVs, and Jess and Sara have been helping with that as well. So I don't know that they're -- I can't say for sure other than it will be for sure something new is coming and sooner than later. Anne and I have been meeting almost weekly to talk about the fact that it will be piloted, and we would like to start with a couple mid-sized partners and see how that process goes. So it will be a monitoring and evaluation process led by VRS and DEED. So good question. Thank you. >> Sara: Thank you, Lori. How will community partners and individual who are currently being served know who is taking over cases if VRS staff changes are occurring? CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 48 >> This is Chris McVey. We just announce wanted the layoff yesterday. We are working very closely with our staff, the region directors, myself with our RAMs. I do ask that you give us some space to support our teams in this change. We're talking right now about how to we support participants in every part of the state of Minnesota. So as soon as we have information that we can share with you, we will do that. Thank you. >> Sara: All right. This question is about E1MN. Will there ever be a conversation about having the find stage be a choice of using VR or utilizing the waiver funding if someone already has it and does not want to go through the hoops of VR? >> This is Amanda. I will take that. Can you just repeat that again, Sara. >> Sara: Yeah, absolutely. Will there ever be a conversation about having that find phase be a choice of using VR or using waiver if somebody already has -- I'm guessing waiver funding and does not want to go through the hoops of voc rehab CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 49 services. >> Amanda: Yes, okay. Great question. I would say that the reason we have our interagency agreements, the coordination between the waiver services and VRS is because of our federal regulation. Therefore, it's not something that us in the state have -- you know, we have to follow our federal regulations, which say that VRS is the first pair of find, aka, job search services. So we can't change that because that is the -- we have to comply with our federal regulations. So, you know, I certainly appreciate that question. I get it. You know, the engage, plan, find, keep framework was really designed to adhere to both our federal regulations as well as DHS and the Medicaid program. And so really trying to make it work across kind of who pays for what within those federal regulations. >> Sara: Thank you, Amanda. This is a question about IPS. You said most IPS participants are category 1. Is this not the same for E1MN? Aren't they also mostly category 1? >> Lori: Yes, typically IPS and E1MN individuals who CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 50 are under those programs would most likely have at least three areas of functional limitation. However, it could be possible that in doing that eligible review and looking at the 7 areas, there could be individuals where we only see one or two areas of limitation. Again, I think that would be rare, but as we mentioned earlier, that's certainly a conversation, you know, if that shows up and we can -- RAMs are very open to looking at a case again as are our counselors. But again, I think that would be rare. Thank you, Sara. >> Sara: Thanks, Lori. Also about IPS. It says the governor's budget was pulling some of the 5 million from IPS, a program that has notoriously needed more funding. If IPS needs more money what does that program look like? >> Lori: Yes, thank you, Sara. This is really fresh off the presses too. So in the governor's proposed budget there is a request to take $1 million from the IPS program, and we don't know. We really don't know if that will be approved right now. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 51 I know a few of you have testified on behalf of IPS, and yeah, we're waiting to see where that might land, and if it goes through, definitely there will be -- need to be changed to the IPS program as it stands now, and I don't currently know what that's going to look like, but definitely would affect the program. So more to come on that. Thanks, Sara. >> Sara: Thanks, Lori. I'm going to turn it over to a Workforce One access for a theme of questions. Once Workforce One partner access is in place so across the state, could the partners swift ID value in the referral form become a required field? >> Hello. This is Jess. So it can definitely be something that's discussed. The tricky thing right now is we need additional information about how else that referral form is used. Laura Cheney is definitely our expert on how exactly Workforce One functions, but what I've heard her say in the past is that there is additional things that that referral form is used for and they may not have a SWIFT ID number specifically assigned to them. So we have looked at if someone doesn't have an SWIFT ID CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 52 if we put in like a 000 so it still can be a required field, so I will say it's a work in progress. I can't make any promises, but yes, the ID number has been a tricky one in terms of making it a required field. >> Thank you, Jess. Another question about Workforce One is a community partner has access to Workforce One through one of the greater Minnesota locations but not the metro. Would they have priority for the metro over other partners as we make -- bring them on board? >> Definitely. We actually really have enjoyed this part of the process is that once some of our northern partners were trained and then we moved to northeast and then northwest and a partner was trained and already ready to go we actually really appreciate that process that we have partners up and ready and to roll out right away. So as soon as we have metro VR offices trained we will be reaching out to the partners that serve them that are already in Workforce One. That is our first step, so you will have priority. >> Thank you, Jessica. This question came in under E1MN and I'm just going to read it verbatim because I'm not exactly sure. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 53 It says that the referral process no longer requires a plan document. Can more information be shared if the plan information will later be asked for? >> This is Amanda. I think I would need more information to really understand this question. So I'm going to drop -- we have a -- I mentioned it earlier but the E1MN request form is our interagency kind of question box. I'll drop that in the chat. I think this would be a good one to send to our team so that we can then follow up with whoever asked that to try to get a little bit more information. Thanks. >> Sara: Thank you, Amanda. Another question that came in is when will the field staff directory be updated or partners to know who is at which offices? >> Chris: Please repeat that question. >> Dee: Chris, I can take that. They're asking for the field directory. Again I think Chris said it very well before. We're just -- people just got notified yesterday. We need some time to work through that and for things to CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 54 settle out. So I would expect we could see some directories perhaps early summer. In the meantime reach out. You can reach out to the local managers or local regional directors if there's something specific that you need and we'll be sure to direct you to the people that you need to be in touch with. >> Sara: Thank you, Dee. Here's a question about PBAs and authorizations. It says with the new way of issuing PBA or E1PBA each milestones has a unique authorization number. Which number should be listed on the monthly progress report? >> This is Lori. I'm not sure if I fully interested the question, but whichever milestone you're working within. So if you're searching for a job and you're doing your monthly progress reports then you would reference the authorization number that is for that milestone, the job placement milestone. >> Thank you, Lori. >> Lori: So again, sorry, Sara, if someone has a question about that, feel free to e-mail me directly and I can look into that if I didn't get to the answer. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 55 Thank you. >> Sara: Yes. This looks like it's coming from a community partner looking for some talking points or some tips. What do you suggest partners say to parents of students that they supported and they're not understanding the how and the why their services have been changed? >> Chris: Great question. I would refer them to the counselor or the Pre-ETS rep that they are working with. They can respond to the questions that they have. They can ask those questions about why services have reduced. And if necessary also elevating that question to a manager, for example. The other part is, and I had a recent conversation with a community partner along with Lori Thorpe last week. We do not have any problem with a -- with a participant or family member whomever making contact with the client assistance project. They are our participant's advocate. VRS pays for this service from the legal aid. It's required in our -- you know, as part of our program in the Rehab Act. So if you feel like -- and individuals are saying, I'm CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 56 upset about this, first try to have that conversation with the staff that they're assigned to, perhaps their manager. But if it's truly a problem, please give them client assistance project contact information. >> Sara: Thank you, Chris. Just a couple more questions in our form. One of them is will these questions and answers be written and posted for review? And the answer is yes, we will be sending it out. Another question in here is that it was stated in an SSB forum that WIOA has expired. Would VRS look to consolidate that into their historical for services, would there be thoughts on the requirements for WIOA that not need to be followed -- would the requirements of WIOA -- let me try that again. It was stated in the SSB forum that WIOA has expired. Would VRS look to consolidate back into the historical for services, would there be a thought that the requirements of WIOA not need to be followed? >> This is Dee. I'll try to answer that one. That is kind of a loaded question. So yes, WIOA is expired, and in the reauthorization recommendations there's little to nothing around title CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 57 IV which is VR services, so I do not anticipate any big changes in -- once when WIOA is reauthorized. So I have not seen any movements pushing towards those core services, so we're always kind of watching that on the horizon and at the federal level. But I have not seen that happen. As far as, and it is not in any of the proposed recommendations for reauthorization. >> Sara: Thank you, Dee. Here's a question on Pre-ETS services. Will you be approving summer work experiences for Pre-ETS students since school staff will not be available to support them? >> Chris: Great question. This is Chris McVey and as a matter of fact we are having conversations about that right now at the parents leadership level. Again this is going to come down to needs of the student, and what we are looking at is the timing again of paid work experience occurring in the summer. I know that in years past we've been able to offer paid work experiences to students every summer, multiple opportunities to try work and to get jobs and to have that experience. We are going to need to move from nice to have to need CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 58 to have, and that is the change that people can expect from last year to this year. So around -- we're not setting like this can only occur in the last year of the student's experience. No, but it is going to be based on the student's previous paid work experience, the timing of when they're graduating from school, whether it's from high school or from a transition program. So, again, this will be a counselor decision that is informed by the individual, the participant, their family, their support team. But I can absolutely guarantee that the number of summer work experiences that VRS has paid for in the past will not be what we've done -- I mean going forward will not be what we've done in the past. It will come down to each person, every participant that we're working with and what their needs are and the timing of those needs. So that's what I have on that. More will be forthcoming first for our VRS staff and then we will be also communicating that with our community partners and other stakeholders. >> Sara: Thank you, Chris. Appreciate that. Let me look here. CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 59 There's a question about Workforce One access. Are counties or lead agencies informed that their case managers or social workers will use Workforce One? >> Hello. Jess Outhwaite. So it is our -- only our contracted partners that will be accessing Workforce One. So our counties, lead agencies, things like that will not be. It will only our contracted partners, our contracted service providers. >> Sara: Thank you. Lori, I think that's what we have in the chat at this point in time so maybe I'll turn it back to you. >> Lori: Thank you so much, Sara, and thank you for asking all the questions, so really well done. And I just thank everyone who had answers today and helped to shed some light on everything. And good to see so many people here. And also our next forum is Tuesday June 3 10:30 to noon. So Tuesday June 3. And we hope you can join us again, and if you have questions in the meantime, please reach out to me, and I'll get those to the correct person, and as Sara said, we will be going through and answering these questions CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT 60 that came out and getting them down on paper, and those will come out through GovDelivery to you as well. Thank you all for being here and please take care. Bye-bye. [This text is being provided in a lightly edited draft format, and is the work product of the CART captioner. Any reproduction, publication, or other use of this CART file without the express written consent of the captioner is strictly prohibited. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility, and this lightly edited CART file may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Due to the live nature of the event, some names and/or terms may be misspelled. This text may also contain phonetic attempts at sounds and words that were spoken and environmental sounds that occurred during the event.] CART captioning file NOT A CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT