HARRISBURG — High school students with disabilities will get more help finding jobs under legislation expected to become state law soon.
State vocational counselors will play a more prominent role helping students to prepare and train for jobs, gain work experience and obtain jobs under the bill that won final passage in the House on Tuesday.
Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to sign the measure, which also provides millions of dollars in state and federal funding to support the effort. Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Township, is the lead proponent of the legislation in the Senate.
The legislation is the result of a grassroots lobby campaign #IWantToWork spearheaded by students, but also involving advocacy groups and businesses. Members of the campaign effort made numerous trips to the Capitol during the past two years. The featured events include having students take selfie photos with individual lawmakers.
“They (students) have really driven this forward,” Pamela Zotynia, executive director of the Arc of Luzerne County, a campaign supporter, said Wednesday.
The legislation paves the way for the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation to work more closely with schools and businesses to steer students into the labor market. For the first time, OVR counselors can participate in a student’s individual education plan, an annual process where students, families and educators meet to draw up an academic strategy for the coming year. The counselors will begin working with individual students starting in their sophomore and junior years rather than waiting until the senior year, which has been the practice.
The counselors will help students line up summer jobs, part-time jobs, internships, job shadowing and job coaching opportunities.
The bill’s goal is to bring more coordination among schools, OVR and businesses so students can graduate from high school with prospects for a job.
“They (students) don’t want to graduate to their parent’s couch,” Baker said.
This legislation will bring new opportunities to students and relief to families, Zotynia said.
“They will have an opportunity while in high school to gain some work experience,” she said.
Campaign members are optimistic that disabled students will be able to get jobs with the extra support. Pennsylvania has an average of 200,000 open jobs on a given day and businesses are interested in hiring disabled individuals who want to work, members said. However, research studies show that most young people with disabilities won’t find work if they don’t get some job experience before graduating from high school.
The expanded jobs program will cost $8.5 million annually, mainly to pay the salaries of 82 additional state employees and cover travel expenses, according to a fiscal note by the House Appropriations Committee.
The legislation provides $1.8 million in state funds annually to draw an annual federal match of $6.7 million.