Reasonable Accommodation Process

1. Reasonable Accommodation Process December 2013

2. What you can expect! PRH Changes Communicatingwith People withDisabilities Step-by-Step Review of the Reasonable Accommodation Process Special Considerations Red Flags within the RA Process Reasonable Accommodation Resources

3. What is not included • Reasonable Accommodation in the file review process • Center Applicant File Review webinars - quarterly • Changes to the Americans with Disability Amendments Act (ADAAA) • Disability Coordinator’s Orientation webinars - quarterly • Reasonable Accommodation Committee (RAC) Guidance • RAC webinars - semi-annually

4. What is not included • Completing funding requests for students who need accommodations exceeding $5000.00 or more • Contact your Regional Disability Coordinator, as needed • Additional training available in SIMON (pending)

5. Symbols KEY Let’s Review! PRH Change – Language/ Form Updated! PRH Change – New Form and/or Language! Special Considerations!

6. Legal Obligations Communicating with Individuals with Disabilities

7. Legal Obligations Communicating with Individuals with Disabilities • Communication requirements are separate from accommodation requirements. • Your obligation to communicate effectively with people with disabilities – whether those people are students, staff, applicants for admission or employment, parents, guardians, or members of the public – is separate from your obligation to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified people with disabilities. • PRH 6: Appendix 606

8. Legal Obligations Communicating with Individuals with Disabilities • The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) nondiscrimination regulations, distinguish between these two obligations, for a very simple reason: • without clear, accurate, effective communication, any encounter between a person with a disability and a program from which he or she is seeking services, such as Job Corps, will be literally meaningless.

9. Key Considerations for communication • When a person with a disability that affects his or her ability to communicate approaches Job Corps, the first thing you should do is find out how to communicate as effectively with that person as you do with people without disabilities.

10. Key Considerations for communication • Under the law, the burden is on Job Corps to provide the auxiliary aids and services (communication aids) that are needed for equally effective communication with a particular person with a disability.

11. Key Considerations for communication • In deciding what type of aid or service is appropriate and necessary in order for you to communicate equally effectively with a particular person with a disability, the law requires you to “give primary consideration to” the requests of that person. Why do you think the law does this?

12. Why is Primary consideration given to the individual? For example, while some people with hearing impairments understand American Sign Language, others communicate in Signed English, while still others do not understand sign language at all, and need a different communication method such as Computer Assisted Reat-Time Transcription (CART). Because the individual with a disability is the best source of information about his or her own needs. Not everyone who appears to have “the same” disability, or type of disability, is able to use and understand the same communication method.

13. Let’s try it! www.signingsavvy.com

14. Pre-Test of your RA knowledge! • What is the policy reference for the reasonable accommodation (RA) process and SOP requirement? • 6.14 • R3 • What is the “go to” document for policy guidance with RA requests and the RA process in general? • Appendix 605

15. PRH Change Notice 13-05, October 1, 2013 Appendix 605 Update

16. Appendix 605 Process for an Applicant or Student with a Disability to Request Reasonable Accommodation to participate in the Job Corps (JC) Program

17. PRH Change Notice 13-05 • Appendix 605 has been REVISED! • Background section has been updated to reflect current Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAAA) requirements • Clarifications • Expanded information on documentation needed to support accommodations for standardized testing • Expanded information about the functions of the Reasonable Accommodation Committee (RAC) • Clarified the Accommodation Effectiveness Process

18. Appendix 605 Changes! • New Forms • Reasonable Accommodation Review/Documentation of Disability Form • Job Corps Reasonable Accommodation Supplemental Funding Request Form • Updated Forms • Job Corps Reasonable Accommodation Request Form–Program • Job Corps Reasonable Accommodation Funding

19. Reasonable Accommodation process changes • Some reasonable accommodation process requirements have changed • Determining the Need for Accommodation • Funding High Cost Accommodations • Recommending Denial of Accommodation • Notifying Staff/Viewing the Accommodation Plan • Documenting the Accommodation Process • Storage of Non-Health Disability Documentation, No Accommodation Plan

20. Defining & Understanding Reasonable Accommodation Reasonable Accommodation Basics

21. What are reasonable accommodations? Any changes to the environment or in the way things are customarily done, that gives a person with a disability an opportunity to participate in the application process, job, program or activity that is equal to the opportunity given to similarly situated people without disabilities

22. ID the type of modification • Allowing the use of headphones during the training day as an accommodation. Policy, program or procedure • Providing documents in alternate formats. Academic environment • Allow student 30 minutes of access to fitness equipment prior to training day. Work environment • Extended time to perform a task

23. Reasonable Accommodation Process

24. Reasonable accommodation process • Some names of components in the process section have changed and the center’s SOP should be updated to reflect these changes

25. Reasonable accommodation process Defined in SOP Reasonable Accommodation Process

26. Reasonable accommodation process STEP 1

27. Requesting accommodation • A reasonable accommodation request can be communicated in any form (e.g., oral, written, sign language). • Request for accommodations must be documented on Reasonable Accommodation Request Form – Program (RARF). • This form cannot be changed, and must be used to document the request.

28. Requesting accommodation • If an applicant, the AC informs of the right to request accommodation and assists with the completion of the form, if needed.* • If a student, the DC provides the form and assists with the completion, if needed. • All requests for accommodations to participate in the Job Corps program are reviewed at the center level. *Don’t forget to start using the NEW forms and it might be helpful to forward to your partnering Admissions Counselors!

29. Job Corps Reasonable Accommodation Request Form – Program (RARF)

32. Reasonable accommodation process STEP 2

33. Determining The need for reasonable accommodation • There must be an interactive process between the center and applicant/student (and or guardian/parent, when appropriate) to determine accommodation needs

34. Determining the need for accommodation • Interactive reasonable accommodation process takes place if 1 of 4 scenarios occur: • An applicant: • Requests accommodation by completing the RARF-Program; • Indicates on the RARF that s/he would like to discuss the need for accommodations with the DC; or • Provides documentation that s/he may be an individual with a disability who may need reasonable accommodation to participate in Job Corps. • A student: • Requests accommodation to any staff person and/or completes the RARF-Program.

35. Documentation of disability • If an applicant/student provides documentation that indicates s/he may be an individual with a disability who may need reasonable accommodation to participate in Job Corps, the DC must engage the applicant in an interactive process even if the applicant did not request accommodation. • The applicant/student would complete the Reasonable Accommodation Review/Documentation of Disability Form (RAR/DoDF)

36. Reasonable Accommodation Review/ Documentation of Disability Form (RAR/DoDF)

37. PROCESS CHANGES – DETERMINING NEED • Prior to Update: • When applicant/student declined accommodation, it was required to be documented, but no specific process was required. • After the Update: • Now when an applicant/student declines accommodation(s), it mustbe documented using the RAR/DoDF(if documentation was present in the applicant file, but no request was made) or the RARF (if applicant/student makes a request or indicates s/he may need an accommodation)

38. Request for Accommodation Form - Program

39. Reasonable Accommodation Review/ Documentation of Disability Form

40. Reasonable accommodation process STEP 3

41. Ensuring Appropriate Documentation • If an applicant/student has requested accommodation, the AC or DC, respectively, may ask the applicant for reasonable documentation about his/her disability and functional limitations.

42. Functional Limitations

43. Ensuring Appropriate Documentation • The AC and/or DC may only secure limited documentation that is needed to establish that • A person has a disability. • The disability necessitates a reasonable accommodation.

44. Documentation Examples to establish accommodation need *These lists are examples and not all inclusive.

45. Ensuring Appropriate Documentation • DC should not spend a lot of time analyzing whether that applicant’s/student’s condition meets the definition of a disability or requesting extensive documentation. • Instead the focus should be on the accommodation: • Is it reasonable? • Are there other accommodation alternatives that can be considered?

46. Sources of Disability-related documentation • Appropriate health care or rehabilitation professionals, that could include: • Physicians • Psychiatrists • Psychologists • Nurses • Physical/Occupational/Speech Therapists

47. Types of supporting documentation • Might include: • IEPs and 504 Plans • Psychological evaluations • Doctor’s notes/records – Medical disability • Hospital records • Treatment center report • Social Security documentation

48. Accommodations Supported by the documentation? • Review the documentation to determine whether or not the applicant or student’s functional limitations resulting from the impairment or condition are relevant to the accommodations being considered or provided. • Does the accommodation match the manifestation of the individual’s disability?

49. Accommodations Supported by the documentation? • For example, a student who has a mobility impairment would not be entitled to the use of a calculator on the non-allowable portions of the TABE unless there was also a corresponding disability in the area of math calculations.

50. No documentation provided • If an applicant fails or refuses to provide the reasonable documentation requested, and the disability is not obvious (i.e., not a person who is blind or deaf, etc.), then he or she may not be entitled to accommodations.