Policy & Practice October 2018

SSI recipients are substantially more likely to be inactive in employment, school, or service programs; have sub- stantially higher rates of arrests; and have higher dropout rates. 6 The Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) project, created under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-74), provided funds for activities to improve the outcomes of child SSI recipients and their families. Six model PROMISE demonstra- tion projects, including Arkansas, California, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin, and ASPIRE (Achieving Success by Promoting Readiness for Education and Employment) demon- stration projects in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah, received five years of funding through the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and the Social Security Administration. PROMISE was intended to build an evidence base on the effectiveness of promising interventions related to the transition from school to postsecondary education and employment. Parents and youth can request and have any person they want attend and partici- pate in their individualized education program (IEP) meetings. PROMISE sites recruited 13,444 youth between the ages of 14 and 21, half of whom were randomly assigned to receive a series of enhanced inter- ventions to improve their educational and employment outcomes. Some of the interventions included: Case Management. A whole family approach was used, along with persis- tent, consistent ongoing outreach and engagement. Smaller caseloads and longer time frames to allow for inter- mittent engagement were critical to the success. Intensive support to estab- lish linkages to existing resources and follow up/follow through was also key. Career and Work-Based Learning. Paid work while in high school is one of the greatest predictors of paid work post high school. 7 Customized employ- ment, where a trained job developer identified an individual’s strengths and aligned those skills with specific tasks based on employers’ needs, was one means of ensuring all youth, no matter the degree or nature of their disability,

person’s capabilities or worth just by looking at them. There are many more invisible disabilities than visible ones. Today, in the United States, children and older adults are populations more likely to be affected by poverty. Individuals with disabilities living in poverty do not always look as we would expect. Myth: People who have a disability, who are low-income, or who receive benefits do not work or cannot work. Fact: The majority of people living in poverty in the United States, including those who receive public benefits, are working. 2 The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also indicates that, despite working 27 weeks or more per year, 9.5 million people were the “working poor.” 3 Most people with disabilities can and want to work, even if they need some support to do so. And living in poverty is not just about being poor financially. Poverty is multidimensional and can affect all aspects of life for an individual and their family. Poverty results in poor health outcomes (e.g., life expectancy, child mortality, disease rate), social and economic isolation (e.g., unem- ployment, underemployment), and decreased social and emotional devel- opment (e.g., safe housing, educational access, malnutrition, hunger).

Myth: There are many resources for people with disabilities. Fact: Most people with disabilities in the United States do not receive any formal supports or services. For example, there are an estimated 4.71 million people in the United States with an intellectual and or developmental disability, with only 31 percent or 1.46 million, known to be receiving services from their state department of health and human services. 4 Not all individuals with disabilities are eligible for dis- ability-specific services, which means the capacity of the broader poverty support system needs to evolve to be able to support individuals, particularly those with non-obvious disabilities, effectively, rather than assuming that some other agency can or will. There are many examples of individuals, even those with significant disabili- ties, working at and above minimum wage. In many cases, it starts with the expectations of support professionals (i.e., teachers, social workers, case managers, rehabilitation counselors). Changing Expectations To change the system, we have to change expectations of staff, families, and individuals. Raised expectations are a key to supporting people into pathways to employment and educa- tion. The change starts with individual professionals at all levels of the system. When helping individuals with dis- abilities gain access to SSI, it should be with the understanding that they are demonstrating their inability to work to access SSI, so they may then be able to get the supports and services they need to be able to work. We need to recognize that all people with disabilities, even those living in poverty, have the poten- tial to go to work and pursue additional education to improve their life’s trajec- tory. Employment and education are pathways out of poverty and children on SSI, in particular, need to be supported on that path. The age 18 SSI redeter- mination, using adult criteria, does not take into account family income, but is based solely on ability or inability to work. As many as one third may lose their eligibility during the redetermina- tion process. 5 Yet, compared with other young adults, after age 18, former child

Jade Gingerich is Director of Employment Policy for the Maryland

Department of Disabilities. She also serves as

Project Director for Maryland PROMISE.

Kelly Nye- Lengerman is a Research Associate at the University of Minnesota’s

Institute on Community Integration.

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Policy&Practice October 2018