As VR and RCD Training Requirements Expand, National Deaf Center Provides Support to States and Agencies

On October 15-16, the state of Illinois will gather its Rehabilitation Counselors for the Deaf (RCDs) together for the first time for statewide training that will include a session on what the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes can do to help their day-to-day efforts to serve deaf youth and adults in the state.

Illinois recently passed legislation with broader requirements for more training for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counselors and RCDs who provide “specialized services” — reflecting a growing trend toward an increased need for professional education and customized training for those roles. That’s where the National Deaf Center can help.

Savio Chan, MS, CRC, Technical Assistance Specialist, and Erika Shadburne, MA, Developmental Education Specialist, will present “State of the State: A Community of #DeafSuccess” at the statewide training conference in Illinois and explain the diverse resources the National Deaf Center can provice to RCD and VR counselors and agencies in any U.S. state or territory. They include:;

• Free Online Courses: Earn CRC clock hours, including for the newest course, Deaf 101

• Data Reports 

  • Root Causes of Gaps in Postsecondary Outcomes of Deaf Individuals

  • Research Summarized: Key Impact Areas 

  • State Rankings of Postsecondary Achievement of Deaf People 2012-2016

  • Undergraduate Enrollment of Deaf Students in the U.S. 

  • Deaf People and Employment in the U.S.: 2019

  • Deaf People and Educational Attainment in the U.S.: 2019 

• Hundreds of resources, including the following that also meet VR’s requirement to provide Pre-Employment Transition (Pre-ETS) services to deaf students under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) 

  • Transition from high school to college, career training, or employment

  • Deafverse, an online game that supports self-advocacy 

  • Interactive process tools 

  • Supporting Deaf Youth Through Mentoring

  • Self Advocacy: Basics, Navigating Disclosure in the Workplace, and Self-Advocacy Skills and Transition Planning For Deaf Youth

• Join a listserv with peers throughout the U.S. and receive weekly email tips

• NDC | help offers guidance, referrals, and can schedule on-site presentations and trainings
   

​The National Deaf Center is a technical assistance and dissemination center federally funded by the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and Rehabiltation Services Administration (RSA) to provide evidence-based strategies at the local, state, and national levels to close the substantial gaps in education and employment that exist for deaf people in the United States and its territories.

[Image description: illustration of light blue figures in pants and dresses lined up in a row. A hand reaches from the left and picks up a figure in pants, highlighted in lime green.]