Background

Initiated in fall 1992, the Longitudinal Study of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Program addressed key questions of interest to Congress, Rehabilitation Services Administrations (RSA), state VR agencies, and consumers about the performance of the state-federal VR program. The study's congressional mandate, contained in Section 14 of the 1992 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act, directed the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a longitudinal study of the VR program:

1. To assess the linkages between vocational rehabilitation services and economic and noneconomic outcomes, the Secretary shall continue to conduct a longitudinal study of a national sample of applicants for services.
   
   
2. The study shall address factors related to attrition and completion of the program through which the services are provided and factors within and outside the program affecting results. Appropriate comparisons shall be used to contrast the experiences of similar persons who do not obtain services.
   
   
3. The study shall be planned to cover the period beginning with the application of the individuals for the services, through the eligibility determination and provision of services for the individuals, and a follow-up period not less than 2 years after termination of services (Section 14 (f)).
   

In response to this mandate, the study tracked VR participation and post-VR experiences, for up to three years following exit from the program, of a nationally representative sample of applicants to and consumers of VR services. The study's sample acquisition and data collection activities began in January 1995 and were completed in January 2000, with sample acquisition occurring over a two-year period and each of the study's 8,500 participants being tracked for three years.

Purpose of the Study

The broad purpose of this study was to assess the performance of the state-federal VR services program in assisting eligible individuals with disabilities to achieve positive, sustainable economic and noneconomic outcomes as a result of their obtainments of VR service.

Conceptual Framework

The study's conceptual framework, which organized the study's information goals and research questions, started with the assumption that the outcomes of VR services were a function of the types of consumers entering the program, the economic conditions affecting the local labor market, the organizational resources and culture of the VR agency and its local service offices, and the services that consumers received. Exhibit 1-1 was a representation of the conceptual framework, with its components and the relationships among them shown as interconnected boxes. The model described in this framework can be expressed as follows:

Outcomes are a function of:

• the characteristics of applicants and consumers,
• services and service costs,
• local economic and population characteristics, and
• the organizational culture and resources in the local agency office

where outcomes are defined as: earnings, employment, other economic outcomes, consumer satisfaction, community integration, and other noneconomic outcomes. This general model has been used as the basis for analysis in numerous other VR studies. However, other studies have not had access to the wealth of data that the longitudinal study was collected, including a number of important pre- and post-program measures of consumer experience and long-term outcomes. In addition, there have been few efforts to examine the impact of the VR system itself on consumer outcomes. This longitudinal study offered the opportunity to collect extensive data on individuals, services, and outcomes, expanding previous analytical bases and allowing a more thorough assessment of VR results. For each of the major components in the model, we discuss conceptual and design issues relevant to this study.

Sampling

The study implemented a multistage design that involved selection of a random sample (with probability proportional to size) of 40 local VR offices (located in 32 state VR agencies in a total of 30 states, Exhibit 1-2) and, among those offices, a sample of 8,500 applicants and current and former consumers of VR services. The study implemented a cohort design that involved randomly selecting 25 percent of the sample from the population of persons at application to VR, 50 percent of the sample from the population of persons who were already accepted for and receiving services, and 25 percent of the sample from the population of persons at exit or after they exited VR services.

Research Questions

The VR longitudinal study has been designed to answer the following questions:

1. What short-term and long-term economic and noneconomic (e.g., independent living, community integration) outcomes do VR applicants and consumers achieve as a result of their participation in VR?
   
   
2. What characteristics of individuals with disabilities affect their (1) access to and receipt of VR services, and (2) short-term and long-term outcomes?
   
   
3. To what extent does receipt of specific VR services contribute to successful consumer outcomes?
   
   
4. In what ways and to what extent do local environmental factors influence VR consumers' services and outcomes?
   
   
5. In what ways and to what extent do the operations, resources, and organizational climate of VR agencies influence consumers' services and outcomes?
   
   
6. Given the relationship among consumer characteristics, contextual factors, and VR services, what are the results of participation in the VR program?

Data Collection

Data collection included computer-aided interviews with study participants, abstraction of data from consumers' case records, and mail surveys to VR agencies. A battery of baseline interviews conducted with each study participant at the time of entry into the study obtained information on work history, functioning, vocational interests and attitudes, independence and community integration, and consumer perspectives on their VR participation. A follow-up interview administered for three subsequent years varied according to the individual's stage in the VR process at the time of interview. Records abstraction included consumer characteristics and detailed information on services; records were abstracted at the time the consumer entered the study and quarterly until that person exited VR. Agency instruments included mail surveys of office managers in participating VR offices, counselors, and other office staff, as well as a state policies and procedures form. These instruments were administered at initiation and termination of the study's data collection activities, with annual updates from the local office manager surveys (Exhibit 1-3).

Limitations of the Study's Data

The longitudinal study implemented a design that permits national estimates of characteristics, services, and outcomes among persons with disabilities who applied for VR services, including persons who received VR services and those who applied for services but exited prior to receipt of services. The study implemented a carefully designed two-stage, stratified random sampling design that would permit development of the best available national estimates of the VR consumer population. In reviewing the findings in the study's reports, the reader should be aware of the following limitations of this design.

1. Study findings reflect the study's data collection period, which occurred between 1995 and the end of 1999; therefore, findings did not reflect recent changes in the program that may be having an effect on VR services and outcomes.
   
   
2. In instances where sample sizes were very small (e.g., less than one percent of the sample), findings should be viewed with caution; in general, we did not describe such findings other than including them in tables (e.g., blind reader services, received by 0.3 percent of VR consumers). Small sample sizes may affect findings for groups in which the incidence of disability is small and for analyses that involved reporting of various characteristics in combination.
   
   
3. The study was designed to provide national estimates of VR services and outcomes and did not provide estimates at the level of State VR agencies or local VR offices. No statements could be made about participants, services, or outcomes for individual agencies or offices.
   
   
4. The study was not experimental in nature; that is, we studied participants as they received the services that agencies would normally provide. Participants were not randomly assigned to specific services nor were they provided with any additional services. Thus, we could not conclude that specific services cause specific outcomes. Nevertheless, our analyses, in which we controlled for differences in individual characteristics, provided an indication of the relationships among services and outcomes.